As summer winds down, I took my nephew to a few local museums. By far, the Aerospace Museum of California was his favorite. He loved seeing all the planes and playing with all the interactive materials (Legos and other type of building supplies). We spent almost four hours exploring and playing together.
The museum holds another special place for me. My father was in the Air Force and worked at McClellan Air Force Base my entire childhood. It’s also the place a budding journalist (16-year-old me) got to meet President Bill Clinton and see Air Force One.
Let me know if you have a favorite photo and have a great day!
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20#21#22#23#24#25: My nephew wanted to take my photo because I “looked like a toy” next to the giant plane.Also, the Man of Steel now has a permanent place in my van.
These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
For tickets and information about special events, visit aerospaceca.org
This will be the eighth time I’m sharing photos with you of Dillon Beach, a place I’m lucky enough to visit several times a year. It’s crazy how each visit is a little different. This visit we saw thousands of tiny crabs, met a lot of really sweet dogs, and shared the early mornings with fishermen and surfers.
These photos are for Heidi, as she showed me again how magical this place really is, and for Sephera, for always being my exploring buddy on the beach.
Hope you all enjoy these and let me know if you have a favorite.
One of the highlights of our recent trip was spending a night in the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State, The Shelburne Hotel. After a few difficult days and missed connections, this place waited for us like a refuge.
It was our third time visiting and my first time staying in the most haunted room. You can read about our earlier experiences here:
An overturned truck on the freeway delayed our arrival, and we checked in 20 minutes before the small bar closed. I had been hoping to write in the bar drinking a cocktail called the Bee’s Knees, but instead only scribbled a few poetry lines on a napkin while drinking the renamed cocktail, The Bee Sting. How perfectly fitting for this trip.
The house has two attic bedrooms, both said to be haunted by a spirit named Nina. After our encounter in Room 6, we had been looking forward to what might happen in Room 5. However, after all the stuff the trip had thrown at us, we both felt pretty emotionally drained and just wanted to sleep before making the 10 hour drive home the next day.
The little nook my daughter was going to sleep in had a door in it (photo below) looking way too much like a Coraline door, so we ended up sleeping together in the main bed and blocking that door with the extra pillows.
The room, like most the house, has an old feeling and is filled with quirky things. I put white noise on my phone and collapsed almost immediately, too tired to really take it all in. Around 2 a.m. I woke because my white noise stopped. I looked around the room and saw nothing, but I heard what could only be described as a low moan. It wasn’t coming from my daughter, and I tried to tell my brain it was something outside…maybe a truck? It got louder.
“I can’t do it tonight,” I said out loud to the room. “I’m too sad and tired.”
The sound instantly stopped and the white noise turned back on. I went right back to sleep. It was probably a dream, but I like to think Nina was taking pity on me. The next morning I took a bath in the clawfoot bathtub and took a few photos outside in the beautiful garden.
This is the last photos from our trip, but I have some beach and camping photos coming your way in the next few days. Let me know if you have a favorite photo among these and have a fantastic weekend.
Part of our summer trip included searching for Thomas Dambo’s giant wooden trolls. Let me tell you, these incredible sculptures do not disappoint. Not only are they breathtakingly beautiful, but they are enormous!
Thomas Dambo has crafted over 170 creations all over the world. If your curious if one is near you, here’s a wonderful Trollmap. We only visited two trolls this trip, but we will try again soon.
Now, come with me into the forest to meet Bruun Idun and Pia the Peacekeeper.
“In the night, there was a storm, there at the beach where she was born And Idun felt a feeling wrong, and so she walked there in the dawn And in a flute, the magic horn, a tune so passionate and strong She played for them an orca song to ask them where they all had gone“
Brunn Idun stands on the shoreline playing her flute to the Orca’s to ask them why they have all left the Pugeut Sound. Her flute was made by artist, John Halliday Aka Coyote from the Muckleshoot Tribe. On August 25th, the Mayor of Seattle, Bruce A. Harrel, declared it “Brunn Idun Day”. This special recognition celebrates Bruun Idun’s and the Trolls’ contributions to our collective stewardship environmental management, water protection, repairing habitat restoration, preservation and conservation. Every August 25th is Bruun Idun Day.
“Pretty pretty please, let’s keep the peace beneath the trees Hold you in my hand I will remind you with a squeeze Quiet little people cause your criers make me tired Pia likes to play with people, people they keep quiet“
Pia likes to play with the people beneath the trees, and she likes it when it’s not too noisy.
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These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
I’ve always been someone who is in awe of the world, but being able to capture some of that feeling with my camera is incredibly satisfying.
This third installment of photos from my Washington trip are shots taken around the city of Seattle. I sure hope this isn’t like making someone sit through vacation slides! Let me know if you have a favorite and thanks for supporting me. It really means so much.
“Sometimes I come up here at night…just to look at the city. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.” —Brian Selznick
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These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
On the second night of our trip, we traveled to the historic town of Seaview and stayed at the Shelburne Hotel. You may remember I wrote about our ghost experience in this same hotel last year, and so we were eager to return. Although I’m certain I felt someone gently pressing me down in the clawfoot bathtub, this time our experience was mostly restful.
For me, the beauty of staying at the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State is the interesting light fixtures and the way the hotel makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. I hope you’ll consider staying here if you ever find yourself in the area. Let me know if you have a favorite photo or if something stands out for you. Thanks!
“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” —Leo Tolstoy
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These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
Last week I took a much-anticipated trip to visit my mother, connect with a dear poetry friend, and show the city of Seattle to my daughter. It was a feast for the photographic eye. Please join me for a series of posts (6 total) exploring the Pacific Northwest and let me know if you have a favorite photo.
“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
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These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
“Hark, now hear the sailors cry, Smell the sea, and feel the sky, Let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic.” —Van Morrison
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to create something with a flat-lay setup. It’s supposed to be an image where you lay objects out on a flat surface and photograph them from above. I wasn’t thrilled about this idea, especially since I was spending the weekend along the beautiful California coast. So, you will see the first few images are sort of my attempt at this (the sand is a flat surface, right?) #4 might be the closest I got and it’s not my favorite.
Instead, I offer you mostly shots from my weekend away. Let me know if you have a favorite and thanks for the birthday wishes. I’m feeling full of saltwater kisses and ocean breezes.
“It is required of every man,” the ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.” —Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”
After spending two nights in Astoria, Oregon we traveled to the beautiful and sleepy town of Seaview, Washington. We were lucky to get an attic room in the Shelburne Hotel which was built in 1896 and is the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State. The big draw for me was the feeling of stepping back in time, but it was the rumors of ghosts that excited my daughter. Who doesn’t want a little adventure?
From the moment we parked our car and walked in the front door we felt welcome. The hotel is very LGBTQ-friendly and has a tremendously calm feeling. We arrived early and the staff encouraged us to explore the hotel while they finished cleaning our room. One employee showed us the secret library (swoon) and told us a bit about the local spirits—Georgina in the garden beside the large tree, the original caretaker Charles Beaver in the second-floor hallways, and a girl named Nina in the attic.
Now, before I go into the details of our possible ghost encounter, I want to share these photos taken with my iPhone 13 to give you a sense of the place. Almost all my photos are slightly crooked or off, which fits the mood perfectly.
All the stained glass was rumored to be repurposed from a church in Morecambe, England, that was being torn down and dates back to the 1800s.
The very creaky stairs up the attic.
Our bedroom. The little nook off to the left is where my daughter slept.
The hotel restaurant was divine. I particularly loved the wine and crème brûlée.
Now, here’s the part I’m a bit hesitant to share. You see, almost all of what happened can be explained away with logic. However, if you choose to believe in spirits…
After eating in the restaurant we retired to our attic room. We got into our pajamas and watched a few episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race before deciding it was time to rest. My daughter climbed into the little nook area and I sprawled across the bed. Before I went to sleep I said a prayer of protection and asked to be left alone. My daughter said she wanted to see a spirit and was open to an encounter. The bed was comfy and although we both heard some creaking on the stairs and a few bumps on the outside walls, I drifted to sleep fairly quickly.
I woke several times with an incredibly warm feeling against my back as if a dog or small person was curled up beside me. The room was cold but I was sweaty and uncomfortable. Each time it happened, I sat up and checked on my daughter and found her sleeping peacefully in the little nook. In retrospect, I should have been scared as I’m usually a complete baby about such things, but I wasn’t.
About the fourth time this happened, I whispered into the room.
“I need my rest.”
A few minutes later I felt a hand tap my left leg three times. It was comforting, which if you know me, is highly strange. I’m the type of person who jumps if someone comes into the room unannounced. I’ve been known to freak myself out and think someone was in the backseat of my van while driving home late at night and pull over at a gas station to check every inch of the back in the bright lights. I don’t even like scary movies, yet this touch on my leg felt natural and not at all scary.
At 3 a.m. I woke to my daughter softly calling my name. I sat up groggily and saw she was still in her nook but she looked strange.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know…”
She was terribly cold and shaking violently.
“My stomach hurts…”
She has a very sensitive stomach, particularly while traveling, and I figured maybe the rich dessert didn’t sit well with her. I didn’t want to tell her, but I started to get scared for the first time. The room felt different and I quickly turned on all the lights. Her skin was ice cold, her face pale, and she couldn’t stop shaking. At that moment I wanted to pack everything up and leave, but before I could say anything else she ran to the bathroom and threw up in the sink. Within a few minutes, she started to feel better and crawled into bed with me. The heat I’d been feeling on my back was gone, but so was the scary feeling that had arrived when she felt sick.
Unable to go back to sleep right away, we watched another episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race and then turned out the lights. I said another prayer of protection, including my daughter this time, and fell asleep fairly quickly. The warm feeling on my back didn’t return and I didn’t wake until I heard the call of a common starling outside the window in the morning.
My daughter woke up a few hours after me and told me what she saw right before falling asleep. A young girl was standing near the foot of the bed looking at her. She was wearing a white dress and had short black hair curled around her face. She didn’t say anything and her face didn’t show any emotion, but after seeing the girl she was able to sleep soundly.
The staff told us that sometimes things get moved around in the rooms, but we didn’t notice anything different in the morning. I showered and we had delicious coffee and tea in the lobby. We wrote down our story in a journal kept behind the front counter and left. We talked about our experience and could explain all of it away. It wasn’t until arriving at our next hotel we thought perhaps we did experience something supernatural. Digging through my bag to get my swimming suit for the hot tub I found this:
One of the first things my daughter said when we walked into the attic bathroom was, “Look at this cute makeup towel!” My bag was never in the bathroom and we didn’t take the towel off its hook. Maybe, just maybe, Nina gave it to us as a souvenir or perhaps an apology for my daughter getting sick. Regardless of how it came to be at the bottom of my bag, I’ll be mailing it back. We won’t soon forget our night at the Shelburne Hotel.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you’ve had any experiences like this. I’d love to hear it!
Note: To my regular readers, I’m back home now and will return to writing poetry and short stories soon. I’m also terribly behind in reading all your beautiful blog posts and hope to get caught up this week. Be ready for a batch of comments on your blogs soon!
Bridgette Tales 