Foto Friday - 5/4/12

This is my seventy-second Foto Friday post. The pictures today are from Smith Tower, including some tilt-shift photos, and Coral's birth. Full set with all 70 photos can be viewed here.

We're finally starting to see some nice weekends here in Seattle, so we went downtown to visit Smith Tower a couple weekends ago. I had a Groupon to go to the observation deck that I bought almost a year ago and it was about to expire.

This is Smith Tower. No, not the short red brick building. The white building next to it. The observation deck is on the brim of the pointed tower there.


When you ride to the top, you get in this brass and copper caged elevator that has an elevator operator. In fact, Smith Tower is one of the last on the West Coast to employ elevator operators. The doors is latticed so you can see into each hallway and through the glass walls in front of each office.

Here is the view looking north from the tower towards downtown Seattle. Smith Tower was completed in 1914 and was the fourth tallest building in the world at the time. It remained the tallest building west of the Mississippi River for almost 50 years. It is now only the 17th tallest building just in Seattle.

People generally don't think or really know about being able to go up Smith Tower. As you can see, it's basically on the complete opposite side of the city as the Space Needle and over half the price. Both are about 500 feet tall, but you get a different view. See our Space Needle pics from previous visits here.

Here is the view looking south towards SoDo where CenturyLink and Safeco Fields are. SoDo was originally named for being located South of the (King)dome, but since the stadium's demolition in 2000, the name has been taken to mean South of Downtown.

This is looking east of the building. That large building in the upper-right corner of the picture is the old headquarters of Amazon.com. It's always been a PacMed building, too, but Amazon is moving to a new location in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

 

This is Columbia Center, the largest building in Seattle. It's only a couple blocks from Smith Tower and it too has an observation deck. There was just recently a Groupon for that as well, so I bought one and plan on going up sometime this summer. Only cruddy thing about the Columbia Center viewing deck is that it's only indoors, so photos will be through glass windows. Also, I've heard the observation deck doesn't extend fully around the building, so you lose some of the view.

I stitched a panorama together from the tower to show downtown Seattle. It was such a nice day. Click on this picture to view it in a larger size.

Julie and me on Smith Tower. She loved the view, but I think she liked the long elevator ride even more.

The Chinese Room is the same floor as the wraparound public observation deck. The furniture and the hand-carved ceiling were gifts from the Empress of China, Cixi, who ruled from 1861 to 1908. This includes the famous Wishing Chair, which is said that if a single woman sits in it, she will marry within a year. Conveniently, you can book your wedding in The Chinese Room.

I decided to take a bunch of shots with the intention to edit them later with tilt-shift effects. This one of the Port of Seattle is one of my favorites in the group. As you can see, it makes it look like a miniature world.

Tilt-shift is not easy to get just right. There's a lot of tweaking involved if you want to make it perfect. Really enjoy that tiny looking bus stop in this one.

Here is a mini version of Occidental Park.

Here's the ferry terminal in tilt-shift mode. There are a few additional tilt-shift photos that you can see in the full set.

Alright, now for the part that I'm sure most of you have been wanting. More pictures of Coral! If you haven't already peaked at the pictures I posted in her own separate post, please do so as I am not going to show those again in this Foto Friday. This picture of her is from right after being born. Nurse is checking the clamp on the umbilical cord.

The nurse and I giving Coral her first bath in a little Tupperware tub. She didn't like it at first, but eventually relaxed a lot.

My mom holding Coral for the first time and Julie getting to meet her. I posted a first reaction video of Julie meeting Coral in the previous post.

My dad holding Coral for the first time.

Juliana holding her little sister for the first time. She continues to love holding her and giving her soft touches every now and then.

Coral in the same outfit that Bethany and Juliana went home in when they were babies. Here is a picture of Julie in it for comparison.

Coral in her car seat all ready to go home. So tiny and cute! Expect more pictures in the days to come. To view more pictures of Coral and our trip up Smith Tower, please view the full set.