Decisions, decisions

After hours and days of research, reading an endless number of reviews and comparison charts, that explained things I have no clue about, I have chosen my new camera: the Canon Powershot SX20 IS. It was a very close call between that and the Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ35, but I had to make a choice and I went with the Canon, probably just to keep my head from exploding and because I have had a Canon Powershot for the last 6 years.  This new one can take HD videos. Youtube, here I come!

So what do the photos on this page have to do with anything? Well, the other matter I have been obsessing about off and on for at least the past year, maybe much longer, is "where do I want to live?" Aside from a few detours in my mind to unknown lands, the pendulum has swung between southern Italy and the Pacific Northwest, specifically Ceglie Messapica (BR) and Seattle. I have family ties and friends in both places, have spent a lot of time in both, and could theoretically live in either. However, after recent conversations with my brother, who lives in Seattle, I now am hatching a new plan. A small house or a yurt on a few acres of land near Portland or Eugene, or somewhere in the vicinity of one of them.

That still doesn't explain the photos. OK, I'll explain the connection.

In the photo above I am with my very tall American paternal grandfather, Clyde, his dog Tippy, and my very tiny Italian mother, Maria Pia, on the steps of my grandparents' home in Portland.

In the one below, taken a couple of years later, I am in Eugene. I'm the little tot looking up at my mother, who seems to have had a thing for stripes in those days.

So there, it makes all the sense in the world for me to want to move near Portland or Eugene. Don't you think?

Taking the Train

I used to take the Coast Starlight to Seattle often, then for a while I decided I needed to get there more quickly so for about 5 or 6 years I forgot about the train, but for my most recent trip I had no particular schedule to follow and I decided that a ride up and down the coast was just what my vacation needed.

A 10 minute ride on an Amtrak bus takes you from San Francisco to the Emeryville station, where you board the train around 10 pm. After a quick visit to the Pacific Parlour Car, which dates back to the fifties and has been completely refurbished and where not much is going on at 10 pm. since most train riders are early-to-bed-early-to-rise kinda folks, it's off to bed in your sleeper. I always get a "roomette", the least expensive but totally adequate private room option (more the size of a closet than a room, but I love it anyway).

The Parlour Car at night

Depending on when you wake up in the morning you may find yourself about to cross into Oregon, or having already done so. Wherever you are the view is awe inspiring.

Oops!

A funny thing happened. The "who cares, I'm on vacation" effect took over. When I finished breakfast and returned to the Parlour Car, the attendant, a really likable man (good looking too) whom I have been running into on the train for about 10 years, said, "how about a Bloody Mary?" For a second I thought "it's 7:30 am!" then, immediately, "why not?". It's the first time I've ever had a drink in the morning, but it was the best Bloody Mary ever. It inspired me to read the entire manual for the digital camera I've had for 6 years, instead of just the "quick start guide" and, lo and behold, I discovered I can take videos with it!

The windows were particularly dirty because it had drizzled the night before, but my eyes got right past it.

The Portland train station

Somewhere between Portland and Seattle, but I'm sorry I don't know exactly where.

I tried to upload the following image of Puget Sound as a video, but Blogger would not let me, so here it is as a still. I'll save the return trip for another day.

Friends and Family

On Tuesday night I boarded Amtrak's Coast Starlight in Emeryville, CA and traveled up to Seattle to visit friends and family.

The trip on the train was long, but as wonderful as always, and totally on time. When I get back to San Francisco I will post photos of the ride up and of my stay here, but for the moment I do not know how to download just a selection of photos, rather than the entire equivalent of 500 photos I have taken in the last 3 days - this includes videos.

Before buying a new camera, an idea I've been mulling over for the past couple of weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to bring the manual for my Canon PowerShot S50 on the train with me, just to see what I did not know about it. Guess what, I didn't know much.

It turns out I had read the "quickstart" guide and stopped there. On the train I learned to take videos (pathetic little videos, but videos nonetheless), BW photos, sepia tone photos, how to set the camera for sun and overcast, vivid color, and how to do manual focus. What I still can't achieve is a decent focus with telephoto, but I don't think this justifies getting a new camera. Not yet, anyway, because this did not stop me from looking at cameras at Costco here in Seattle, and noticing that they have a good deal on a Canon EOS XSi (or something like that), a camera that is highly rated on Flickr.

My friends in Seattle say "hi", from the other side of the sliding glass door right outside the living room of my brother's and his girlfriend's home.

Photos courtesy of Debra L.