A moment of true awe.  I’m not talking about a ‘I was just so happy’ moment.  No.  Have you just had one of those awe inspiring, slack-jawed, mind-blowing, heart-stopping, dumbfounded, at a loss for words moments?
 
-I have had three that I can point to.  One from mother nature, a summer storm had just come through and I was watching for rainbows and listening for thunder when a bolt of lightning came from blue sky way too close to me.  I saw the light and had just enough time to think ‘oh wow that’s close’ before the thunder hit me like something solid.  It sounded like the sky was cracking.  I don’t think I was ever really in danger, but it felt as if my heart had literally skipped a beat.  Never again will I underestimate lightning.
-The next two mark rare moments in which, for a split second, I was intensely proud just to be human.  
-One was an osprey flyby at an airshow.  There were other bigger, louder planes there, in fact the blue angels had just finished their show when the osprey flew over.  I didn’t think it was coming back and had turned to look at something else.  I suddenly heard engines behind me and turned just in time to see it roar by, buzzing the airstrip low enough that if it hadn’t been going so fast I would have thought it was going to land.  I stared after the osprey long after it had disappeared, hoping that it would come back but alas, it did not.  I think part of me went with it.
-The last was perhaps the most unexpected.  I had read that the ISS was going to fly over my house.  I had seen space station flybys many times, but the night was clear so I went out to look.  I had been out for a good while but hadn’t seen it, and was sure that for some reason I had missed it when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.  And there, rising strait up from the horizon was not only the ISS, but also the space shuttle Discovery.  They caught the light just right and were each glowing far brighter Venus.  They made no sound, of course, and their speeds were perfectly matched.  Silver beacons rising before a dark, richly blue sky.  Something about the sight caught me, and by the time I had gathered wits enough to go retrieve my family, they had passed the zenith and faded to the brightness of the stars of the big dipper.  It was one of the last flybys of Discovery.
 
So.  A moment like that.  Anyone care to share?

 I've definitely had quite a few of these,lucky for me!!For some reason seeing the white cliffs of Dover was a huge moment,and,oddly enough,in the same day I approached Calais in a deep fog and as the shore of France came into view I was struck with awe.I hadn't been to Europe yet and my first view of it was through a fog and from a moving ferry.Quite unique!
 
  Brett
 
 For the purist,I embarked from England by boat and reached mainland Europe.

Being 57 and having been around a bit I have quite a few, but I'll give you just the single most awe inspiring moment.  I was only two at the time but this image is burned into my brain.  I probably mentioned this before on slinging.org..   I was on the front porch with my older brothers and sisters.  A thunderstorm was approaching and we were counting from flash to boom to see how close the lightning was.  Out of nowhere a brilliantly glowing ball appeared.  It looked like the sun except that it bounced gently along through the tree tops like a balloon.  It went from tree top to tree top until it got to the old pine directly across the street from us.  Then KAAAABBBLLLAAAAAMMMM!!!!  It blew the top of the poor old tree to smithereens.  It felt like the entire earth shook.  To this day I think it's the loudest thing I ever heard.  We ran for our lives to the back of the house.  Later my brother mentioned that it had to have been ball lightning.  We were extremely fortunate to have seen this very rare phenomenon.  Most people never see it and there are just a couple of photographs of ball lightning in existence.

I have been about a yard away from a large buck white tail deer, that was pretty cool. Prior to this encounter I didn't know you could be too close to a deer to shoot and at that distance even the slightest movement, let alone drawing a bow, will spook them.  
 I have been over most of NA and I have done some solo hiking in some really cool territroy in canada as well as some cliff jumping. My time in CA, Yellowstone, the Smokey Mountanins in NC, Arizona, and the Woodlands of Northeren Pa were some the coolest moments I have had. Though I can gladly say I really have too many great memories to count and definitely looking forward to having more.