Helen's camera.

Helen is using a Fuji E900, a fairly rare camera, easy to handle, with capacity to be used in automatic or full manual modes. A prosumer of a type now relatively rare, with high quality lens and image. Here are photos from Seattle and travel to Rome, rendered here with almost no manipulation in Photoshop other than resizing for screen and then sharpening with 'unsharp mask'

First some Seattle photos

Views from the Amtrak Cascades, heading north

Crossing the Rocky Mountains shortly after leaving Vancouver

First dawn light, somewhere between Iceland and the Shetlands, in the far north of Scotland.

A view of Germany

and views of the European Alps, looking east through Austria from Switzerland

Amtrak Cascades to Vancouver

Siracusa, Friday 11/02/11: We happily recommend taking the Amtrak Cascades train to travel to and from Seattle-Vancouver BC (always adding the BC to Vancouver, to signify the one in the Canadian province of British Columbia, there also being a Vancouver in the State of Washington USA, south of Seattle. 

We had come south on Amtrak, but at a time when the route was served by bus rather than rail, not quite as pleasant. We were on the Cascades to go north. It's nice to be able to move around on the train. And nice to go sit in the buffet car for morning coffee. 

I reported in the last entry that the sun shone. Only briefly. Nevertheless there was a dark spectral beauty outside the windows, of country houses on damp ground in this top corner of the USA, of water coming almost to the track, of the infrastructure of arrival in Vancouver. Let photos tell the story.

on board Amtrak Cascades

Very brief note!

It is 7.50am and we have left Seattle on time at 7.40 on the Amtrak Cascades. After overcast days without distant view we have a clear sky to travel north to Vancouver, four hours. Very comfortable. With 'coach' class coming south on the bus and business class going north, a total of $US140 for two, round trip Vancouver-Seattle.

So we have, as expected, water to our left and mountains (when we emerge from hills of housing) to the right. But the unexpected is that across the sound on our left we see snow capped pointy mountains on the land strip between Salish Sea (which everyone speaks of as 'the sound') and the Pacific.

Now to put down the computer and look outside, listening to Helen's morning Italian language class: "No non e qui," "Si, e qui."  "No, non c'e" Si, c'e." eccetera eccetera.

We had a great time with Liz and Mike, including abundant relaxation and delighted entertainment, watching season 1 of Pushing Up Daisies and the Czech surrealist icon Lemonade Joe (when not dozing, that is). 224 Pontius Ave North is in a delightful area, surrounded by places to walk day and night, eateries of different kinds. Across the road from the apartment building is the astounding 'flagship' store of REI, with its great rock climbing walls, its waterfalls, its tracks for trying boots or bikes. Some pics of this and other bits of Seattle at Mike Murphy's postcards.

Seattle Saturday

It has been wonderful to see Liz and Mike. Mainly Liz so far, as Mike was at work Friday and Saturday coaching endurance and also refereeing, as he does, for the Seattle roller derby league, the Rat City Roller Girls who were yesterday playing Detroit.

Yesterday we walked and looked at this and that in Seattle before taking the bus to the village of Ballard where we met Mike at the end of his day.

Here are some photos from yesterday: overcast, mainly dry, occasional glimpses of sky. Nice to be rugged up to keep warm after being unable to remove skin to be cool at home last week.

This first is illustrative of the urban look near Liz and Mike's place in South Lake Union, the streets empty on Saturday as this is an info industry area.

and this, the entrance to the South Lake Union Trolley Car garage... a photo full of industrial lines, also showing the spotless impact of trams on a city.

Here a photo of Liz in her favourite bookshop-cafe

and a photo of Helen in her favourite ambience - antiques and old garments.

We haven't bought the cap - yet..

I could not resist photographing this photo on the wall in the cafe, 

clearly a Chinese dog going home, without thought of the water table.

Here a photo Helen took. Liz tired at the end of a cold, 

also from the success of her play in Portland last weekend.

At South Lake itself, we came upon Canada Geese

and also this cuteness, included as Cat and Dom have been considering getting a miniature Dachshund

Across a little water

offering a view uptown of downtown in the mistiness

before taking the bus 20 minutes to Ballard

a view of winter pruning

...a crane half a high as a seaplane's path
(Helen's ladies investment group last week bought shares in a crane business,
there being a world shortage of cranes)

a walk by the sea in a working port

a glimpse of the Rat City v Detroit game (closed to the public for lack of room in the hangar)

and a dog of dignity

Tips for arriving Seattle via Vancouver

We arrived in Seattle via Vancouver on Thursday. A very pleasant way to arrive from Sydney, with departure at 12.15pm and arrival 07.40am the same calendar day. A 777 aircraft (Air Canada) smaller than most going to LA etc, seat pattern 3+3+3 so easy to get out (and we had a middle three to ourselves). A single flight leg of 14 hours.

We had done some research in advance on how to get the 200km from Vancouver airport to Seattle but information seemed elusive though no difficulty finding it today, of course! At one point we booked, then unbooked, a car rental for the weekend. We made the right decision. It was wet and messy with traffic on the roads coming south. We booked with Amtrak, coach south, Amtrak Cascades going back north tomorrow. At the airport when we asked where we should take the metro train to to catch Amtrak this seemed a puzzling question for an information lady, who pointed out that coaches run direct from Vancouver airport to Seattle, a shorter distance than from Vancouver to Seattle. We would not have needed to book. Nonetheless, we would not have seen anything of Vancouver had we done that and though in the rain we did not see all that much Thursday, we hope to have a good first view of the city tomorrow.