This is one of the photos we had taken of us while on our Alaskan cruise. We sailed on the Norwegian Star to Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, AK and Prince Rupert, BC, leaving from and returning to Seattle, WA. We had an absolutely wonderful time, and I would recommend it to anyone. To see more of our vacation photos, visit either my Flickr account or Andy’s.
Category: Travel
Traveling around the world, the country, the state, and even in the city where I live
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Problem: Raindrops on windows
I noticed a problem right away when I sat down in the boat: the only way to get a photo of anything outside was to focus manually; otherwise, the lens would automatically focus on the raindrops. I found myself worrying about all the money I’d spent on the cruise, camera, lenses, excursion– only to be unable to take any photos! (I didn’t even realize yet that there was an upper deck.) Apparently, the good people who run this excursion know about all that (money spent and hopes high), so they are kind enough to squeegee the windows so you can get those coveted photos.
My frustration, though, made me think about the point of vacation. Is it really about the money spent and the things seen? I mean, it is about seeing things, if you’re a sighted person, but it must be about more than that, no? If that’s all it is, it seems petty to me somehow. Yet there is a reality to all the money I spent and all the reading I did and all the practice I did to prepare myself to capture certain images with my camera. Is a vacation like a hunting expedition? Are the photos the “catch” one brings back to say, “See what a big man I am! I spent a lot of money on fancy equipment, travelled the world, and shot these photos?” Or, “Look what I can see with all my money?” It strikes me as ugly. Yet, if going on vacation is not about what you can see, what is it about? What you can smell, taste, touch, and hear? Is it all about exciting the senses? Do we work all year at our jobs, save up our money and vacation time, buy our flights and cruises and excursion tickets– just to thrill our senses? Is there anything spiritual about it? Or is it impossible to have a spiritual experience without exciting at least a few of your senses? I mean, aren’t the most wonderful experiences we’ve ever had about what we saw, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted? Or is there more to life than that? And if vacation is not about perceiving different things with out senses, what is it? Your viewing this photo is dependent on exciting your optical nerves, and reading this text is dependent on either your eyes, fingers (if you’re reading Braille), or ears (if you’re listening to this through a text-to-speech reader).
My vacation really made me question the value of experience and what might be a deeper way to experience a vacation, or for that matter, life. Yet we are sensate creatures, and it could be argued that we experience spirituality through physicality. As Sting sings in The Police, “We are spirits in the material world.”
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Andy in Versailles Room
That’s Andy reading our final invoice for miscellaneous charges over breakfast in the Versailles dining room on the Norwegian Star. We are docked in Seattle and boarding a Seattle tour bus on the way to SEATAC for our flight home!
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Lunch at Chicago Hamburger Co.
Today on the way to work, I finally tried a restaurant I’ve driven by over a thousand times: Chicago Hamburger Co. It has always looked a bit seedy to me, like the lunchtime equivalent of a “greasy spoon.” But, you know what? It was great. It was bustling and very popular. I had the Western Burger, a hot, juicy charbroiled 1/3 pound burger with grilled onions, BBQ sauce, crispy bacon and crunchy fried onion rings. I also had a side of crispy golden french fries. I was so hungry, and enjoyed my meal so much (AND was in a hurry to get to work on time) that I forgot to take a photo of my food. I hope I did a good enough job of painting a mouth-watering picture with my words. Oh, and don’t let the one space in front fool you: when I first drove past, every space in the lot was taken, and I had to park around the corner in front of someone’s house. Oh, and would it be too naughty to mention that there was no shortage of sexy working-class men eating lunch there, too? 😉
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Andy and Me in Tortilla Flat Saloon
At close range, it’s hard to get more than one face in focus using the 50mm f/1.8 lens. Oh well! I may be blurry, but it’s the only photo we have of us together that day. Thanks to our waitress for taking it. 🙂
Daniel Greene 