I had heard about the Maryhill Stonehenge years ago. The British scholar Christopher Chippindale spoke at ISU and Nick, Jeff and I attended. He was fascinating and triggered a spate of reading. I was still reading Stonehenge books a year after he visited. Seahenge was uncovered in 1998, just a short time after Chippindale's visit. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/for more on Seahenge. There was no way I wasn't going to get to see this American version of Stonehenge so I plotted my route from Boise to Seattle via Maryhill.
The drive through the Columbia Gorge was stunning. I had recently read a book on the Glacial Lake Missoula Floods and could see the evidence left by it, just as the author had described. I had to take a detour because the bridge crossing the Columbia River by Maryhill was being repaired, but I persisted. I finally got to my destination and it was well worth it. The replica is to scale and you can get a sense of the grandeur if not the age in this place.
My next slight detour was to Mt Rainier National Park. Unfortunately, I was unable to go through the park - closed on account of snow - and had to circle around it. Still, I got to see a lot of it from the edges. I put on my mp3 player over the radio transmitter and listened to Loreena McKinnet and other new ageish music while driving through the mountains and snow. It was very surreal.
I got to Seattle later in the evening, checked into my hotel and called Raven. She came over and we hung out and plotted our next activities.
To Maryhill photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsemenza/sets/72157604520187555/
Maryhill Stonehenge photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsemenza/sets/72157604517410434/
Road to Seattle photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsemenza/sets/72157604526816157/
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