K Swanson's photostream  

Going indoors for this one! The capitol building in Olympia, WA is a magnificent structure with lots of interesting lines, shapes and colors. This chandelier hangs by a large chain from the dome over the rotunda. The dome is 175' high and the chandelier weighs 5 tons and is the largest ever constructed by Tiffany's (New York). It has been reported that this chandelier swung for weeks after the Nisqually earthquake.

The WA state ferry system is the largest in the country and carried over 22 million passengers last year! This route (Seatte-Bainbridge) is the busiest in the system. It carries over 6 million annually.
Lots of ferry pics on Flickr but thought I'd do another after reading about how busy these things really are. They are very much a part of living in the Northwest.

Alcatraz, aka "The Rock", was a military fort prior to becoming a max security prison. It literally is a large rock but soil was 'imported' from other nearby areas in the middle 1800's and gardens were planted and tended by military families. After the transition to the infamous prison, inmates continued keeping up the gardens. The prison hasn't been in operation for a quite a few years but the gardens are still maintained by volunteers.

Half Dome from Glacier point...in Winter! The road to Glacier Point hasn't been open in Jan for over 50 years (according to a ranger) so we took the opportunity to check it out! Beautiful blue sky day..not good for skiing, or agriculture or water..but undeniably nice.

Calaveras big trees state park (near Yosemite) has some fine examples of these spectacularly giant Sequoias. We were here in Jan 2012 during the unusually warm and dry weather. Since is was January, it probably helped to keep the crowds down a bit!