Hoover Dam @ Night and some Lake Mead drought

Day or night, I've never regretted a stop at the Hoover Dam. This place is a modern marvel of engineering and a grand human vision.

The star-burst pattern around the lights is an effect typical of many lenses at very high f-stop #'s (very small apertures).

Check out how much the water level has dropped in Lake Mead between the top picture taken in 2001 and the bottom one taken in 2009!

National World War I Museum in Kansas City

Man, I loved this place.

No doubt in the decades immediately following the Civil War, there must have been much more "we must never forget" sort of sentiment.  And it fades.

World War I...probably the same.

World War II...probably already happening.  Although a certain Tom Hanks movie, among others, will help with that.  But 100 years from now, it won't be near the popular topic it is now.

What will happen with monuments like this?  Will the war be so far removed that we will no longer fund such museums?  I don't know.  Only time will tell.

Regardless, I highly recommend a visit to this one if you ever have a chance to drop by.  The view from the tower is particularly fantastic at night.

Front entrance over the Poppy Fields.

Presentation over 'the trenches.'

Front entrance

Grassy field at sunset just north of the museum.

View looking south.

View of downtown Kansas City looking north.

Ummmm...Sir Longshanks of Edmond.  Low sun = long shadows.

 

Getting geometric in Cuyahoga National Park

Cuyahoga National Park is the much lesser known amongst its peers. Situated in NE Ohio, there are some small ski slopes and a number of sites exhibiting what life was like for the early pioneers of the area. I wouldn't travel to that part of the world just for this park but if you are already in Cleveland or thereabouts, you'd be crazy (in my humble opinion) not to go see it.  There is also a very large waterfall near there. My pictures of the falls were all mega-crap so you don't get to see them. ;-)