Kristin Alexander

OLYMPIA -- Sam Calhoon's favorite hangout is a dry fountain on the Capitol grounds. An internationally known landscape architect built the fountain long before Calhoon was born. Today, Lawrence Halprin's "Water Garden" is waterless -- permanently shut off since 1992, when state groundskeepers discovered it was leaking.

BATUM - Deep beneath the fertile Columbia Basin soil, Bob Echols treks through the skeletal remains of a fortress built in anticipation of a war never fought. The farming region is home to three mammoth underground labyrinths that once housed intercontinental ballistic missiles and their nuclear warheads. And Echols, a Warden real estate broker, is trying to sell two of them for $300,000 each.

Sister Mary Ferguson approached an elderly woman reclining on an adjustable bed at Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco. "Feeling better today?" she asked.