Olympic Moss

This isn't even in the "Hall of Mosses" in the Olympic rain forest. It's just a tree by a lake. But it certainly gives a good sense of how much rain there is there.

Near Lake Crescent, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. September 2006.

Minneapolis Askew

I am known among friends for my tilted photos, but this is the most extreme tilt I've ever done without meaning to. I like it a lot, though. I was leaning out over the bridge railing, trying to capture the bridge and not really paying attention to the horizon line. Obviously.

Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

Mount Rainier and Tahoma Peak

Mount Rainier is very unsatisfyingly asymmetrical. The bulging growth on the right side of the frame is one thing, but the jagged bit of mountain on the left is quite another. The jagged bit is called the Tahoma Peak, and I wish someone would just file it right off. Probably hard to get funding for that, though.

Near Sunrise, Washington. July 2007.

Iron Foundry

Iron foundry building at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Allentown Row Houses

I love the look of these attached houses, which you just don't see in the midwest and west. I wonder if the neighbors get annoying, and if I'd spend as much time sitting on the porch as I think I would.

Allentown, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Fall Color

Lake Crescent. Olympic Peninsula, Washington. September 2006.

Flour Mill Ruins

Recently unearthed flour mill infrastructure, cordoned off and turned into an interestingly accessible site by the city. It's an unusual move toward historical preservation that I'd love to see happen more often. Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

Piggies at the Fair

In an hour or so, we will have officially missed the Puyallup Fair this year. It's been a busy summer and I think we're a bit faired out, though it's sort of sad to miss the last one we'll live here for.

Puyallup Washington, September 2006.

Great Public Art

This is public art at its best. Each of the folded circles rotates on its post with the direction of the wind, or as turned manually via the wheel at its base by any visitor. The surfaces are covered in silver disks that ripple gorgeously with the wind. The benches all have attached mallets that can be used to strike the multi-length seats and backs to make music. Everything about it just works. I could sit there all day.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

Bridge Collapse

This is the south end of the collapsed 35W bridge, about three weeks after the bridge went down. Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

North Point Water Tower

This 175-foot Victorian Gothic Tower was built in 1873 to house a 120-foot wrought iron standpipe. It sure would be nice if cities still made such an effort to make functional things beautiful too.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

All the King's Horses and All the King's Men

This park is just downriver from the 35W bridge collapse site. It is the staging area for all the recovered bridge pieces, and the focus of efforts to reconstruct the bridge's failure and identify a root cause.

Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

Pacific Morning

Early morning at the Pacific Ocean, with the sun coming up behind me. On the Olympic National Park beach by Kalaloch Lodge. September 2006.

Big Tree

The narrow road branching off from Hwy 101 north of Forks says only 'BIG TREE', with an arrow. Who could resist such an intriguing invitation?

The big tree in question is actually quite dead and rotting, but it is no less awesome a sight than if it were alive. The centuries old cedar still has 130 feet of height, and more diameter than the length of my car. It's in the middle of the rainforest and so somewhat difficult to photograph, which is why I contented myself with close-ups and details on this trip.

Olympic National Forest, Washington. September 2006.

Backyard Finches

My parents spend a small fortune on finch food, but it's worth it for the hours of entertainment the birds provide in return. Judging by how much both of these birdies have stuffed their mouths to capacity (view large to see what I mean), it's no surprise that more seed falls on the ground than gets eaten. You'd think after a while they'd understand that the feeder isn't going anywhere and they can just slow down a bit, but they are definitely slow learners.

Prior Lake, Minnesota. August 2007

Mill City Museum

I was pleased to see that Minneapolis has finally begun putting effort into building a cool riverfront since I left. The Mill City Museum is new, and alongside the new Guthrie Theatre building (the hulking blue thing on the left) anchors a whole new corridor that just wasn't ever appealing or accessible before.

The Minnesota Historical Society converted a crumbling old flour mill into a unique destination unlike any I've ever seen. They left the shell of this old flour mill as they found it - except for some reinforcements like the red I-beams on the left that anchor the fragile walls to the building next door. Then they installed full-height glass walls and a full glass elevator through which to observe the old layout. Props for both creativity and execution in re-purposing this old space. The photo is definitely best viewed large.

The museum highlights a period I was never really aware of when I lived there: a fifty-year span during which Minneapolis dominated world flour production and which catapulted the city forward. I was never really struck by all the global brands that started there - Pillsbury and General Mills, for example - and how much they grew to dominate their markets so thoroughly and feed the city's growth.

Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

35W Bridge

We went down at 7am on a Sunday morning to see the bridge collapse site without a circus. We were the only people on the pedestrian / bikeway bridge over by the university's heating plant, and the morning sun behind us made for some good photos.

Minneapolis, Minnesota. August 2007.

Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell is... a big bell... with a crack in it... that represents liberty... for some reason.

No one can exactly explain how it stands for freedom. Ask any American to explain it, and 9 times out of 10 you'll either get no answer at all, or an answer that's historically inaccurate. But good marketing says it's about freedom and pretty much everyone buys in.

Like Independence Hall across the street, admission to view the bell is free. But unlike the other site there's no limit on how many people can come through in the day and no need for a timed admission ticket. The admission bottleneck is the security screening process. It took me over an hour to reach the security checkpoint, then about 10 minutes to see everything the building had to offer - including the bell.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Employee Entrance

Sign over the employee entrance turnstiles at the old Bethlehem Steel plant. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Set Sail

Milwaukee seems to have decided a while ago that they lacked a world-class architectural landmark, and set out to achieve one. They hired Santiago Calatrava to do something flashy to the art museum and waterfront, and in 2001 he revealed the Burke Brise Soleil (or "big wingy sail thingies", as I call them) over the museum's redesigned reception hall. It is definitely distinctive, and the more I looked at it the more it grew on me. They've done great things to the waterfront in the past few years.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2004.

Nighttime at Puyallup Fair

Nighttime on the midway. Puyallup Fair. Puyallup, Washingon. September 2006

Coast Guard Building

I'm not sure the purpose of this Lake Michigan building. It's labeled "U.S. Coast Guard / Cable Crossing / Do Not Anchor", but I'm clueless enough about maritime stuff that I have no idea what it means. Pretty, tho.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

National Constitution Center

As the photo and the name imply, this is the museum devoted entirely to the Constitution of the United States. Admission was a bit pricey and I wasn't in the right mood, so I skipped the museum itself - one of my bigger regrets from the trip. I should have just sucked it up.

I love the use of the opening lines of the constitution itself as an artistic element on the building's front face. It's stirring stuff.

Philadelphia, PA April 2007.

No Outlet

Ruins of the Bethlehem Steel plant. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Riverwalk Condos

The price of a condo along the riverwalk in the Historic Third Ward is crazy enough to make even this jaded Seattleite gasp. But what a lifestyle it would be!

I want a boat.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

Cascades

Lesser (but still pretty!) mountain peaks adjacent to big dog Mt. Rainier. Near Sunrise, Washington. July 2007.

Federal Building

I think the federal building in Milwaukee is pretty. You just don't see very many blue buildings. I like how the buildings across the street reflected on the surface. The Hotel Wisconsin building has a particularly cool reflection, as it appears on both the far left and the far right of the photo.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

Utility Box

Utility service boxes hanging on the outside wall of a building at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Mt Rainier

After nearly nine years in Seattle, we finally made a trip to see Mt. Rainier today. Is pretty.

Near Sunrise, Washington. July 2007.

Milwaukee Lighthouse

On the south side of the Lake Michigan waterfront, by the Hoan Bridge. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

Independence Hall

Site of the meetings and signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. See also, the Assembly Room. Happy Independence Day, everyone.

Philadelphia Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Lake Michigan

It's almost inappropriate to call this a lake. Something on the scale of Lake Michigan needs a different moniker. I tried to prepare myself for something that looks like an ocean without waves, but the gorgeous turquoise color took me completely by surprise. This is completely unretouched.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July 2007.

Rotunda

This is the entrance hall rotunda of the Milwaukee Public Library on Wisconsin Avenue. The entire entrance hall is breathtaking, and the rare books and exhibits are pretty impressive as well.

Milwaukee Wisconsin, July 2007.

Brother Ron

Brother Ron has been driving the streets of Milwaukee in black painted "sinmobiles" since the 1970s, broadcasting messages on the recurring theme of "you are all sinners and you're going to hell when you die". I feel very lucky to have made a Brother Ron sighting on my first day roaming the city's streets.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. June 2007.

Lake Crescent

Among competing attractions like the sea stacks of Ruby Beach, the vistas of Hurricane Ridge, the whale pods in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Hoh rainforest, it's easy to overlook the beauty of Lake Crescent out on the Olympic Peninsula. But it's one of my favorite stops every time we visit.

Near Piedmont, Washington. September 2006.

Fenced

The unusually tightly-woven chain-link fence runs ten feet high and curves sharply inward at the top, and flows continuously from one end to the other of the bridge overlooking the old Bethlehem Steel Plant. One can only assume it was a prudent public safety precaution back when the plant was closing and the town was reeling economically.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

O Little Town

For me, the most surprising part of visiting the Bethlehem Steel plant was just how close it is to the residential town center. This is how I first came to grasp how much it dominated every aspect of life here.

I struck up a conversation with the head security guard on duty this lazy weekend day - though it may be more accurate to say he struck up conversation with me. He was a bit of an amateur historian and hometown booster with many interesting stories to tell. Born and raised here, he describes coming home on leave from the army during vietnam, seeing these huge furnaces blasting blue flame hundreds of feet up into the sky even in the middle of night, and knowing then that he was back where he belonged. Until he saw those flames, he wasn't home.

When prompted, he was also happy to cite astonishing statistics about the ill effects of the plant on local public health and environment, and the huge sums the company was fined over the years for bad corporate citizenship on those fronts, but still. Nostalgia is nostalgia.

Bethlehem Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Bethlehem Steel Tower

It's hard to get a sense of scale from this shot, but think big. This is one of the main blast furnace towers of the old Bethlehem Steel plant, twelve years after the plant closed its doors for good.

Bethlehem Pennsylvania, April 2007.

Christ Church Cemetery

Christ Church Cemetery is right smack dab in the middle of Independence National Historical Park, or the area of downtown Philadelphia where all the revolutionary era historical stuff lives. In the background on the right, you can see the "We The People..." engraving on the front of the National Constitution Center, which I didn't visit on this trip but totally will some day.

The Christ Church Cemetery people charge you a couple of bucks to visit their site, but it's old and crumbling and interesting even if the markers are often too worn to read, and I didn't begrudge them their money for even a minute. Benjamin Franklin is buried here, as well many other revolutionary era notables and a handful of other Declaration-signers I don't recognize by name. The cemetery was founded in 1719.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Canterbury Park

One of the first shots I ever took with my RebelXT. I don't know the rider, the owner, or the horse - was just playing around, but I like how it came out even though the horse's legs are blocked by shrubbery. I was so pleased with how the camera performed right out of the box.

Happy Derby Day everyone.

Canterbury Park, Shakopee Minnesota, May 2005.

Ben Franklin

I could be completely off base. But according to my mental picture of Ben Franklin, there's very little he'd find more horrifying to behold than a huge marble statue of himself in a toga. Then again, maybe he'd find it as hilariously inappropriate as I did, and be amused. They really are nutso for Franklin in Philly.

Philadelphia Pennsylvania, April 2007.

Abandoned Bethlehem Steel

Another abandoned building on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel plant. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Bethlehem Steel Works

At one time, Bethlehem Steel employed over 27,000 people at this plant. After just a few hours on the site, I couldn't even count all the buildings or begin to guess at their original purposes. They are all in a terrible state of disrepair today, nearly twelve years after the plant finally closed.

Several of the buildings are scheduled to be torn down as soon as next month, making way for a large casino taking over the entire site in 2009. I shit you not.

Bethlehem Pennsylvania, April 2007.

Puyallup Fair Swings

Classic amusement park swings at the Puyallup Fair. Puyallup Washington, September 2006.

Kalaloch Beach

Early morning on the beach by Kalaloch Lodge, Olympic National Park, Washington. September 2006.

Assembly Room, Independence Hall

The Assembly Room at Independence Hall (formerly the Pennsylvania State House) is the room where the course of world politics changed dramatically, though of course no one knew at the time how extensive the repercussions would be.

John Hancock sat at the head table, presiding over the Second Continental Congress as they considered their troubled relationship with England, and ultimately Jefferson's revolutionary Declaration of Independence was signed here. The delegates arranged themselves from North (left) to South (right). Thus, Thomas Jefferson's table is just out of frame on the right; Ben Franklins' is the last shown on the right side of the frame even though it was dead center to the room; John Adams' is the first one captured on the left; and so forth.

A few years later, they met here again on the Articles of Confederation, and a few years after that they locked themselves in secret to throw out the Articles and draft the US Constitution in its place. For four months in the dead of summer, George Washington kept the windows closed and enforced a press blackout as the parties argued endlessley in this small room about the shape their new government would take.

Obviously these issues were of grave importance to the individuals present, but I wonder if they could have comprehended the influence their decisions would have on the rest of the world in the next 200+ years. It's astonishing.

I managed to make it through many parts of the tour without weeping, which I count as a victory. I can't explain why these events stir me up so much, but every time I read the Declaration of Indepence I am overwhelmed by the enormity of what they did, and the bravery it required to leap so boldly into the void.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 2007.

Mom's Heather

This was the third picture I shot with my new camera, just a few minutes afer taking it out of the box. I'd longed for years to be able to do macro shooting and shallower depth of field, and this pleased me to no end. Prior Lake, Minnesota. May 2005.

Do You Wanna Go *Faster*?

Puyallup Fair ride at night. Washington, September 2006.

Pacific Northwest Ocean

The light was strange and wonderful. It was very early in the morning and the sun was just coming up over the hill behind me, leaving some of the areas bright and leaving some still shadowed. I don't think I've ever really focused on a sunrise from the opposite side of the golden rays. The tide was just changing and the gulls were getting a rich breakfast. Kalaloch Lodge, Olympic National Park, Washington. September 2006.

Joxer the Mighty, Olympic National Park

The main reason we like Kalaloch Lodge is that its beach is the only place within the Olympic National Park where dogs are welcome. Joxer loves the ocean even though it tries to eat him when he gets too close. September 2006.

Dahlia

Puyallup Fair, Washington. September 2006.

Early Morning, Kalaloch Lodge

Our favorite weekend getaway is a trip to the ocean on the other side of the Olympic Peninsula, and we always stay at Kalaloch Lodge. We stay in the cabins rather than the lodge itself, owing to the pooch. This was taken very early in the morning during a walk on the beach at low tide. September 2006.

Llama at the Fair

Taken in the Puyallup Fair llama barn. Puyallup, Washington. September 2006.