The short story with pictures to follow (sometime):
Hawaii
- December 8, 2007: Diamond Head
- December 9, 2007: Driving around Oahu
- December 10, 2007: Pearl Harbor
- * December 11, 2007: Volcanoes National Park
- * December 12, 2007: Road to Hana
- * December 13, 2007: Haleakala and Makena
- * December 14, 2007: North Kohala
- * December 15, 2007: North Kauai
- * December 16, 2007: Waimea Canyon
November 3, 2007: Snoqualmie Falls
A bunch of canyons
- September 8, 2007: Bryce Canyon
- September 9, 2007: Zion Canyon
- September 10, 2007: Grand Canyon - South Rim
- September 11, 2007: Grand Canyon - North Rim
- September 12, 2007: Cruising on Lake Powell
- September 13, 2007: Needles District in Canyonlands
- September 14, 2007: Arches
- September 15, 2007: Bridges and Capitol Reef
- September 16, 2007: Salt Lake City
Olympic National Park
- August 4, 2007: West Olympic
- August 5, 2007: North Olympic
Glacier National Park
- July 6, 2007: Avalanche
- July 7, 2007: Many Glaciers
- July 8, 2007: Finding a Hidden Lake
South California
- December 26, 2006: We drove all the way down to San Diego.
- December 27, 2006: It looks like we bring storms in quiet places...
- December 28, 2006: San Diego is a little better when it comes with good weather.
- December 29, 2006: A disappointing side of Los Angeles (downtown).
- December 30, 2006: Another disappointing side of Los Angeles (Hollywood).
Las Vegas
- December 23, 2006: We flew to Las Vegas and took a walk along the strip.
- December 24, 2006: We started visiting one hotel after the other.
- December 25, 2006: We continued visiting one hotel after the other.
San Francisco
- November 23, 2006: Driving to San Francisco
- November 24, 2006: Walking in San Francisco
- November 25, 2006: Driving in San Francisco.
- November 26, 2006: Driving from San Francisco.
A colleague of mine, Chris Sorensen, invited us to her place to help us properly prepare for Halloween. She planted a bunch of pumpkins in her garden and had one ready to carve for everybody. It was really fun and we got to keep the product of our work. It's a shame that the pumpkin dried and we noticed to late to take a picture of it at night with a candle inside. We had to throw it away before Halloween, but it was cute, wasn't it? (more...)
Because the weather didn't look friendly in the morning (cold and cloudy), we decided to visit an indoor attraction. Seattle Aquarium won our attention mainly because of a "buy one ticket get one free" coupon. The Coral Reef section had one of the nicest decor and lightning I've seen in any aquarium. We spent a lot of time looking at the otters playing and the seals getting their training. I tried really hard to get a good shot of the sharks, but they were too fast for my camera. (more...)
Driving from Richland to Seattle is a half-full glass of water. For (a little more than) half of the way you see the empty part (almost complete desert), but driving through the mountains makes up for the trouble. After we had a small lunch in a small coffee shop, we walked down the Harbor Steps and headed towards the Pioneer Square, where we spent a little time listening to a percussion band. Since we already planned a dinner in the Space Needle, we agreed to go up in the Smith Tower next time we visit Seattle. I didn't notice at the time, but judging from the picture I took, the City Hall seems pretty small. The futuristic shape of the public library didn't fit entirely into the angle of my camera. (more...)
We signed a lease for a two bedroom apartment in a brand-new complex (Bellavista) with pool, hot tub, tanning bed, fitness room and covered basketball court. Believe it or not, this is $688/month.
After we eat some really bad tasting hot dogs at The Backyard, we spent the night at a Best Western hotel (Cottontree Inn). This should have been at least a three-star hotel compared to the one in Cody, I have no idea how both of them ended up as two-star hotels. They also had a pretty good breakfast. (more...)
William F. Cody didn't have just a city named after him. The road to Yellowstone goes along the Shoshone River, where the Buffalo Bill Dam was erected to be the tallest dam at the time. The nature became more and more spectacular as we approached Yellowstone Park. Some construction project going on at the East Entrance delayed us to the limit of pissing us off. Then we drove for miles through pine forests which were ravaged by the 1988 fire. The scenery was extremely sad, it seemed like the whole place was on fire just a few months ago. The day was very hazy and it shows in some of the pictures, especially for distant objects. (more...)
After we entered Wyoming we took the loop 90-14-24-111 because the map showed it as scenic itinerary. It proved to be loss of time because there's not much to see except for the Devils Tower. This is an impressive piece of stone, which gets bigger and bigger as you get closer to it. Quite a challenge for hickers, who try to get on top from its every single side. And part of the native Indian spiritual portofolio; every June they gather around it to pray. We entered the park, walked around it to finally be able to brag that we saw it from every angle, except maybe from this one. Driving became more exciting once we took the route 14 through Bighorn National Park. Less exciting was the hotel (Sunrise Motor Inn) room in Cody... The front desk guy, however, was extremely friendly and revealed the big Cody secret: Bubba's Bar-B-Que. I can't remember eating such a good chicken barbeque anywhere else. (more...)
Driving through South Dakota didn't qualify as fun. To make the most out of the day, we decided to stop at the "Beautiful Rushmore Cave". Beautiful? Debatable... We took a tour with a funny guide, but it still didn't worth the entrance fee. But Mount Rushmore Memorial was a completely different story, which can be best told by pictures. We walked on the "presidential" trail and saw the four presidents from different angles. At dusk they put up a show and finally lit up the sculpture. This was Lida's favorite part of the entire road trip. When we got to the hotel (quite late) it was closed (!?!) and, for about 15 minutes (until somebody finally answered the bell) we thought that we would have to sleep in the car.(more...)
We stayed the night at another Courtyard Marriott hotel, where we had breakfast in the morning (because we remembered how good the breakfast was the previous day). After a short drive we got to Madison, WI, where we spent a few hours driving around to see the place where Kaveh and Soheila ended up (at least for a while). We drove through Minessota without stopping at all and finally crossed into South Dakota. Our next hotel was Fairfield Inn in Sioux Falls, where they wanted to give us a stinky smoking room. While they were "looking" for a non-smoking room we had dinner at Fryn' Pan. Good family restaurant... we also had breakfast there the next day. (more...)
It took us longer than expected to drive to Chicago because of a detour, which offered us the (I shouldn't call it) opportunity to see parts of south Chicago. Let's say just that it is not exactly what people who go visit Chicago would expect to see. A while later we were walking on the S Lake Shore Drive admiring Lake Michigan, the Grant Park and the skyscrapers. There was the biggest fountain I saw in my life: Buckingham Fountain. It is very interesting how people get all excited next to the large bean-like mirror known as Cloud Gate, but I must admit that we got pretty excited, too. We met Kaveh and Soheila and wondered around on Michigan Avenue until we reached the beach. After they left, we went up to the observation deck of Sears Tower right on time to see the city in the beautiful sunset light. Then we followed Wacker Drive along the Chicago River, which is very scenic after dark. (more...)
Four days after the start of the Israel-Lebanon conflict (12 July 2006), we decided to visit the Holocaust Museum. The decision didn't have much to do with the conflict itself, but with our effort to see as much Washington as possible before leaving it. This was definitely the most guarded museum I've been to: while in other museums the guards search the bags manually with a stick, the entrance of this one looked like the passenger screening in airports (fortunately without the requirement to take off the shoes). They even asked Lida to drink from her water bottle. No photography was allowed inside, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of a panel describing the holocaust in Romania, where an estimated 750,000 Jews used to live before the WWII. 
I finally finished the section about the wars the Americans were involved in. The name of the section is amazingly propagandistic: "The price of freedom". Last time I finished visiting up to the Civil War (chronologically), it was time to see what was the price of freedom during the modern wars. The section on the WW1 was practically non-existent, but I learned a lot about WW2. Regarding the Vietnam war, I recently saw a (highly recommended) documentary called The Fog of War, which re-examines Robert McNamara's (former US Secretary of Defence) actions and reasoning. There was a piece of Berlin Wall in the museum, which reminded me of the good'ol'days when US was seen positively in Europe. Soon the museum will need to expand to include a little more about the second Iraq war. Now they just have a panel saying that the war is controversial.
As unbelievable as it sounds, it's one month since we got married. We celebrated by going to Chicago at Wolf Trap. Student Activities Center offered GW students cheaper tickets ($15 as compared to the regular $18), including transportation to and from Wolf Trap. As usual, you get what you pay for... they put us on a trembling school bus, which shook us all the way to the Wolf Trap and back. In the absence of air conditioning we kept the windows open to fight against the hot and humid weather. We got there almost 2 hours before the beginning of the show to make sure that we get good spots on the lawn. Not only that we got bored waiting, the lawn was not exactly the best place to sit on. However, the show was excellent, on my list is the top Broadway show among those I have seen so far.
Lida wanted to visit Arlington Cemetery and I joined her even though I saw it twice already. We went by Metro and later realized that it would had been more convenient to drive. The cemetery was built on General Lee's property to punish him for siding with the South during the Civil War. His house was on top of a hill overlooking DC with an amazing panorama. We visited the house after we stopped at JFK's grave and saw the simple cross for Bobby Kennedy. The change of guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns (repeated every half an hour) seemed a lot like a pantomime show. It was quite an interesting choice to place the Memorials for the crews of Challenger and Columbia space shuttles on left and right of the Iran Rescue Mission Memorial.
It took us about three hours to see the highlights. The weather was almost perfect, maybe just a little too hot by the time we finished the tour. We got back home right on time to see how Italy won the World Cup, even though France played much better. Anyway, Lida was happy that her favorite team finally won after so many years of disapointing performance.
In another effort to visit the most interesting places in DC before moving to Richland, we went to the National Zoo. It was two days before Tai Shan turned one, so we went to wish him a happy birthday. Apparently the poor panda was sick of people, he went up on a tree and didn't care about the paparazzi. While the mother was sleeping, the father put up a really amusing scratching show, then dissapeared. They had a few kitties there: the cheetah were intrigued by the sound of a lawn mower, the lio was bored and the tiger was furious, walking left and right.