TRAINZ

I love Amtrak. Everyone knows this. I am horrible at keeping my love a secret, and Amtrak is a recipient of my mad, mad love. Trains, people. They are the way to travel. Having spent every weekend for about a year traveling on the 509 and 516, I know what I'm talking about.

Daniel and I are visiting NYC and Ithaca in October (a little bit business, a little bit family time) and I have--by magic--convinced him that we should take the train out there. Not that it took much convincing, but, you know...some people don't like the idea of spending three days on a train. I, however, LOVE IT. When we've hammered out all the deets, I'll be sure to make you all jealous.

Aside from the usual writerly business, and because it turns out that we're going to be traveling a TON in the next few months, I've been thinking about getting a new camera. I love taking pictures, but my phone (and its "retro effects"--cool as they may be, I shouldn't have to use them as a crutch) will only get me so far. So if you have an opinion on any of the following cameras (or have another suggestion), let me know, pretty please. I spent a million hours last night researching them, but there are A BILLION CAMERAS out there, and it's hard to go into this kind of  purchase (i.e. the spendy kind) 100% blind.

Without further ranting, I give you: le cameras!
--canon powershot G9
--olympus PEN E-PL1
--fujifilm finepix S5700

note: I'm going for mid-range to nice (I'm looking for new or used <$300) and a digital point-and-shoot. SLRs are neat, but too huge (and, um, expensive) for a fair-weather hobbyist.

Also fun news: a couple cousins and my younger brother (all of whom will be 18 in the next year), as well as a few friends of mine, want me to design some sweet tatts for them. I'm pretty pumped about it.

Ok, in case I actually have something interesting to write about later (today, or this week, or what have you), I'll try to keep this shortish. So: In honor of my train/camera theme, I'm going to share some photos from my beautiful ride home a couple weeks ago.

Photos from the Cascade Line--i.e. my "other home"--en route from P-town back to Sea-town.

(in no particular order)

I wanted to jump out and go swimming.

Tacoma Bridge

Dark Clouds Approacheth!
 (10min outside of Seattle, of course)

I love the hidden backs of small towns. Little secrets only
train passengers get to witness.

island in the Sound

Daniel works hard, even on the train

Another small town's backside. (heh)

Centralia's station. I was obsessed with the clouds that day.

That's all, folks! And I apologize for being excessively parenthetical today. There are just some syntactical urges you can't fight.