I tell you, there is nothing better than watching a night time thunderstorm in downtown chicago. Its so peaceful and the way the yellow lights reflect off of the street is very relaxing.

From the pier its amazing!

Actually, there's the power of a Rocky Mountain lightning storm.
And there's the peace and quiet of a white sand, non-tourist beach on the windward side of Oahu.
And there's the peace and grounding security of my very special and secret places out and around my own neighborhood.


I'm sure your city lightning storm is special in it's own way,
But damn! You outta see one from a mile up in the mountains someday!

The one, and only, time i went to the mountains (Great Smokey Mountain National Park) It was totally amazing. Waking up in the clouds...wow.

And those aren't much more than really big hills!
You wanna see real mountains, go west young man!
There are mountains there on which you could wake up ABOVE the clouds!

All in good time, i dream of one day going west of the mississippi.

Drive NW up through Wyoming into Yellowstone. After you drive the loop and see all the geysers, leave by the East Entrance and spend some time on Cody Wyoming. Then go north to Bozeman, and then West on I-90 to Seattle. Then South on I-5 to San Francisco. And then go east through Sacramento and down through (avoiding the LA basin all together) Barstow and Death Valley. And finish by going east through Arizona. And plan on taking about 3 years to do it! Maybe more if you really wanna see anything other than the tourist stops on the way.

Where I live here in SW Washington, I'm no more than 2 hours away from the Ocean, the mountains, high plateau desert, Sub-tropical rain forest, Big city's, small towns, lakes and rivers of all sizes. And yet, tornado's and Huricanes are almost unheard of. Though once in a while there will be a flood from heavy rains, and we do have the occasional volcano. (St Helens is actually visable from the window of the lunchroom where I work)