Hi Steemians ! Hope your all well! Today I am sharing a new travel post with you all! Part 2 of our trip to the amazing pacific cost of America! You can view Part 1 here! I hope you enjoy it! - Verity x
So after our trip to the city in Part 1 we wanted to see another side to Seattle so headed to the coast of the Puget Sound to see the sea! We met up with some friends who live in Seattle who took us to Brackett's Landing which is a lovely park offering amazing views of the Olympic Mountains. We were there in January but it was a lovely clear day with blue sky and barely any clouds, clearly a good day for sailing as there were so many boats out on the water! The view over the water were just stunning!
I wasn't expecting to get a sandy beach but was pleasantly surprised with what we found! It was odd to be walking on a beach in January and although it looked rather inviting it was quite chilly so we were wrapped up warm in coats! 
What was an unusual sight to see on the beach was a guy in swimming trunks warming himself up after a long swim on a burning Christmas tree! Some people were obviously late getting rid of their trees and thought the best way would be to burn them on a beach!! Very odd sight indeed!I feel like this wouldn't be out of place in like a Magnum style gallery haha!
It was nice to see all the boats enjoying their trips out. My family are into sailing so I was also making sure to get photos for them to show them all the different boats! The blue tones were beautiful, really stood out against the while sails.
I love listening and watching the waves lapping on the shore, its so calming and relaxing. It kind of relieves all stress from me just by standing there! There were lots of nice bits of wood and rocks on the beach, if I had a bigger bag I would have taken some of them home!
I wanted to get a darker shot of the boats on the water so show how bright the sun was. It was so nice to see some sun, if we were back home this time of year we certainly wouldn't have been getting any! The sun burst from the sun was so pretty and the little boats looked like toys floating on the water!
As we walked around the beach we came to where a lot of boats were moored for the winter, it was great to play around with composition and get some really interesting shots of the boat masts! I loved all the geometric lines and patterns.
It would have been nice to get out on one of these amazing boats and enjoy the water ourselves!!
The water was so clear and it was amazing to see lots of fish swimming around in the water too!
We then went to Ballard Locks which is near Salmon Bay. These locks handle more boat traffic than anywhere else in the US. They also have a fish ladder which allows you to watch the fish swim up the river in a underwater viewing area, unfortunately there weren't any fish swimming upstream that time of year but cool to see anyway!
We had so much in Seattle, it was a vibrant, fun place to explore but now it was time to make our way to Portland!
Driving to Portland
We were heading to Portland for a photography conference and had left enough time to get there so that we could stop off whenever we wanted! It was really atmospheric, moody weather just as we expected the drive to be! It was easy driving!
It was great taking in the sights from the road and just snapping a few shots from the car! Although rather hard going relatively fast!
We stopped in a little pull in area, obviously popular with truck drivers. It had a great view over the water and some birds flew over us too. It was nice to break the journey up and take it steady!
We made it to Portland! It was already looking like we were going to love this city! The lights lit up on the wet floors looked so pretty, we couldn't wait to go explore !! But first a good nights sleep was well needed!
The next day we knew where we were going to head straight away : Blue Star Doughnuts. We had been recommended the place from a friend, and unlike the more popular Voodoo Doughnuts these ones are less sweet and have more unique flavours, so we were excited to go try some!
So tasty!!
I know its pretty normal for Americans but we were so excited to get to American school buses! Having seem them in all the TV shows we watched it so great to see them in real life!!
We loved the feel of Portland. Walking around and looking at all the buildings it was so pretty. It has such a lovely atmosphere about the place and everyone we spoke to and met were so friendly. It was the closest city we have been to that felt like somewhere in the UK, it really had some of the same things we do here, especially the rainy weather!
After the conference, and before our trip up to Canada, we took a drive out to see all the amazing waterfalls and countryside around Oregon, it was amazing! The day was yet again really rainy!! But we tried to make the most of it! It looked great for photos too!
We stopped at this amazing look out, Chanticleer point and it was so beautiful. We were travelling on the amazing Columbia River Highway and is the first look out point you encounter on this highway. It is such an incredible view made even better by the fog that was descending on the valley.
I was so glad I had by 17-40mm lens to capture the whole view, it really was so amazing!
We didn't have time to take in much more of the sights as we had to get back to Portland to catch our train to Canada so we drove past some of the waterfalls and actually I really like this shot I got of one of them out of the window. Its not in focus but I loved the movement it adds to the shot! It kind of captures the whole atmosphere of this drive!
I hope you have enjoyed my post and exploring this amazing place with me! I can't wait to share another adventure with you all soon!
- Verity x
Photography by me and copyrighted to me.
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