If you happen to be in North East Washington, perhaps on the way to the border, Republic could be an interesting place to stop.
Stonerose Interpretive Center lets you chip away at slate from a former lake bed for a few bucks. So long as you don't find something rare, they'll let you take away up to three fossils for yourself to keep.
You have to admire someone who says, to hell with work, my life, my home and just sets out to explore the world. You have to admire them even more (or maybe pity) when they do a nerdy dance (which seems to be a cross between running man and riverdance) wherever they go and post it on YouTube for all to see.
That's exactly what Matt Harding did... several times it seems. Dancing 2006 has had over ten million views. Dancing 2008 which is only two weeks old has over five million.
With the 2008 version, he's joined by his fans from all over the globe, culminating in an event at Gasworks Park here in Seattle...
I did think the Gurgaon bit was very clever and the Tokyo one, very disturbing :)
Here's an interesting twist for map based search. Google has added street level photos to it's maps. Compared to the Live maps birds eye view, it's much easier to follow the road.
Icons take you forward or backward, yet you can also pan left and right, as if you were looking out the window of a car. Below is the hotel at Cascade Locks. (There seem to be some glitches - if there's a white area below and no picture - click the 'view larger map' link)
However, it may be too good - there's a chance of it being banned in the UK due to privacy concerns.
The Tolt bridge has crossed the Snoqualmie for over eighty years. From Tolt McDonald Park, it looked like this:
However, as this link explains, the old bridge wasn't in the best condition... So a new bridge was built - as you can see it dwarfs the original.
And now it seems the old bridge will be demolished...
