Oregon Series - Oregon Travel Photography

Travel Photography: Washington

A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. - Steinbeck

I love to travel. It's the sort of act that, for me, is thrilling beyond my best descriptions. It doesn't matter if I'm somewhere I've been a thousand times over or in a new place, just get me out there. A trip here and there is just enough of the best stuff in life: adventure, beauty, discovery, challenges. Enough to remind you that it is often more about the journey than the destination.

I blame it all on John Steinbeck. No really, I do. Some ten or eleven years ago, reading Travels with Charley opened up my eyes to the joy that is discovering story in the act of packing, setting out, and interacting with the people and places that make up a journey.

So for our second anniversary, as is our custom so far, we packed up, picked up, and flew out. This time for the Northwest - Washington, specifically. I have been enough times to feel a sort of comfort in the climbing mountains, mystic shores, and overwhelming depth of Washington's emerald landscapes. However, this was Cliff's first time.

I think we'd both agree that of all the places we've been together so far and of all the trips we've taken, this might have been our favorite. But as we've learned over time, we dare not say it was our favorite because it is apt to be outdone in trips to come. For each holds its own power and wonder, and as Steinbeck said, no two are alike.

Revisiting Monuments

Growing up on the East Coast, I think I have taken for granted the fantastic history that sits at the foundation of the littering of lighthouses and monuments lining the Atlantic. With my dad's side, we have spent one week of almost every summer in the Outer Banks. And along with each visit to the beach, there was always that requisite visit to any nearby lighthouse.

But for some reason, maybe now that I am older and understand that relics and monuments of a certain day are set within a story and not just a time, I'm fascinated by them. It might be that I have come to appreciate something not everyone, like my husband, has grown up around and choose to see it from the lens of someone just visiting.

So during a visit to my mom's in the spring, she suggested we take a little daytrip across the North Carolina Board to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head to show Cliff a little more of what the Eastern Seaboard has to offer. (I've run out of places to show him in my hometown of Virginia Beach). Wielding my camera and my new (at least since the last time I went to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head) penchant for any and everything related to the National Park System, I felt like a tourist in a place I have never felt like a tourist. And gosh, it was great.

It made me notice things I'd never imagined seeing as a little girl, and I am thankful for the seasoning that time offers one's perspective on the beauty of our country and its history.