vacaciones

Charleston is the capital of West Virginia and it has nestled itself on both sides of the Kanawha river, a rather pleasant waterway. It seems that you have to cross the river to get anywhere, which is really quite okay by me. That dome is the capitol and it is gilded. Unfortunately you can't see that here but it looks nice.

When the ugly duckling grows up this is what he really turns into. He got pretty annoyed at me following him around and trying to take his picture. Probably because he is so ugly.

Here is a barge. The barge man waved at us and we waved back. I think the Delmar Jaeger is an awesome name for a tugboat. This is more like a pushboat though.

This rakish wax gentleman greets visitors at a Virginia visitor's center. We arrived just before the rest stop was infested by a busful of middle-schoolers on a field trip. Upon wandering into the visitor center proper, lined as it is with holiday brochures, one young person was heard to exclaim, "Is this a library?" Our colonial-garbed friend, however, was deemed "tight". I can't say that I disagree with that assessment.

Virginia is far too bumpy for the tastes of a boy from Indiana but at least it is something to take a picture of. I took about twice as many frames as I needed to make this panorama(click it, yo!) but no matter.

Here are things which are hanging on a wall in a folksy manner. I took a picture, and now you are looking at it. No explanation needed.

This lady is a park ranger on Blue Ridge. We had a very nice long chat about Appalachian history and log cabins and other various topics. As usual I stubbornly refuse to use my camera's flash ever, which results in blurry and/or dark pictures. This time I had to fool with the levels in Photoshop to make the scene visible. Let's pretend I'm just being artistic, 'kay?

Uploading pictures tires me. Next time, Tommy J's house, hot, hot Williamsburg, and the watery abyss where wyrd monsteres do swim.