My wife and I rode the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island to visit a friend, who picked us up at the island ferry terminal. At the Seattle terminal and during the ride I shot photos with abandon, including all sorts of infrastructure stuff: dock, loading, pipes and tubes, lights, stairs, etc. This led to a request by the FBI to explain what I had been doing. HUH?

The crew, under orders to report anything out of the ordinary to comply with security regulations, watched me snap away. When my wife and I left the ferry on foot, they noted the license plate of the vehicle which drove us away. The owner of that vehicle (our friend) later was contacted by the local FBI office, asking about the "photographer who got into your car at the ferry terminal on such-and-such date." Our friend called me and told me the FBI wanted to talk to me. Naturally I thought it was a joke. It wasn't. I talked to the FBI agent---whose job it was to follow up on all reports---and explained my actions. We had a friendly chat. Case closed. It makes one wonder...