Austin, TX Capital Building

Quite the impressive capital, and you can see it from virtually everywhere downtown, as Lady Bird Johnson made sure buildings were situated at a height and angle to ensure visibility. LBJ and Lady Bird are revered here - their names are on everything!
We also checked out the UT Austin campus - right next to the downtown core. Austin is fiercely non-establishment and still a young city, despite their 40% population increase in the last 10 years. Downtown Austin reminded us of Seattle about 5 to 10 yrs ago - it's just getting the downtown core going (barely).

World's LARGEST Spruce Tree is in WA

The rainforest in WA has some dang big trees. This spruce is 58' 11" in circumference and 191' tall. And about 1000 years old!

Aberdeen, WA

Aberdeen is a little town on the WA peninsula that also happens to be the actual hometown of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana fame... "Come As You Are" is one of Nirvana's hit songs...hence the chamber of commerce sign. Not exactly the counterculture they were looking for...

Hiking in the Olympic Rainforest, WA

Definitely wet, but beautiful, green and mossy. This is near Lake Quinalt on the Washington peninsula, west of Seattle. It was raining in Seattle, so we thought we might as well be in the rainforest!

On the 19th Hole at Pebble Beach

No we didn't play there (maybe someday) but we did drive out to Monterrey to gawk at a REALLY beautiful course. Can you believe they make chili here at their cafe that has prime rib in it??

Winchester Mystery House San Jose, CA

This is a real haunted house! Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, was convinced by a psychic that all the people who had ever been killed by a Winchester gun would come back to haunt her unless she continually built a house. So she did, for 38 years - construction proceeded 24 hours a day from 1884 until she died in 1922. There are 160 bedrooms and 47 fireplaces over 24,000 square feet.

It has stairways going up to the ceiling, bizarre passageways and the infamous door to nowhere (it opens to a 13 foot drop). Creepy!