Pacific Ocean

PORTLAND, ORE. // We gathered here to begin contemplating rivers -- the Columbia and Snake, mostly, with glances toward Grand Ronde, Yakima, Willamette and a few more. The Columbia and Snake sorely tested the Lewis and Clark expedition during its 1804-1806 westward mission. The explorers had to contend with rocks, rapids, treacherous gorges and dangerous waterfalls on their way from the St. Louis area to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River ends in the Pacific after churning 1,214 miles.

Two months of exceptionally hot and dry summer weather have come splashing to an end in just five days. September has already dumped more rain on Baltimore than all of July and August combined. More than 1.78 inches fell yesterday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, gurgling down the hatch as a chaser to the 3.63 inches that fell during two days of rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto last week. By Thursday, moderate drought conditions had developed in much of the state.

A Memorable Place By Amy Houghton Special to the Sun A calm place along Oregon's coast In this age of meditation and wellness centers, just about everyone is familiar with the idea of visualization, the act of taking your mind to a peaceful place and creating a sense of calm. When I need to practice visualization, I conjure up memories of Ocean Haven, a private inn on the Pacific Ocean just south of Yachats, Ore. My husband, Jonathan, and I stayed at the inn during a two-week Seattle-to-San Francisco trip.

The road to Hana is paved -- and that's about it, as far as modern conveniences go.That's why no visitor to the Hawaiian island of Maui should miss it -- even if the idea of driving three hours at a top speed of 20 mph, on a road carved ever-so-gingerly into the side of a cliff, sounds somewhat less than appealing.For the road to Hana is a road back in time, a 30-mile stretch of twisting, serpentine asphalt with nary a McDonald's in sight. There are hardly any commercial establishments at all -- just a few small eating places, a general store (of sorts)

A dispute over a lease extension on Kwajalein Atoll - the site of a major U.S. missile testing range in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - is threatening the financial lifeblood of two island countries. An agreement expected to be submitted soon for Congressional approval calls for the United States to make annual payments starting at $15 million a year, up from $11.3 million, to the group that owns the atoll, led by a small band of traditional tribal chiefs in the Marshall Islands. But the landowners say the amount is far too low and complain that they've been shut out of the negotiations, which call for a 63-year lease.

WASHINGTON - A key test of a national missile defense system failed this morning when a 4 1/2 -foot "kill vehicle" missed a mock enemy warhead more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean - setting back chances for an umbrella system advocated by President Clinton. "We failed to achieve intercept," said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman. The mock warhead roared into space at 12:19 a.m. Eastern time atop a missile fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, accompanied by a decoy balloon.

Without significant rainfall before midnight tonight, this month will skid into the books as the driest March since record-keeping for Baltimore began in 1871. And any rain that does fall probably won't reverse the "moderate" drought conditions declared this week across Southern Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore. The dry weather has already put some winter grain crops behind schedule, and parched fields could force farmers to delay spring planting, agriculture officials said. But the situation is not critical yet. In fact, "It's been kinda nice this spring, compared to a lot of springs," when farm machinery gets stuck in muddy fields, said Jim Lewis, the extension agent for Caroline County.

They were hometown heroes, much-loved sons, daughters, husbands and wives. They lived lives on Earth and among the stars. They talked about the mundane and the magnificent, and people wanted to hear what they had to say. Here is a look at the seven Columbia astronauts in their own words, as reported by wire services, television networks and their newspapers, both hometown and college. Michael Anderson Michael Anderson, 43, was the payload commander. He was flying for the Air Force when NASA chose him in 1994 as one of only a handful of black astronauts.

If the ritual of steamed crabs, coated with hot spices, cracked and eaten on sultry summer days and nights has you hankering for seafood that is, well, a tad cooler, then consider wild Alaska salmon. Alaska, from its capped glaciers to its rigorous climate, suggests cool. And its salmon -- fresh from the cold, clean waters of the North Pacific Ocean -- represents the essence of cool, delicious meals. What's more, salmon is in season. Alaska's wild salmon run officially goes from mid-May through September, but right now the harvest is at its glorious peak.

What is it about New Orleans? Why does it loom so large on the American psyche, take up such a huge chunk of our collective imagination? It's not that big. Its population of 484,000 puts it at 31st among American cities. Its metropolitan area of 1.3 million is dwarfed by many others whose destruction at the hands of a natural disaster would certainly be mourned but not with the intensity of feeling that the nation is feeling now. The breaches in the levees of New Orleans seemed to have landed a blow to our national solar plexus.