Awe:  Emotion in which dread, veneration, and wonder are variously mingled

Awesome: Inspiring awe

I was out shooting yesterday and was constantly feeling a sense of awe.  Not the "Wow, neat!" kind you normally associate with the word but the definition as quoted above.  The one where you look around and alternately go "Oh my God!" in wonder and "Oh! My God!" in shock.

The shot below is from Meadowbrook Golf Course in St. Louis Park, MN.  It is looking down at the 15th green.  And fairway.  And other holes.  None of them are supposed to have water.  It is an awesome sight.

Last week we had a lot of rain.  Someone I was talking to yesterday said it was 5 inches in 2 hours.  That much water needs to go somewhere.  In this case it went into a small lake/pond at one corner of the course and into Minnehaha Creek, which feeds into the lake.  That much water caused a breech in a levee that kept the lake out of the course.  You can see the result.

Sometimes you can hear about disasters on the news and not really understand the scope of what they're talking about.  Then you see it up close.  And there's no way you can't understand.