Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park

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Fall Foliage

Today is the last day of daylight-saving and I can steal back my one hour. It is also an indication of the ending of fall season. For that reason, I decided to visit Shenandoah National Park to catch the last glimpse of its famous fall foliage. Before I left for the park, I grabbed myself a cup of Starbuck cappuccino and a sandwich from a deli, as if I am going to picnic. I was worry about the foggy weather along the way. It didn’t take me long (an hour and half) before I get to the park entrance. My worries vanished after I saw the nature showing off its beautiful vibrant color under the unlimited sunshine. I drove along the Skyline Drive and was stunned by the breath-taking scenery. I made my first stop at Dick Ridge Visitor Center. I sat on a bench, which can overlook the valley from an altitude of 1490ft and enjoy my sandwich. It was so relax sitting there watching people running their dogs (and chasing their kids), catching the breeze and the sunshine. It was a beautiful day, I thought. After I have done with my lunch, I continued driving along the Skyline Drive. There were dozens of vista point (or overlook) and each has its own unique scenery. In many cases, I have to park just next to the cliff. It was a little scary for me. The entire drive is about 70 miles, but I only went through half of it.

While I was driving, I listen to Lisa Ono’s latest bossa nova album. The music made me feel that this trip is very familiar. Sometimes, I have to drive uphill, and sometimes downhill. Sometimes, I have to drive on the edge of a cliff while other times driving between woods. I was reluctant to leave when I was at the higher altitude vista point (the scenery is broader and can see farther). At some vista points, there were no visitors and I felt a little lonely. But I was annoyed when there were too crowded. I once enjoy the scenery immensely but quickly realized time flies and I have to take off. Sounds familiar? It’s just like a journey of life.

Saturday, mostly sunny!

It is a beautiful Saturday. I was a little frustrated this morning when I found out the beautiful weather. I had been paying attention to the weather because I planned to visit Natural Bridge on the weekend. The weather forecast made a bad call predicting cloudy and potentially raining day. So, I gave up my plan to visit Natural Bridge yesterday. Instead, I planned all kind of errands for today. Anyway, I probably shouldn’t complain about beautiful weather like this. It was either raining or cloudy from Monday to Friday. Particularly on Tuesday, an insignificant rain caused the traffic pile up and it took me 45 minutes to commute from my apartment to office (usually takes me 30 min too). 7 miles stretch for 45 minutes is almost the same like any other third world country’s traffic. However, I am accepting this is the price to pay for living in a metro area (and is a punishment for not using the public transportation). I totally can enjoy myself while driving to work (although I hope I don’t have to). To keep myself busy (while driving and listening to radio) I usually counting certain car I saw along the way. I saw 7 BMW on Monday, 6 Mercedes on Tuesday, 15 Toyota Camry (including mine) on Wednesday, 5 Audi on Thursday, and 12 Volkswagen on Friday. I gave up counting Honda Accord/Civic, because they are everywhere. My company will acquire another new office by next month and it is only 2 miles away from my apartment. I am looking forward moving into the new office so badly because of cost and time saving for commute.

So far, I have been enjoying my life in Virginia. Shopping is the only problems that need some time for me adapting to it. For instances, some of my furniture were delivered on Sunday 7am (hello, people, it is SUNDAY!!) and I totally don’t have any other choice over the delivery time, the TV that I bought didn’t deliver to me even after two weeks (I cancelled the order and bought it from Best Buy. And, delivered to me 2 days later at 7:30am), and one businessman literally ignored me when I was inquiring about the price of a mattress. Since I believe if they don’t like my money, the business next door is waiting for me, these are not too hard to get over with.

Alright, it’s time to start making soup for my dinner.

Road trip photos

I have uploaded some road trip photos. I will update the rest of the website from time to time. That's not a promise, but my will.

Me, myself and Virginia

I have been here, in Virginia, for slightly more than a month. This is the first weekend I have time to redesign my website and start my new blog. Perhaps, the title is sounded little weird (a friend of mine even asked if I have a new girlfriend name Virginia), I think it is pretty straight forward and insightful for this blog. It is simply about me, my life in Virginia. Since I didn't update my website for more than a month, I need to recap what happened in the last one month. Here is the event in chronological order:

Week 1
9/9/2004 - 9/12/2004
I started my road trip from Ames, Iowa to Arlington, Virginia. The distance is about 1000 miles. I didn't bring any map along because my car is equipped with a GPS navigation system. It was rather easy to have a voice command navigation system to bring me to my destination than carrying a map.

Day 1, I drove about 400 miles and made a first stop at South Bend, Indiana. The first place I went to is the University of Notre Dame. This university has a rich history of football program and it is the pride of their students (and, also alumni). The campus is very well maintained and nicely designed. I spent some time walking around the campus and the bookstore. Then, I went to downtown area hoping to get a hotel to stay. Coincidently, there was an art festival in the downtown area. The entire road was full of people. Although I haven’t found a hotel for accommodation, I parked my car in the parking garage and start to follow the crowd on the street. There were many artists selling their works on the road side. There were also some performance by choir group, belly dancers, and guitarist. I wanted to visit the College Football Hall of Fame, but there was an exclusive event for members only. The night was cold. But I felt the warmth from the city and the people. I like a city like this. Maybe it was the cold weather; I was very hungry at 7pm. I hopped into an Irish restaurant (Fiddler’s Heart), which seemed to be crowded (my philosophy is don’t trust an empty restaurant). The waitress kindly offers me a choice; wait for one hour or have dinner at the bar counter. I figured there’s no big deal to have dinner at the bar, although I haven’t done that in the past. So, I went to the bar and placed my order. There was a live performance by an Irish musical group. Many people in the restaurant were dancing with the rhythm. While waiting for my dinner, there was a couple sat next to me start talking to me. I guess they were trying to ease me from being uncomfortable in an Irish bar (it was really weird to have dinner at the bar counter). Then, our conversation went non-stop, even when we got our food and start eating. They even paid for my dinner. I was really glad to meet such a friendly people like them and we exchanged email address before I heading to find hotel.

Day 2, I decided to stop by Cleveland at Ohio. My GPS navigation system directed me to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I spent about 3 hours touring around the museum. I was surprised I saw Britney Spear and Justin Timberlake donated artifact. What they had to do with Rock & Roll, I puzzled. Afterward, I went to the downtown area to walk around and find myself a hotel to stay. Maybe it was just me; Cleveland didn’t make a good impression to me.

Day 3, Pittsburgh was my next stop. The turnpike from Cleveland to Pittsburgh was really winding and hilly. I guess it was just coincidence, I was listening to the Beatles’s “The long and winding road” and that gave me a creepy feeling. Before I reach Pittsburgh, all I saw was mountain and woods. But then, after I went through a tunnel and all the sudden, the entire city right in front of me. It was such an amazing view. Pittsburgh seems like an enormous city hidden in a valley. That was plainly my feeling. In Pittsburgh, I visited The Strips (which didn’t interest me at all), downtown area and the Andy Warhol Museum. Pittsburgh is a very interesting place because there are so many things one can do. I think I will visit this city again.

Day 4. I drove about an hour and half to Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. I really can’t wait to see the building which I had seen thousands time from magazines and books. I have a very special feeling for this house because I once dreamed about having a house just like that. The admission to enter Fallingwater is $15, which includes 2 hours of tour. I think that is totally worth it because the house is so well preserved and everything inside the house is authentic. Furthermore, there are no barriers in the house to prevent one to go near the artifact. Of course, the tours guide advices all the tourists not to touch anything. But the feeling is so real, so authentic for being inside a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (at night, I believe I heard the water fall in my dream). And, this is the only house designed by Wright that remained original without any modification. There are also two pieces of Picasso as part of the collection of the owner. I spent the entire morning touring around and had my lunch there. Then, I depart to Virginia. I safely arrived at Virginia and get into the condominium my company arranged for me.

Week 2
9/13/2004 – 9/19/2004
I started working on Monday and learned my responsibilities in the company. Generally, all my colleagues are nice, helpful and well educated. My boss brought me around to look for an apartment. I found one that I really like and decided to get it. I moved into my apartment by the end of the weekend.

Week 3
9/20/2004 – 9/26/2004
I spent most of my time reading technical paper and learning about the system I have to work on. At the weekend, I went to Ikea and get myself some furniture. While installing the bed frame, I followed the no-brainer stupid instruction and getting into a big problem. I have to get another pair of new screws after I ruined the one that were provided (by following the instruction). Then, I bought a new pair of screws and managed to put the bed frame together. But later, I found out I got the wrong parts from Ikea and I can’t install the supporting metal beam for the bed. Damn the Swedish! EC came to visit me on the weekend. We went to Ikea again to get the right supporting metal beam and do more shopping for furniture. When I get home, I found out I returned the extra pieces of metal bar. Again, I can’t have the bed install. No bed frame for the mattress.

Week 4
9/27/2004 – 10/3/2004
Everyday after work, I have to spend time for shopping. I was too anxious to get my apartment ready. At the weekend, I went to Ikea, again, for get back the extra pieces of metal bar. Finally, I managed to put the bed all together. I can't believe assembling a bed is such a long quest. I blame Ikea for being ignorance (they need a better technical writer and better shelving system) and partly, myself, for being careless. Anyway, I can have a good sleep now

Week 5
10/4/2004 -10/11/2004
Busy working most of the time. I went to University of Ann Arbor, Michigan with my boss to collect some data during the long weekend (Columbus Day is a holiday). Ann Arbor is amazingly beautiful place. However, I don’t have time to visit places around the area (we both worked almost 12 hours a day). My boss brought me to a local deli, Zingerman’s, and I learned that there is olive oil that can cost $200 a bottle (and it is only 100ml).

And now, it is too long to continue. I will try my best to update more.