St. Jean in St. Barts

West of St. Jean Beach

St. Jean is one of the most popular beaches located north of St. Barts.  Many St. Barts' residues live in St. Jean.  The beach itself is beautiful.

Business in St. Jean Beach

Airplane about to Land on St. Barts Airport

Airplane about to Land

One of the most fascinating thing about St. Jean is that St. Barts Airport is right by the St. Jean beach.  At the beach, we can watch airplane taking off and landing at a short distance.  In fact, it is quite dangerous to be around a small section of the beach.   Someone was killed recently by standing around that area and hit by a plane.

Windsurfing in St. Jean

It is quite windy in St. Jean.  So, windsurfing is a popular sport there.

Shops in St. Jean

Apparently, shopping is one of the most popular activity in St. Jean.  By the beach on the main road, there are many shops and one can get souvenirs.

Restaurants in St. Jean

Restaurants are taking advantage of the beautiful view of St. Jean by having the business in those prime location.

View of the Beach from a Restaurant in St. Jean

Map of St. Jean in St. Barts.



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Lorient in St. Barts

Overlooking Lorient Beach from East Side

St. Bathelemy is often called St. Barth in French or St. Barts (also St. Barth's) in English.  St. Barts is an overseas collectivity of France located in northeastern Caribbean.

The village of Lorient is located in the north side of St. Barts island.  In Lorient, residential houses, hotels, villa, and stores are built by the Lorient Beach.  The main road of Lorient is right by the beach making life a lot easier to go swimming on one side of the road and grocery shopping on the other side of the road.  Everything you want to do is right there and therefore it is a dream place for vacationers.

Lorient Beach

 

Boats Anchored in Lorient Beach

There are many boats anchored in Lorient Beach.  Because of the wave, they all line up facing away from the beach.

Looking Over to East Side of Lorient Beach

There is a private road on the East side of the Lorient Beach.  From there, we get a very good view overlooking the beach and ocean.

Looking Over to West Side of Lorient Beach

Lorient Beach Access Sign

All beach access points in St. Barts have a beautiful sign.  Lorient Beach is no exception.  When you see this sign, the public beach access alley is right there.  You can walk over to the beach there without worrying about stepping on someone's private property.

Cemetery in Lorient

There are cemeteries by the main road in Lorient.

Fish Market in Lorient

This is the fish market in Lorient.  When this market is in business, there is a sign with the word "poisson" by the road side.  Apparently, fish is "poisson" in French and it is not "poison".

Sign in Frong of the Fist Market

Storekeepers of the Bakery in Lorient

The Petite Colombe Bakery is one of the most popular place for getting fresh bread, desert, and even sandwich.  The storekeepers are very friendly.  The store closes at 1pm and therefore get your bread early in the morning.

Autour du Rocher

Perhaps the most famous place in Lorient is Autour du Rocher.  Autour du Rocher was built as a hotel but it was more of a hang-out place.  The popular rock song by Jimmy Buffett, Autour du Rocher, is about that place.  Unfortunately, it was burned down many years ago and it is now a ruin.  It is located at the west end of Lorient Beach.  With a little climbing, you can get there.  Even though you may not see anyone there, but you probably can still hear the music.

Good View of Ocean Inside the Ruin of Autour du Rocher

Map of Lorient in St. Barts.


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Oldest Building in Georgetown University

On 20 October 2011, we visited Georgetown University in Washington DC area.  The campus was beautiful and alive.  While we were walking leisurely there, we spotted this building, small and old.  What is the function of this building in the university?  One may ask.  This building is named McSherry Hall and it was constructed in 1792, the oldest building in Georgetown University.  Even though it is small, it is still serving a purpose for the university.  It is the student meditation center.  How does it feel to meditate in an over 200 years old house?

Fall Foliage in Pilot Mountain

This is the time of the year people like to travel to the mountain to enjoy fall foliage.  The leaves turn color to red, yellow, etc.  It is very pretty to see the whole mountain changes color from green to red and yellow.  On 16 October 2011, we traveled to Pilot Mountain in North Carolina and found that there were a lot of people going there with the same purpose.  However, it was still early for the fall foliage event.  From what we estimate, 2 weeks later will be the best.

While we were there, we were not able to see the red/yellow landscape.  But, for some spots, the color of the leaves did change.  Will we go back in 2 weeks?  You bet.

Epiphyllum in Chapel Hill

We have known this flower for years.  It is Epiphyllum Oxypetalum, commonly called Night-Blooming Cereus.  In Chinese, it is named 曇花 (Tan Hua).  Interestingly, this flower will only bloom at night for a few hours.  Many people think that seeing it bloom will bring good luck to their lives.  We plant this in our backyard and we have noticed it blooming once a while before and after.  However, we had never had a chance to see it bloom in action.  We never bothered to go outside to check it out at night when blooming.

On 10 September 2011 while we had friends over for a gathering in the evening.   All of us witnessed, watched, and amazed the beauty of this flower while it was blooming.  The real flower will only last for a few hours and it will close up.  But, with photography, we can enjoy it day after day, year after year.

Shark in Bald Head Island

We visit Bald Head Island in North Carolina very often. However, we have never seen people catching shark before. On 11 August 2011 in the evening, there were a big crowd in Cape Fear on the island watching the gentleman in action. He caught a 4 feet long shark. He spent at least half an hour bringing the shark to the beach after the shark was on hook. It seemed to us that it was not easy to bring the shark from the water to the land. After he did that, several people helped out to take the hook out from the shark's mouth while the shark was struggling trying to attack anyone around. With several cameras there including ours, we could hear the camera shutters clicking (maybe just our imagination). The gentleman carefully lifted up the shark and had his friends took some pictures and videos. The shark was so exhausted and did not move much any more. Then, the shark was released to the sea and regained freedom.

Recycling Bin in Bald Head Island

On 10 April 2011, we visited the Bald Head Island again. When we parked the golf cart in the parking lot of the Bald Head Island Conservancy, we saw this strange object right in front of us. In order to satisfy our curiosity, we carefully read the label on it. It turned out that this was a recycling bin for fish lines. It is advantageous to recycle fish lines apparently. Fish lines in water are dangerous to fishes and animals. The polymeric material of fish line will hardly decay leaving a permanent trash in the ocean. So, it makes a lot of sense to recycle fish lines no matter whether it is lawful to do that or not. As a good citizen, we should always recycle fish lines.

This recycling bin is designed with an opening on top. However, the opening is a kind of big and it will not avoid anyone from fishing used fish lines there. We think that it is a bad idea. Since no one is able to see what is inside the bin, a hand may get hooked by some used fish hooks and that will be terrible. If we read the sign carefully, at the bottom of the blue label, there are some small characters "No Hands in Bin". Read the small print as any lawyer would remind us.

Oleander in Bald Head Island

An old Chinese saying says that when 3 people come together, one of them will be your teacher. Now, with so much information on the web, the web is our teacher too. Combining people and the web, we can pretty much learn anything. On 15 May 2011, we stopped by a pond in Bald Head Island in North Carolina checking out the alligator there. That pond is the site for wild alligator to hang out. We were disappointed that we did not see any alligator. Instead, we saw these beautiful flowers there. While we were admiring the beauty of these flowers by taking close-up pictures, we had no idea what there were and name. When we were about to feel sad about not knowing these flowers, a couple came over and we started having conversation about these flowers. They told us that they are Oleander and they are very tough and can be seen along highways. After looking over the web, we learn that Oleander is one of the most poisonous plants in the world and contains numerous toxic materials. Those toxic compounds are deadly to people, especially children. Sadly, Oleander can be found in many school yards.

Without the knowledgeable couple telling us what they are and without the information from the web, we would not be able to learn so much about these beautiful flowers. With people and the web, we will be able to learn something real fast.

Thunderbird in Seymour Johnson AFB

On 17 April 2011 in the Wings Over Wayne Air Show, we saw a lot of airplanes we have not seen before. However, we have seen Thunderbird many times. Even though we have watched the Thunderbird show a lot, we could see it again and again. Every time we see the Thunderbird planes fly over our heads, it keeps reminding us the significance of team work. In a team, each team member trusts others. The Thunderbird pilots have demonstrated the trust among them again and again, time after time.

These 5 Thunderbird planes flew in a diamond formation, made a turn all together, then, released smoke at the same time. How could they do that without computers? Each pilot had to fly his/her plane and kept the same distance relative to others. When the lead plane made a turn, others would follow. Then, the lead pilot ordered others to release the smoke at the same time. They did all of the above in a highly synchronized way. Any tiny mistake may mean disaster. Again, their skills and team work got them through every single time displaying the amazing Thunderbird show. We are deeply intrigued.

Thunderbird in Goldsboro

We always enjoy Air Show. Whenever we have a chance, we will spend a day to see various airplanes, talk to pilots to learn something from them. The Thunderbird show is often the highlight of an Air Show and we always have our cameras ready to take Thunderbird pictures in the air and on the ground. On 17 April 2011, we went to Goldsboro, North Carolina to take part in the "Wings Over Wayne" Air Show. During the Thunderbird show, there were about 100 thousand people there.

The broadcaster during the Thunderbird show emphasized that the Thunderbird pilots were using their skill to perform and there were not any computer on each plane. If what the Thunderbird pilots did in the air were not by computer, it is simply amazing on what they do. This photo was taken when the upper plane was cruising right in front of us, the bottom plane turned upside down and flew right under, then overtook the upper plane. We can tell from this photo that the distance between these 2 planes was so little when they met each other. With no computer, this was just unbelievable.

If we bring some skillful people together and exercise great team work, amazing things will happen. The Thunderbird pilots have been reminding us that time after time.

Albertosaurus in Museum of Life and Science

For a long time, we realize that we know so little about dinosaur. As a matter of fact, we learn about dinosaur from movies. That is a shame of us. When we walked into the Dinosaur Trail in the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina on 16th January 2011, we saw this huge dinosaur. Our first look at it made us think that it was T. Rex. T. Rex is a popular dinosaur featured in a few movies. Actually, it is Albertosaurus, T. Rex's early relative. Albertosaurus is meat-eating dinosaur. The name, Albertosaurus, means lizard from Alberta, Canada.

The Dinosaur Trail gives us a wonderful opportunity to learn about these important species in earth history. Besides reading about dinosaur, the life-size dinosaurs in the museum provides a more realistic environment for people to learn. In that settings, once we learn, we will never forget.

Dead Leaf in Museum of Life and Science

Recently, we have been visiting the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina regularly. Every time we are there, we learn something new. On 12 January 2011, we spent a couple of hours there and learned a lot in the butterfly house. We have been admiring the beauty of butterfly. However, since they are pretty, how can they avoid attack from predators? We asked that questions to one of the keepers, Bobbie, there. She immediately pointed us to see the Dead Leaf butterfly she spotted a little while ago. When the wings of the Dead Leaf butterfly closes, it closely resembles a dry dead leaf. It is a spectacular example of camouflage.

This picture was taken in the museum and that butterfly was very much alive. It stood still there for a long while for us to have photos taken. It was extremely cooperative. It was smart enough to play dead to fool others but the butterfly house keepers have the knowledge to distinguish between dead leaf and Dead Leaf. And, we are learning from the smart keepers.

Edmontonia in Museum of Life and Science

There is an old Chinese saying, "One can not judge a person from his/her outlook". Over the years, we have learned that there are so many talented people around us and we simply do not know about it. So, we give everyone our deepest respect regardless of his/her educational history. When we visited the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina on 16th January 2011, saw this dinosaur on display, and read the sign, we even think that we can not judge a dinosaur from its look.

When we first saw this dinosaur, we thought it must be a dangerous and human-eating one. Those spikes on its back would scarce others away. In fact, this dinosaur, Edmontonia, was herbivore. They were plant-eating dinosaurs. Even though they looked like they were mean and dangerous, they did not eat human or any meat.

Butterfly in Museum of Life and Science

What is the chance of having a butterfly standing on your fingers? Very slim. Even if we stay in a flower garden for several hours, it is unlikely a butterfly would fly over and land on any part of our human body. If you visit the butterfly house in the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, it is almost certain that a butterfly would stand on your fingers.

On 16th January 2011, we visited the Museum of Life and Science. One of the things we must see is the butterfly house. Everyday at 3pm in the Museum, the keeper will release some butterflies. You have your hand straight forward and the keeper would put a butterfly on your fingers. Some people find it amazing to do that. However, some kids and adults are afraid of it. The butterfly will not bite and we feel pretty much nothing with the tiny butterfly hands touching our fingers. Why are some people afraid of it?