Getty Villa

The Getty Villa, located in Pacific Palisades, California, USA, was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum and incorporates details from several other ancient sites as well.

Many exhibits occupy the various galleries, but the architecture itself is a major part of its appeal.

It would be impossible to do justice to this place with pictures on a blog post, but here are just a few to suggest what awaits visitors.

Neo-Roman Amphitheater

Helical designs adorn these columns

Inner Peristyle

Fountain Pool in Inner Peristyle

Ancient Coin - one among a large collection

Architectural details

Herculaneum Woman, Roman, A.D. 40–60

Outer Peristyle

Emperor Caligula

Cycladic Idol

Column Detail

Pacific Ocean View

Olympic Peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula is a lovely place to explore. Here are just a few pictures from the area, but none can compare to a visit in person.

Paved trail to Dungeness Spit

View toward the west from the land-end of Dungeness Spit

The trail back up

Lobby of the Lake Crescent Lodge

If a tree falls in the forest...

... does it eventually rot?

Sol Duc Falls

Forest trail

Storm King ranger station

Tall trees preside over the trail

Along a forest trail

Undergrowth

Marymere Falls

Through the trees, clouds hug the mountaintops

Rainforest

Lake Crescent through the trees

Lake Crescent - wide angle view

Olympic Mountains

A view from Hurricane Ridge

Snow accumulation at Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center

Olympic Mountains shrouded in clouds

Destruction Island Light Station viewed from Ruby Beach

"Needles" at Ruby Beach

Ruby Beach

A wider view of Ruby Beach

"Big Cedar"

Lake Quinault Lodge

Lake Quinault

Hummingbird at Lake Quinault Lodge

Watching You

Watching you...

Seattle Skyline in Sunset Light & Sea-based X-band Radar

Updated July 25, 2011

Click image for larger version

In case you're wondering what that huge golf ball is on the right side of this image, that is the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Boeing-built Sea-Based X-band Radar. This bizarre object is actually a ship. The dome houses a remarkably powerful and precise radar system that can track something the size of a baseball thousands of miles away. At a cost in the neighborhood of one billion dollars, this mobile radar facility is designed to track missiles, not baseballs. It is in port in Seattle for several months undergoing a variety of power and redundancy upgrades.

More information [SeattlePI].

After reading about this monster, I realized I had seen it before.

Aerial view on approach into Seattle/Tacoma International airport

Aerial on departure from Honolulu International Airport

A closer view

From shuttle boat en route to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

A closer view from the shuttle boat

Back in Hawaii November 26, 2012, viewed from Blaisdell Park

Qwest Field is Becoming CenturyLink Field

Crews have begun to paint CenturyLink logo art on top of Qwest Field

A ground-level view a few days later. "CenturyLink" is now fully in place.

All done