1

I guess you're not used to mountains, are you? Not a lot of those in Illinois.

Lots of mountains here, of course; I live near several stratovolcanoes. It was one of the things that creeped me out about Boston: no skyline. The only skyline was buildings, and the occasional hill. The "tallest mountain" in that region (a peak in New Hampshire) wouldn't even rate a name in the Cascades.

2 I'm quite amazed by the mountains, having lived my entire life in the midwest.  I visited Seattle a decade or so ago, so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with such things, but it really is completely different from what I'm used to.

3 To clarify: having lived where it is, essentially, flat all my life and being able to see a horizon fifty miles away (or whatever it is), being surrounded by mountains and big hills in Seattle actually made me feel claustrophobic.

Here in Albuquerque, though, the mountains are basically all on one side of the city.  I can look one direction and feel at home (except, of course, for the completely different type of trees, desert, etc etc etc), then look the other way and see mountains!  Big ones!  Right there!  Wow!

4 Don't forget to e-mail me.

5 E-mail sent, Pete!