T o be honest, Shenandoah is probably the least impressive national park that I've been to. It was created to meet the outdoor recreation needs of people living in the eastern side of the country. Private land was acquired from early settlers by the government and converted into a national park in the early 20th. It's about 90 miles from Washington DC where I just spent a few hot summer days - so I decided to have this trip to escape from the busy city.
M y first digital SLR, a Canon 300D, arrived today! I was so eager to shoot with this new machine, so we went to Mount Sugarloaf, where you can overlook the Connecticut River winds through the farmland of the tranquil Western Masschusetts towns. What a surprise! The quickly changing weather presented us with a beautiful rainbow, oh two, in fact, in the sky. By the way, as a side effect of shooting with a DSLR, I'm now forced to learn some post-processing tricks.
I decided to give up my much loved Canon G3 and enter the world of digital SLR before summer comes. We had this hike on Mount Tom in late May, which also served as the farewell with this great camera. The trail is quite rugged and can be difficult to distinguish sometimes.
I never paid such close attention to the trees and flowers in our little town Amherst until this spring, in which I had my first pollen allergy in my life. I had to live with a runny and sneezing nose for almost one month. Anyhow, I must admit that the strength of the mother nature bringing the land back to life is so amazing and should be well appreciated.
A fter a long long winter, we are eager to have some hike and witness the changes that spring brings to the landscape of Pioneer Valley. The places in this album are Puffer's Pond in North Amherst, Turners Falls and Connecticut River, and Tully Lake.
O ne of the most famous cities of the States, Boston is unique and important in this country's history. On this comfortable spring day, we hiked the famous Freedom Trail in the downtown. However, I forgot to bring my favorite camera and the photos here were poorly taken. Sorry about that!
F inally, the much anticipated spring has come to town, blossoming flowers being the evidence. Well, that only happens in green house so far, though. Here are some pictures taken in the botanic garden of Smith College in Northampton.
W ashington DC has once again been my spring break destination. In fact it's the farthest place I can be in the middle of a school semester. It's so nice to travel down to enjoy the warm weather and the smell of spring, while your fellow folks are still struggling with the cold winter of New England.
W inter is usually long in the western Masschusetts town Amherst, yet it can be a good time to recapture some of the most beautiful local sceneries unseen in other seasons. These pictures were taken on a sunny day when I took an afternoon hike on a trail whose name remains unknown to me.
D owntown Disney is a huge shopping and entertainment center separated from the Disney theme parks. Some of us spent our last day of this unforgettable Florida journey walking and shopping here, while the others spent their day in Universal Studios. As a summary for this journey, we spent exactly 11 days traveling by car, including 2 days on the road. We covered much of southern Florida, including Sanibel Island, Big Cypress, Everglades, Florida Keys, Miami and Orlando. We traveled some 4000 miles and ate about 40 hamburgers.
S o here I am again, in Disney's fascinating Magic Kingdom. This is the busiest time of the year for the Disney parks. This wonderful theme park is probably the best place for the holiday atmosphere that is what I was looking for. On the other hand, with so many people visiting the park, sometimes it's hard for you to move in the crowd. However, the day parade and the evening fireworks are particularly good, well worth the visit.
M iami is actually one of my favourite U.S. cities. Spending winter days in such a beautiful tropical city is so pleasant. A complex city, Miami has a huge Spanish speaking population and plays an important role in the Latin American countries' trade and finance. No wonder it's been called the Capital of Latin America. Just a short distance from the city, Key Biscayne provides excellent soft sand beaches and beautiful views of the city skyline. Little Havana is a Cuban district where night dining and entertainment is quite attractive. Of course, no one could possibly ignore South Beach when he comes to Miami, a world famous place for nude beaches, celebrities, fashions and night life. Here I felt as if I were on a totally different planet from where I live.
K ey West, the southernmost point of the continental U.S., is famous for its unique location, history and culture, as well as the natural beauty. It's where Hemingway's house located. The sunset celebration every afternoon has been a long tradition and a major tourist attraction of this tiny town. Night life is abundant here with lots of bars. The Key Westers humorously claim themselves citizens of the independent Conch Republic, probably because of the remoteness of this place from the mainland.
T he Florida Keys are a chain of small islands away from the south tip of the Florida mainland. U.S. Route 1 travels all way from the mainland to the southernmost key, Key West, connecting the keys with tens of bridges, including the magnificent 7-mile bridge. On our way to Key West, we made a brief stop in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and a small harbor just off the road.
T he third largest national park in the continental U.S., Everglades is said to protect the unique and endangered ecosystem rather than the scenery, which means in the scenic aspect it may not be as beautiful as other national parks. We came to see the wildlife and were welcomed by the alligators, as well as numerous mosquitoes, who bit us without mercy and left us with itches for the rest of our Florida journey. And remember, winter is in fact their most inactive season.
L ocated offshore from the southwest Florida, Sanibel Island is our first stop during this 10 days long winter journey to the Sunshine State. The island is known as one of the best shelling places in the world. We started our vacation by shelling on the beach while watching sunset. There is also Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on the island, a great place for bird watching.
I n the heart of the UMass campus lies the tiny Campus Pond. Every afternoon, hundreds of birds gather here to have their social. They drink, eat, nap, walk, swim and chat, enjoying their afternoon time before they disperse after sunset. On this sunny mid-December day, I came to take pictures specifically on the birds for the first time, just to try the two telephoto cameras I happened to have on hand: a Fuji S5000 and a Minolta Z1. I used their 10x optical zoom intensively, and my feeling is that the Z1 is a better camera and the S5000 yields a way too much noise.
T hese pictures were taken in the UMass campus after this year's first major snow storm in the early December. I never realized before that Our snow covered campus can be so beautiful, especially under the setting sun. Most pictures here were taken by my Canon G3, while some were by a Minolta Z1.
T he second oldest university in the U.S., Yale is one of the world's most prestigious. I came to visit it for the first time after staying two years in its neighboring state. This fall, New England has unfortunately suffered too much rain, which resulted in an odd phenomenon - many of the leaves shaded away and fell prematurely without even turning red. So this was probably the least beautiful autumn in recent years - the weekend in White Mountains was an exception, however.
M uch has been said about the beauty of New England's autumn. But it turned out I never really realized how beautiful it can be until my eyes were filled with such splendid colors in White Mountains. We didn't climb the highest mountains but explored the prettiest waterfalls. We didn't go to any privately owned place that charges money but harvested the most beautiful views at places less known. In the woods near the tranquil Russell Pond, we camped, made fire and had the greatest fun! I feel so thankful that my school honors Columbus Day so that I can always appreciate this wonderful season at the right spot every year.
P eople claim that Mount Monadnock in southwest New Hampshire is the world's most climbed mountain, in terms of the number of hikers who have climbed to the summit each year. But I think they apparently ignored the existence of the popular mountains in China. We took a 2-mile long trail from the park headquarters, the second half of which is quite steep and you have to climb up the bare rocks. From the summit you can see all six New England states in a spectacular 360-degree panoramic view. Although without a horizontal map we couldn't figure out which is where, we did locate the Boston skyscrapers some 65 miles away!
T o celebrate the coming of the most gorgeous season of the year, we record the colors we are seeing in our little town of Amherst and the UMass campus. This autumn we have had an unusually large amount of precipitation and the rains come really unpredictably. However, the sky can be very beautiful after the rain and the light also makes the pictures look vivid. Most photos in this album are courtesy of May. :-)
J ust two days before leaving the beautiful Washington State where I stayed for the entire summer, I made a final hike to Snow Lake at Snoqualmie Pass. Snoqualmie Pass, part of Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, is where Interstate 90 cuts into the mountains in central Washington. There are many hiking trails just off the highway - Snow Lake being one of them. This beautiful alpine lake is probably best to visit in the early summer, when the snow is still on the lakeshore and spread on the water. In the late summer, all the snow has gone away. However, it's still quite enjoyable to have a picnic on the shore of the crystal lake under the late afternoon sunshine, especially when one is exhausted after the steep hiking.
O lympic National Park brings three gems of the nature together unbelievably: the glacier capped mountains, the rain forests, and the rocky coast, all on a single peninsula. Visiting all of the three is nearly impossible for a short weekend trip, so we chose to leave the rain forests untouched this time, since it's probably not the best season to see. Even though, I still got some pretty good shots at the fringe of the forests, especially at Sol Duc Falls. It was overcast sky when we arrived at the foot of Hurricane Ridge, making me very disappointed. However, as we drove up to the peak, it turned out I was completely wrong - we were penetrating through the clouds and reaching another world! Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost land of the continental U.S., in an Indian territory of the Makah tribe is the most unforgetable place we've been to. The most dramatic thing is that I broke down my car exactly at the most northwest corner of the country that vehicles can possibly travel, just a half mile from the ocean. What happened next is we met the U.S. Coast Guard, were rescued by an Indian police officer, slept in the Indian town of Neah Bay and waited for the tow truck all way from Seattle! However, being at the edge of the cliff, watching whales emerge and eject water just under your feet, together with the accident, made our Cape Flattery experience truly amazing and memorable!
N orth Cascades National Park is the first national park I've been to that does not have an entrance fee. From the North Cascades Highway, one can have spectacular views of the mountains and lakes. Ross Lake and Diablo Lake are the major lakes. These two lakes, although connected with each other, exhibit distinctive colors - Ross is blue and Diablo is turquoise. As limited access to the wilderness is available, people choose to hike to see the true beauty of the national park. However, we only managed to do an 8-mile round trip hike to Cascades Pass.
T he Cascade Loop is the 400-mile connected highways through the heart of Washington State. We set off from Redmond, driving counter-clockwise along the loop, where roads led us into interesting towns and incredible sceneries. After crossing the Cascade Mountains, we first made a stop at the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth. Streets in this little town are beautifully decorated with blooming flowers. Rocky Reach Dam, our next stop, is one of the many dams on Columbia River to generate electricity. The Cascades blocks humid air and rain from the ocean, creating desert-like landscape and climate in Columbia River Valley. Just before getting back into the Cascade Mountains again, we visited Winthrop, a small town that looks like the ones we'd see in a Western movie. State Route 20 after Washington Pass and Rainy Pass led us directly to the destination of our trip - North Cascades National Park.
V ancouver, the biggest city in the western Canada, is very like an Asian metropolis in North America. I came to this city twice in the summer, with full of excitement each time. The world famous fireworks competition happens every year at English Bay and this year's winner is China. The buildings in Vancouver are much newer than most American cities, indicating this is a fast growing city. A large number of Asian immigrants live in the metropolitan area, especially in the neighboring city Richmond, which is regarded as the heaven for Asian food in North America. Vancouver is also such an exciting city where great mountains are just in the suburban. To digest so much food we ate in Richmond and to make room for the dinner, we hiked on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. The trail starts from a few hundred feet above the sea level and leads you up to almost 4000 feet in just one hour or two. It's perhaps the steepest hike I've done so far.
F or the entire summer, I stayed in Microsoft in Redmond, east of Lake Washington. While I had plenty of time to visit Seattle downtown, I only did it near the end of the summer. There are two popular places for great city views. Harbor Avenue in West Seattle is a good spot to see the Seattle skyline over Elliott Bay. From Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill, one can see the downtown skyscrapers and Space Needle in the front. Of course from the top of Space Needle, you can see the whole city and all the surroundings - Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains to the west, downtown, harbor and Mount Rainier to the south, Bellevue, Redmond and Cascade Mountains to the east, and Lake Union and Mount Baker to the North. You'll be amazed by the wonderful setting of the city - there are three national parks around! In the city, the Pike Public Market is a major attraction to tourists as well as the local people. Crowds come to buy or just to see the flowers, fresh produces, fish and all kinds of seafood, and other locally made stuff all in a single old structure. It's regarded as the soul of the city by many folks even today.
T he highest peak in the Northwest, the 14410 ft (4392 m) Mount Rainier can been seen from 100 miles away, shining under the sun. It's a great place for serious mountaineers. On a Saturday of July, Microsoft organized this one-day trip for all of its summer interns and I was one of them. Constrained by time, my party could only get to Panorama Point from Paradise and we were caught in the late afternoon rain on our way back.
A fter 11-hour's driving from Seattle, we found ourselves on the beautiful land of Glacier National Park in Montana. Despite the fact that we only had one and a half days in the park and the weather wasn't quite friendly sometimes, the national park still gave us a wonderful time for its spectacular views of the Logan Pass and the many lakes. We even saw bears on the roadside and spent two nights in the tent with fear of bear attack. In fact, it's one of the only few places in the United State where wild bears live. It's a little disappointing that we didn't see as many glaciers as we had longed for, probably due to the summer temperature. By the way, starting from this album, I'm upgrading my camera to a Canon G3, a much better one, supposedly, than the retiring Fuji 1400. And I stay more and more behind the camera to make room for the beautiful sceneries.
T he Northwest is the last of the four corners of the continental U.S. that I've been to. The Seattle area is really a very good place to live. The many plants and flowers, especially tulips, make the city very beautiful in the spring. And it's very exciting to see many snow mountains on the horizon from the city. Probably because I was lucky, I didn't see too much rain during my stay here. However, the weather did change quickly in an unpredictable manner.
A mherst is the town where I live. It shows its prettiest face in the fall as the leaves turn colorful and gorgeous. The autumn pictures were taken in or around Amherst. These places include University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mount Holyoke College and Holyoke Range State Park. However, this year's leaves were not as good as the year before. In the winter, the Northeast received record-breaking snow. The pictures here only represent a small part of tons of snow we've had in our town, Amherst. The fact that winter in New England can last as long as 5 or 6 months often makes life a little boring.
W e came to the neighboring state Vermont for the sake of fall foliage during the Columbus Day weekend. Luckily, the weather was still great for camping. We camped at Brewster River near Smugglers Notch. We've been to Vermont's capital city, Montpelier, the nation's smallest state capital. We hiked at Owls Head and Kettle Pond in New Discovery State Park. Our hiking around the glacially-formed Kettle Pond was a little adventurous. We could have been lost in the woods when darkness came if we didn't meet with the hunter brothers, who generously lent us a life saving flashlight.
T he only national park in the Northeast, Acadia is located on Mount Desert Island, which is just miles off the coast of the nation's northeasternmost state, Maine. The seashore is usually grayed by mist, especially in the afternoon. We were very lucky to have a very clear weather during our stay, allowing us to see an unveiled Acadia. I like the jagged rocky coastline and dispersed islands very much. The view from the top of Cadillac Mountain, the park's highest peak, is just spectacular. There are so many things to see besides the sea. There are mountains, lakes, ponds, lighthouses and harbors. There are so many things to do, too, such as hiking, bicycling, rock climbing, swimming, canoeing and kayaking, while driving on the Ocean Drive has been a great pleasure for the drivers. I did eat lots of lobsters here! Moreover, I learned much about lobsters, such as the fact that their life span can be as long as 90 years!
I t was a very hot and humid day when I came to the nation's third largest city for the first time. If you've noticed my skin color in these photos, it's because of the San Diego sunburn. We spent most of our time in the Grand Park area. Art Institute of Chicago has a world-class collection of impressionist paintings, which are my favorite. Though I just had a short stay, I was actually becoming to like this city. I think I would like it much more if it were not that hot on the day of my visit. The other places I visited in this city are the University of Chicago and Chinatown. And Chicago's Chinatown is much less crowded than New York's and Boston's.
I n the west suburb of Los Angeles, Hollywood is the place about the rich history of American film industry and movie stars. I spent a half day here as a part of my Southern California journey. To be frank, the Hollywood that I saw was quite different from what I imagined before. It turned out that I didn't like it very much, that I later figured out is because I was too ignorant about Hollywood's glories behind the history.
T he San Diego Sea World and the Wild Animal Park are perhaps the world's best in their categories. I enjoyed the featured shows very much. The intelligence and skill displayed by the lovely animals are amazing. I especially liked the dolphin show and the shamu show. You can have an idea how wonderful they are through the snapshots. In Wild Animal Park, taking a safari-like walk into the heart of Africa and meeting with animals that I've never seen before was really interesting.
B eautifully located on the Pacific Rim and the US-Mexico border, San Diego is famous for the mild climate all year round and the world-renowned tourist attractions. In the central city, Balboa Park is one of the world's largest urban cultural park. I was impressed by its picturesque architectures a lot. I've been to a few beaches in San Diego. They're beautiful but the sea water is not as good as Miami's. The Mexican border is only ten miles to the south. As I didn't bring my passport with me, I gave up visiting a new country just steps away. Regarding the "near perfect" climate, the temperature is comfortable. You probably can't find a second place in the continental U.S. that is so cool in the summer and so warm in the winter. However, I don't like the dryness of Southern California anyway.
F amous for its beer, Milwaukee is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. This Midwest city impressed me a lot in several aspects. First, it's got many historic buildings. Taking a walking tour in downtown is really a must. Second, I liked the beautiful houses on Lake Drive very much. Lastly, the people. It seemed to me that Milwaukee people are living a leisure life in such a big city. They've got circus parade, beer festival, state fair and many more entertaining events throughout the summer.
T hree things characterize Madison: the importance as the state's capital, the main campus of the huge University of Wisconsin system, and the lakes. The downtown area settles on a small strip of land between the two lakes: Mendota and Monona. Its capitol building is one of the most beautiful among the states. Madison is a small but pleasant place, as it's widely rated as one of America's most livable cities. However, some local people still complain that the summer is too hot and the winter is too cold.
I t was the summer heat waves that pushed us into White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. It's my first time to go camping. My lack of experience punished me by exposing me to the extremely low temperature on the top of Mt. Washington, New England's highest point. The Flume Gorge resembles the scenery of my hometown in China. Old Man of the Mountain is a landmark of New Hampshire. It also appears on the U.S. quarter coin. I wish I were having a better camera so that I could take a closer picture of it.
E ncouraged by Fleet Bank's generous offer of free museum admissions, I came to Boston in May. I'm afraid I can't say many good words about New England Aquarium and Franklin Park Zoo because they're quite out-of-date. However, Museum of Fine Arts is a good place to visit, especially for art lovers. On July 4th, I came again, joining one million American people in celebrating their first Independence Day after September 11th. As a tradition, there were a live concert by Boston Pops and fireworks on Charles River.
D uring our three-day stay in the nation's capital, we almost covered every corner of this city. Washington DC differs from any other U.S. cities, mostly by its huge governmental buildings and the non-commercial atmosphere. We even experienced difficulties in finding a McDonald's. The overcast sky and the $100 parking fine we received on Constitution Avenue did ruin our high spirits to some extent. But I still enjoyed its numerous free museums and memorials very much. The night scene of Georgetown was also amazing. By the way, I didn't see President George W. Bush though I tried to break into the White House.
A bout fifteen miles to the east of Amherst is Quabbin Reservoir, one of the largest man-made public water supplies in this country. The water is transparent and beautiful. I didn't expect to see such a beautiful sunset at first. These sunset pictures turned out to be the finest I've taken. I revisited the reservoir in the summer.
N ew York City is always full of excitement. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is probably the largest art museum in North America. Among the numerous collections, the ancient Egyptian art impressed me the most. You can hardly imagine what beautiful and fine handicrafts that ancient people could make tens of thousands of years ago, unless you see them in the museum.
A s Princeton is a close neighbor of Rutgers, I've been there for a couple of times. I love the architecture of Princeton University so much that I would definitely rate Princeton as the most beautiful campus among those I've visited so far.
N ew Jersey is the first place where I've ever lived in the U.S. I used to be a student at Rutgers University for one year. In the winter, I revisited my old school and went to some new places I hadn't been to before. Sandy Hook in Northeastern New Jersey is a part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York metropolitan area. Stevens Institute of Technology is on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson River, from where you can have a nice view of the Manhattan skyline.
W e concluded our one-week Florida journey in Miami. The sea at Miami is probably the most beautiful sea I've ever seen. Having a sun bath on a winter day at the famous South Beach was a really pleasant thing. However, losing glasses in the sea wasn't. In the afternoon, we boarded on the Island Queen Cruise that took us alongside Port of Miami and the offshore islands where many famous and rich live.
T hese are the other two places we visited during our stay at Orlando. I began to hear of the space center at Cape Canaveral when I was very young. But it was not until I got this chance to go there that I knew what it's all about. In Universal Studios, a real working film and TV studio, we saw many interesting things behind the screen and put ourselves in the scenes of some famous films, such as Twister, Jaws and Terminator. However, what I liked the most was the Wild, Wild, Wild West Stunt Show.
W ell, I believe I've past the age that I would enjoy the kid's stuff. And going to Disney World wasn't even a dream of mine in my childhood. So why am I here? To compensate myself for what I missed when I was a kid? Or to make myself feel young again? Probably. But one thing for sure is that I felt so peaceful and glad when I saw kids enjoy Disney that much. And frankly speaking, some of the adventurous rides in Magic Kingdom even scared me! The other theme park of Disney World we visited is Epcot, featuring the World Showcase, where we saw the representative architectures of many countries.
I t was Thanksgiving when I went to Long Island. Long Island is the largest island adjoining the continental United States, adjacent to Manhattan to the west, extending about 100 miles to the east. It's probably the first time that I've ever seen the sea in winter. It's absolutely beautiful, especially the silver sand beach. And how's the water? Is it cold? No, not really!
L ocated in Western New York State and shared by the United States and Canada, Niagara Falls brings a huge volume of water from Lake Erie down to Lake Ontario. It's a pity that we came to Niagara Falls during off-season and the weather wasn't cooperative. It was clouded and cold. We didn't even get a chance to get down to the water, and we didn't go to the Canadian side either. Fortunately, we didn't miss the original Buffalo Wings! We apparently underestimated the spiciness that American food can possibly have when ordering the "suicidals". The result? We survived, which I think is impossible without consuming so much ice water.
T o many people, autumn is the most beautiful season in New England. To me, it's true, too. I liked driving in this season very much. To see the wonderful fall foliage, it's needless to go any further. Just take an afternoon off, get into a car and drive on the country roads of Pioneer Valley, you'll see it all! If you're wondering where Pioneer Valley is, it's the corridor of land in Western Massachusetts where Connecticut River goes through. It's the region where I live.