Change of Perspective

I have been fortunate enough to have traveled through and physically touched 49 of our 50 states.  (I still need Alaska.)  Each and every state has it's own culture, character and soul.  I have actually traveled through each of these states, driving from Albuquerque to Maine, Albuquerque to FL, CO to California, Colorado to WA, Back and forth from NM & CO to the Midwest.  I drove from Indianapolis to Kiawah Island, South Carolina by myself when I was 20.  I took a train by myself (when I was barely 20) from OR to Indiana, sleeping in coach or on the floor of the caboose.  I have driven from OR to CA to NV to AZ to UT to WY to MT to ID and back to OR in a week, all on little to no sleep.


I have canoed/camped in the Boundary waters of Minnesota, woke up to Elk outside my tent in Rocky Mountain National Park and walked around an island while camping in Orcas Island in Washington.  I have driven through the night while crossing our great country, dealt with temperatures ranging from 110 + in AZ, to  -30 when moving here and driving through MT.  I drove from Bloomington, IN to Memphis with my best friend to visit Elvis' house and from IN to WI to live for the summer.  From IN to GA to visit the south.  I have driven solo, with family and with friends.



My four oldest babies have driven literally thousands of miles and have been to over 30 states while traveling with me on many of these journeys.  Starting with Savannah driving from IN to CO when she was just six weeks old.  Saxton also started young traveling at three weeks from NM to AZ and then also at six weeks from NM to IN via CO.  I have even crossed the Canadian border at the Niagara Falls and from AZ and later CA into Mexico.  In 2005 I was in the ocean in Maine and then in California, opposite coasts, all in the same month, while living in New Mexico.    



These are just a sample of my long and sometimes short trips across our great country.  We are blessed to have just about every kind of landscape, from mountains to prairies, rocky coastlines to those laid out like glass.  Each and every state has offered me some sort of perspective, a different way of viewing life.  I have experienced the poorest of cities while helping in West Virginia with Habitat for Humanity, to the wealthiest while working in Los Angeles and visiting NYC.  I have enjoyed Sunrises on the East Coast, to Sunsets on the west, sometimes alone and sometimes with someone I love.




I have now found my home to be a town just south of Seattle, over two thousand miles from my hometown in Indiana.  My heart is content here, my soul finally finding some peace.  One of my favorite places to visit, Pike Place Market, has a personality all its own and is one of my favorite spots to photograph.


The Market has taught me that you don't always have to travel far to discover something new, that even a place you have frequented many times can still show you a fresh point of view, but only if you are able to change your perspective.

Side Note:  These are all my photographs at different perspectives and during different visits to Pike Place Market in Seattle Washington.