In 1991, I went to Cambridge, England on a three-week summer program run by UCLA. At that time, I lived in Seattle. I knew that I was going to be meeting new people from all over the US and England, and I remembered something I had read in a magazine somewhere. It suggested that you take a bunch of postcards of wherever you live, to hand out to people you meet, so they could see what your hometown looked like, and what the high points and cultural attractions are. The article also suggested that you write your name and address on the cards, so people you met would be able to get in touch with you later.

So that’s what I did. I bought a bunch of postcards with pictures of Seattle and environs, and stuck my address labels on the back. That was an excellent way to start a conversation with people I met, and I handed out all the cards I took with me. I especially liked the Head Librarian of the Cambridge City Library, who had never been outside of Cambridge, so he was intrigued by my postcards of Seattle. Even now, I really can’t believe what he told me then-that in all his 40 years of life, he had never left Cambridge. Never. His reason was that there was so much to see and do in and around Cambridge, he had never felt the need to travel.

I think this picture I took in Cambridge might make a pretty good postcard.  I took it from the back wall of Trinity Hall College, where we stayed in student dorms.

And maybe Trinity College, next door, could use this picture to show what one of their amenities is.  I took both pictures on the same day, from the same vantage-point.  Punting on the Cam is a favorite pastime in Cambridge, and it is very relaxing.  The river is very shallow, so it’s easy to push your boat along with a long pole stuck in the bottom of the river.  

I was born and raised in Seattle, and it’s not difficult to find beautiful scenery just about anywhere.  I took this one from the deck of a Washington State Ferry crossing Puget Sound.  We locals always notice, on a nice day, whether “the mountain’s out”.  That would be Mount Rainier.  You can see the well-known Seattle skyline over the hills too.

 

I wonder if this picture of a seaplane coming in for a landing in the Inner Harbour of Victoria, BC, might make a nice postcard.  Victoria is not too far away from Seattle, and there are multiple ways to get there from here (when the border is open).  This is the only way we have not yet taken!

We went to the Jersey Shore on our trip in 2012.  I was just so impressed by the big vacation homes right along the shoreline.  On the East Coast, it is a custom for some families to rent a vacation home for the summer, so the kids can play on vacation while Dad works in the city and comes to the shore on weekends.  Most of these houses were empty when we were there in October, but I’ll bet they are full to brimming in the summer.

Looking the other way…

I still think our Pacific Northwest is the best.

Skagit Valley Tulips.

Link to Original Post.