Seattle - Day 1

It took me eight years to finally graduate from college and in all those years, the furthest I got to travel for any class was up to the local ski resort for the day so I could skip class. I wasn't the best student in my early years, I'll just put that out there. My transcripts sadly reflect my lack of attentiveness, but at 18 and 20, telling me college was important was like talking to a brick wall. My poor parents. I got on track toward the end though, and after that it was a breeze. I was surprised to find that attending class was actually fun. (I think it helped that I minored in photography.) So here I am seven years later, embarking on a two-year journey for a master's degree and journey it will be. I get to travel for most of the classes required for my emphasis, and I think I'm going to love this arrangement.

My first class was in Park City here in Utah, about a 40 minute drive from my house. The commute got a little tiring by the last day of class but at least there were no travel expenses other than gas and lunch. My second class, however, was a little further away. I got to go to Seattle! I flew in late one Monday night a couple weeks ago (the same day my kitchen got torn out), spent three and a half days in class, and three evenings and one afternoon wandering the city. I met some really nice girls from class, ate delicious food, put many miles on my Keens, deeply breathed in the sea air, got rained on, rode in a cab, stopped by Glazer's, shot two packs of Polaroid and four rolls in my K1000, slept very little, learned a whole lot, and wished I had a boat.

I've got so many photos to share that I thought it would be best to post them by days, so here is Day 1, my first full day in the city. During lunch, a small group of us walked to the Whole Foods on Westlake, a place I ended up at three of my four days in town. I love me some Whole Foods. On our way back to the hotel conference room, I snapped a few photos, including a few for my Doubles project with my pal Vanessa. (Some of the images below are repeats from my previous post, but the project is so cool (IMHO) that they warrant double posting.) After class, I walked to Pike Place Market with two girls from class, then two of us split off and wandered the stalls together, but we got there a little late and everyone was closing up shop so we hit up the first Starbucks and Beecher's for a grilled cheese, then headed back to the hotel for the night. On our way out, I saw the "Hello my name is _________" sticker and thought it would make a nice Polaroid, my only one all day. Stay tuned for Day 2.