[hgs_notes]

Yep, Dept of Energy. Big nuclear site just west of Idaho Falls on the snake river plateau. I was training for the nuclear navy out there when I met my future wife a couple decades ago. My brother in law worked construction out there for years, but there are not many projects lately and had to change jobs. There are 3 buttes on the south end of the site and we trucked up to the top of the biggest one. There is a road (sorta) and some kind of observation building up there with a small radio tower. You can see for dozens of miles in all directions. I made a panaramic view photo montage using 4x6 pics taped together. Now I have a sony dcs-hx5 which I think is one of the best point and shoots outthere. Panaramic photos are as easy as pushing a button, and I can take burst shots of my kids activities at 10 frames/sec at 10x optical zoom. And it does HD video that I can plug directly into my TV, which was cool when we went to the drag races in Brainerd last year. Amazing how far these little machines have come.

After I wrote the story above, I emailed my brothers in law and at least one will be taking some time to get into the back country with me. I can not wait.