HI Don,
With the suggestions of Milt, others on the board and an architect friend who will oversee the final design, we're going to pour 3' deep concrete footings with a Simpson post anchor. In addition, the architect suggested drilling a deep hole in each 4x4 post to accept 1" pipe; 1/2 in the post, 1/2 anchored in the concrete.
There's little chance of wind shear turning this into a flying guillotine in our area and the relative lightweight structure shouldn't be a burden to the two posts (hopefully).
Thanks for your suggestions. Sounds good. I'll run them by the architect.
Hold the congrats until it's done.
Sherwood