In my continuing quest to publish more photos, today's post is a bit of an ode to the Emerald City, Seattle. It's so beautiful. Have you been?

I have been there several times, and I guess I am lucky because I have never really been rained on there. Maybe it's my timing, or just luck, but I have generally gotten great weather and sunshine when there. Not entirely, mind you - but plenty often.

Now full sunshine doesn't always translate to great photo opportunities - just ask any photographer about that - but nonetheless I have been able to work with it and piece together a decent collection of shots from my various trips.

And in case you haven't noticed, more of these longer posts that I have been sharing lately have contained photos of signs that I encounter in my travels. It's not a new thing - in fact, today's photos were taken on a couple of different trips dating back a few years - it's just that I happen to really, really like taking photos of signs. Well, interesting ones at least. You're not going to catch me shooting in front of Walgreen's, for example. A guy has to have standards. :-)

But in the past, I was somewhat fearful of putting that sort of photo on the blog here. I'm not sure why, other than I thought it was so different from my "HDR travel" stuff that it would turn off viewers like you. But I have changed a lot over the last year, and have decided that I will be sharing here whatever it is that I find interesting in my travels, in hopes that you will find it interesting as well - even if the photo was taken years ago.

Some of today's shots are also from a family trip we took to Seattle a few years back, and from there we took a ferry over to Orcas Island - Friday Harbor, specifically. It's a part of the San Juan Islands, which are a fairly short ferry ride from town (seems like it was 2 hours or so, but I can't recall specifically - long enough to take some photos and drink some hot chocolate though!).

The entire area is just incredibly beautiful - that is, if you like seeing heavily forested islands dotting the sea, in every direction. I assume everyone likes that stuff. How can you not?

So once the ferry departed the terminal in Seattle, I went to the upper deck with the camera and fired away. It was pretty cold, but I don't mind suffering to bring art to you. I'll happily take that one for the team!

And of course you will notice several shots here from Pike Place Market, which is the famous farmer's market downtown. That place is a gold mine for photos, and fresh fish! :-) You'll also notice a few shots from Snoqualmie Falls, which is about an hour away from Seattle but well worth the drive (and the hike down to the trail along the river). That place is pure awesomeness. And just for fun, I threw in a couple of pics from the Wall of Gum, which is exactly what the name implies. You'll figure out which photos are from there pretty easily. Just another interesting spot in a town full of beauty and interestingness!