A Visit to Carnation

I felt like taking the kids for a drive while Noah was in therapy.  Now that I started to take pictures of people, I also wanted to go look for good locations for photo shoots.  It was raining and gloomy, but I decided to go anyway.  The weather was a sheer reminder of what it is like usually in the Pacific Northwest.  Yes, I remember how it goes, the wipers on my van go swish, swish, swish! 

The low lands between the Sammamish hills and Cascade are very pretty.  I like visiting Carnation since there are farms, creeks and charming old downtowns.  I love taking pictures of old buildings as much as I like taking pictures of people.  Their era specific designs are interesting and I like to imagine the life back then when it was newly built.  I think those 60s to 80s style awkward looking buildings are beautiful even though those are considered eye sores in general.  I was lucky to capture the images of the demolished buildings in Lake Hills Shopping Center before they began the construction.  It's a shame we are losing so many dated buildings even though they are still good to use. 

So where were we?  Yes, so we drove down to Carnation from Redmond to visit John Tolt State Park.  We got lost on the way and ended up in Duvall, but got to see its century old downtown.  There is a value to living away from big cities, I thought.  I would have loved to stop and take pictures of the old downtown, but I had three squirmy kids with me.  Maybe, next time.  We stopped at the main street in Carnation before going to the park.  The street was lined with vintage store signs and façades.  I could not pass on the opportunity to capture those.

We've been to the park before about two years ago and had taken some of my favorite pictures there. The bridge is an old suspension bridge and it adds earthy charm to the scenery.  The greens of the trees were deeper than I remembered from the last time and it was very beautiful.  The river was clear and we could see the round river stones resting on the bottom.  We did not see any fish, but I am sure it will be jam packed with salmons in the fall.  We took some nice pictures there and kids had fun crossing the bridge.

It started to rain harder, so we ran to the car and went back to Redmond.  It was a short visit but we enjoyed playing tourist, photographer and models together.  It will be fun to explore other areas and we might just do it once every week!