When I go for a walk in a scenic location (or even just around my neighborhood), I try to pay attention to my surroundings.  I live six blocks away from my local Costco store, so if I just want to pick up a prescription, I walk there and back. [let me put in a pitch for getting your prescriptions filled at the Costco pharmacy-you won’t find a less-expensive place, and their service is excellent]  The last time I walked there, I saw that my neighbors had planted some beautiful foliage.

Along the busy arterial street, there is a big hedge, made up of a plant with shiny green leaves, that turn red in the spring-it’s called Photinia, and I have always thought the contrast between the red and green leaves was remarkable.

I wonder why many people think of the beach when someone mentions going for a walk?  I know that it’s a total cliche of the “personals” that, in order to attract a date or a mate, saying you love “long walks on the beach” is supposed to make you more attractive!  I wonder whether that still works?

In any case, my favorite beach to walk along is far from my home, but makes an excellent day trip.  That would be the 5-mile long walk along the Dungeness Spit, on the north Olympic Peninsula.  It’s a hard-sand, rocky beach that has a lighthouse at the end.  It’s a strenuous walk, but beautiful in all weathers, and we sure do get a variety of weathers!

This is the view from the trail down to the Spit.

And this is the beginning of the five-mile spit, from the beach.  It’s very quiet, with no crowds of people.  The only sounds are the constant ebb and flow of the water, and the cries of seagulls.  Even in high summer, crowds here are light.  A walk along this beach is always rewarding.

And this is the same day as the other pictures of Dungeness Spit.  About an hour after we arrived, the fog started to come in, totally changing the atmosphere, and the color of the water, and the sky, went from blue to gray very quickly.

Another of my favorite walks, close to home, is the Narbeck Wetlands, about four miles from my house.  It’s a nice park, with a boardwalk around the swamp area.

At various places along the boardwalk, the scene opens out to a view of the big pond, surrounded by trees.

In the past few years, we have taken a couple of cruises, one to Alaska and one to Hawaii.  Anyone who has been on a big cruise ship is aware of the deck called the Promenade Deck.  Well, that means the one deck where you can walk all the way around the ship outdoors, and the word “promenade” is a fancy word for “walk”!  Every ship has one, and on both cruises, you could find me taking a morning walk before breakfast, around the perimeter of the ship, on the Promenade Deck.  And that walk can be very productive as far as photos go.  I was always carrying my camera with me on my morning promenade.  And, all the scenery on a cruise ship is not what you see over the rail, either.  These are from our Hawaii cruise.

The crew member was enjoying a cigarette, before the passengers left the ship for a stop in Ensenada, Mexico.  I am always fascinated by the “working” parts of a cruise ship, and in the top photo you can see four different levels.

I always thought this shot would make a great illustration of the concept of “perspective” for an artist.  The lockers hold life-jackets.  I thought the teak deck was beautiful in itself, with the random-length planks.

Of course, on your promenade around the ship, you can always see water, clouds, and sometimes seabirds.

That’s sunrise (well, sort of, as I didn’t get up at dawn).

Spotting a seabird is actually pretty rare, and this bird, who never sees land, is a very rare bird.  I was very fortunate to see him on my early-morning promenade.

He is a Masked Booby.  You may have seen pictures of his relative, the “Blue-footed Booby”.

This shot is obviously not Hawaii!  It’s the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska.  And it’s not just a trick of the light-the ice is really that blue.

That’s the channel at Skagway.

Thanks, everyone, for coming with me on my promenades!

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