Do the bars in Minneapolis still close at 1 am?

Nope. 2 A.M., now. We're slowly joining the rest of civilisation.

It was allegedly prettier than Yosemite. They dammed it up. All our water and power come from that dam.

That's not Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, is it?

[link] Hetch Hetchy.

A water engineer friend once organized a multi-day tour for a knot of us of the entire water line to SF from the Water Temples (there are several ) in the Bay Area to Hetch Hetchy, inside the dam, inside the gorgeous rancho perched on the edge (the most exclusive public property in Calif., it has been said; all the governors get to stay there, and the water board, and that's about it), to the ... whatsitcalled ... where the water comes down the shute and makes the electricity - man, that is such a trip, it's kind of like the monitoring station a la The China Syndrome - to the former company housing enclave where we spent the night, and on down to a couple of places downstream.It was a very, very cool couple of days. It is said that Hetch Hetchy water is the most pure to be found anywhere. It abuts Yosemite. Lots of bears, if you are a backpacker. Um, the Peninsula has Hetch Hetchy water, too.

eta: there are shots of the Pulgas Water Temple on the page with shots 121 - 132

Also? The photos are reports are all wonderful. More! have a good weekend, all.

Dare I ask what a Water Temple is?

Theo, the next time you are out this way, remind me and I will take you. The Pulgas Water Temple should not be missed. It isn't the look of the place, tho that is special, it is the sound.

The Pulgas Water Temple always makes me laugh because pulgas means fleas.

In the bay area, the hetch hetcy water (which is at least the city and the northern peninsula is awesome. If you are in the south bay you get San Jose City water which is not so great.

DC water was my least favorite. Terrible. And I'm partial to well water which is what we got at my Gram's place.

My aunt was all excited to be drilling for artesian water on her property in the Catskills... until it turned out that the local water was heavily sulfur-flavored. Perfectly healthy, but it smelled like rotten eggs! Showers took a little getting used to....

I once spent a summer as a camp counselor in the Poconos where the water was so sulfrous that we had to use all our powers of persuasion to keep the campers from getting dehydrated. With the exception of milk, everything we had to drink came from concentrates and was mixed with the water. As counselors, we got used to it....more or less...but on the 24 hours off we got from Saturday noon till Sunday noon, the first priority was always bottled water, soda, anything that didn't taste like sulfur.

There's a fair amount of places just outside Montreal that have that ass-smelling water. I couldn't drink it, and preferred the smell of me to the smell of it on me.