Austin is rad as shit! You should totes go. :)
Yeah, Murica is pricey to explore, it's just too damn massive to do cheaply. At least on the west coast. Things are hella close together on the east coast as states are hecka tiny over there.

Haha, yeah, we have the Cascades and some down into Oregon plus Alaska and Hawai'i. Here in Puget Sound we've got the Juan de Fuca plate subducting beneath the North American plate and a triple point with the Pacific plate down south. Our tectonics are pretty rad, with some of the best studied mid ocean spreading centers in the world. We just laid down fiber optic cables to a ridge off the coast to new instruments out in the water last summer. *-*

I'd love to go back to the east coast, maybe down to Florida or go abroad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Naples.