Road trip

Update (Tuesday, 11:45 p.m. PT): The answer to Tuesday's challenge -- which 196 people got right -- is the Bixby Creek Bridge, located in Big Sur, Calif. Thanks to everyone who played, and to all, please come back for Wednesday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means at your … Read more

SAN SIMEON, Calif.--To visit Hearst Castle, the private palace built by media magnate William Randolph Hearst along the Central California coast, was to enter a place completely out of any obvious time period.

Easily one of America's most notorious homes -- it was fictionalized as Xanadu in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," Hearst Castle was first conceptualized in 1919 and was never finished. Work stopped when the media magnate left in 1947, four years before he died.

Packed with hundreds upon hundreds of priceless antiquities from throughout Western history, Hearst Castle was constructed before there were ever … Read more

Update (Monday, 8:50 p.m. PT): The answer to today's challenge -- which 94 people got right -- is Keenan's Cambria Village Pharmacy, in Cambria, Calif. Thanks to everyone who played, and to all, please come back for Tuesday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means at your disposal. … Read more

Update (Sunday, 10:35 p.m. PT): The answer to today's challenge -- which 27 people got right -- is the view from the road leading to Hearst Castle, in San Simeon, Calif., with Hearst's old private airfield visible in the background. Thanks to everyone who played (especially since so many noted that this was a particularly hard one), and to all, please come back for Monday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, … Read more

Update (Sunday, 12:20 a.m. PT): The answer to Saturday's challenge -- which 57 people got right -- is the Pillar Point Air Force Station, in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Thanks to everyone who played, and to all, please come back for Sunday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means … Read more

MONTEREY, Calif.--It's 1:30 in the afternoon and three of the most famous residents of this coastal town are getting ready for lunch. A very large crowd has gathered to watch.

These, of course, are Joy, Mae, and Abby, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's three resident sea otters, and it's standing-room only up against the glass separating visitors from the animals as several staff members appear with small buckets full of shrimp, clams, and squid.

I've come to the aquarium as part of Road Trip 2012, and I've been treated to a very special viewing … Read more

Update (Friday, 9:25 p.m. PT): The answer to today's challenge -- which 220 people got -- is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in Monterey, Calif. Thanks to everyone who played, and to all, please come back for Saturday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means at your disposal. Throughout Road Trip 2012, … Read more

Update (Thursday, 11:20 p.m. PT): The answer to today's challenge -- which 82 people got right -- is the The Caboose (Books, Bears, and Railroad Wares) in Cannery Row, Monterey, Calif. Thanks to everyone who played, and to all, please come back for Friday's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using … Read more

MONTEREY, Calif.--Imagine an aerial dogfight of epic proportions: Fifty aircraft on a side, each prowling the sky for advantage over dozens of adversaries.

If Timothy Chung has his way, such a battle could take place over Southern California by 2015. But before you worry that war is coming to American soil, you should know that Chung's vision is really about a high-tech game of Capture the Flag played by as many as a hundred small, lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles playing their role in a grand challenge of an experiment.

Chung is an assistant professor in the Systems Engineering … Read more