Some notes from the road from Whidbey trip. Let’s see. Got in on the ferry on Saturday morning, after an un-Godly early flight out of ATX. The flight was smooth even though I could not sleep managed to push on through. Made it to the airport and almost got lost in Sea-Tac a couple of times. Turns out there is a train inside there and you have to get to another terminal and, yada, yada. Been there before, done that (Dallas, Texas, anyone? Anyone?!?) OK, so no surprise there. Finally made it to the shuttle desk about an hour early. This is the thing I was calling the “floating van” on account of the fact that it was an airport shuttle which also went over the ferry onto Whidbey and dumped us at a Valero gas station. Interesting concept on paper, worked even better in real life, in fact, I’d have to say, if you are traveling to Whidbey, the floating van (aka shuttle) is your best bet. It cuts off mountains of traffic at the ferry stop and goes right on the ferry to Whidbey.
At the terminal itself, I was afraid my friends would not recognize me, but my fears were put to rest when Taz ran up, out of the blue, with a look of happiness to see me and surprise on her face. It was like we had met yesterday. In fact, highlight of the trip for me was catching up with everybody. This was so much fun. To go shooting and just catch up with photographer friends was a joy for sure.
So, we made it onto the ferry, shuttle, floating van thing and made it over to Whidbey and met up with Helen who picked us up at the gas station and then we drove into town to visit our new little town, aka home away from home for the week. Turns out Langley is a very cool little town, another on my highly recommend list for Whidbey. Totally cool, totally cute, even if overrun with bunnies. (Seriously. Bunnies.) Ended up shooting around Langley for the first part of the trip and it was worth it on account of being so cute and easy walking distance.
We wound up shooting Coupeville on Monday, which was also fun, and doubled back to a beach called Double Bluff which was also fun. Turns out Whidbey Island is also a place I’ve dubbed “Driftwood City” as there is a lot of driftwood on all of the beaches. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff. I love how it looks like monsters and monoliths, how it washes up on the short, how it floats around and gets washed up looking but still kind of cool. It was very cool and we had perfect weather. Got home to find out I Borked my 5DS (only to eventually return to B&H photo in an exchange) and had to switch back to the 5d Mark II. No worries there as I think I managed to drop a card but might be able to salvage it at some point. I’ve always loved that 5d Mark II anyway. It’s a favorite camera on mine, so it felt like going home again.
Tuesday was fun as we got invited into an old Victorian home owned by an interesting lady. I don’t know which was better, frankly, the lady or the house. It was an old B&B not converted to a private home for a lady who filled it with antiques from her travels around the globe. Had an interesting conversation about Montevideo, but that’s a blog for another topic. Uruguayan city discussions aside, we also had Champagne and truffles. I mean, come on, who would not like some Champagne and truffles while shooting an old Victorian house? What a shoot that was, let me tell you.
Wednesday we did a night shoot which was filled with hooting and howling of laughter. Really had a grand time with that one, even if the images don’t reflect it. Have to do that again sometime, as it was so much fun. Thursday, we braved the Puget Sound ferry system over to Port Townsend and got in a teeny bit of shooting before having a nice dinner and catching the last ferry of the day back to Whidbey. Friday was met with more class time, some discussions, and the like while Saturday we made it up to Desolation Pass to check out the north side of the island and the cool bridge and park up that way.
All in all, great trip. Some great friends, some great food (highly recommend Penn Cove mussels, man those were yummy, as well as Useless Bay coffee company) fantastic weather and the like. Didn’t shoot as much as I would have liked, shame about the 5DS which is now on it’s way back to Canon-land via B&H and wish I could spend about a summer up that way just shooting and eating my weight in mussels.
Notes from the road, indeed. Happy to be back home, almost done with the laundry and started the process of uploading to Flickr and other points on the web.
Until next time…
PS This one shot with the 5DS before it Borked, in Langley with the walkabout lens.
