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I know this is a bit odd, but I'm replying to my own posting. First, I want
to thank everybody that responded. I got a lot of good responses. I had
also sent some photo samples to Nikon's tech support. By the way, Nikon's
tech support is top notch. The tech (David D) was very patient with me. We
emailed back and forth several times, mostly me bitchin' about my
underexposed photos. After I got my most recent response from David D at
Nikon, I could understand completely what was going on.

I'm thinking too much like a point and shooter. I need to be more
photographically minded. He explained that the whole idea behind slightly
underexposing photos is to guarantee that all the data and detail remain in
those photos. If you want to edit those photos later with photo editing
software, you can. However, if the photos come out of the camera
overexposed, detail and data are lost, and no amount of editing can restore
it. After his explanation, I understood that the D80 is a more
sophisticated, higher end camera than the typical tourist digital camera,
and why it does what it does in full auto mode. He suggested either editing
my photos if I wanted them a little brighter, or switching to "P" (Program)
mode, and compensating by adding a bit more exposure.

Thanks to all who posted, and thanks to David D at Nikon's tech support.