NC: The Outer Banks

Here is the second part of my little road trip with my parents. From Virginia we went to Kill Devil Hills, NC and Kitty Hawk, NC on the Outer Banks and then back to Durham (about 550 miles according to google). You should really have heard of these places. It was where the Wright brothers did the first powered flight. Here is a picture to jog the memory.

OK no more learning. I wanted to go for that reason, but also the outer banks are also beautiful place. We stopped off at the tourist info and couldn't resist snapping the folks acting like Carolinians.

It was just our luck to get there as a Hurricane/Tropical storm was moving up the east coast. I think it passed about 100 miles off NC a few days after we left. It did give a pretty cool

It was pretty grim weather

But being NC, it didn't want to stay bad for a while. We also still got the swell from the storm.

I love watching the pelican fly up and down the beach.

As we were pretty much across the road from where they did the first flight it would be rude not to go to the museum. I really did enjoy it, but I kinda am a geek.

This is the hill that the did their first glider experiments from, and later powered flights at the bottom. It actually moved back in thoses days so they had to put grass on it to keep it anchored, in fact most of the landscape has changed. Certainly all the houses cropping up.

You gotta loves those sunsets.

As an appology for the learning earlier, here have a silly looking American car.

Virginia: The Historic Triangle

My parents cam to visit me in May (ahem sorry for the long time) for my birthday. We did a little road trip. First stop was the Historical Triangle up in Virginia. My reasoning behind this was a) it's not Durham and b) I quite like history. Here is my photoblog. First up is Williamsburg. It's a cool open air museum and was the old capital of Virginia.

I just like this photo

Next up is Jamestown. The first British settlement in America. I am glad I don't have to come over on that boat.

I really am a photo geek. I quite like explosions too. Not bad timing, aye?

Next stop Yorktown. Where we kinda surrendered the US to those colonial types. It's quite a cool place though. Here is the Virginia chapter of the Studebaker drivers club, just chilling out, maxin', relaxin'.

My dad and I both love going on boats, so we took a trip on this bad boy. It was pretty slow going out down the river but got faster on the way back.

Diffraction limit anyone? I'll get my coat.

There was a civil war battle at Yorktown too. They do like recreating stuff.

Speaking of battles. I managed to convince my dad to play mini-golf.

All smiles here but out on the course it was a tightly contested affair. In the end we played two rounds and it ended 1-1.

I really do like taking black and white photos of bars.

Next we moved onto Plymouth, VA. We were driving down to coastal NC and it made sense to stop here. Managed to stumble upon an old red phone box. They get everywhere don't they?

While not on many tourists list of places to go it was actually quite nice.

A little patriotic, but still nice.

They even had the oldest running ferry. It was a cool way to get to Norfolk, VA. Where do they get these names from?


OBX next.

Weddings

I had the pleasure of going to two weddings this summer. The first was my grad student Andres, whose bachelor party I went in Boone, NC. The second being Mark and Becky's, who I first met at the infamous 'el gigante' incident (they still talk to me and possibly even worse they invited me to their wedding!).

I went to my first and only wedding in the UK the summer before I left to come to the states (Dan and Catheryn's). It is a sign you are getting older when people you grew up with start getting married. Some my even see it as a sign to actually start growing up. Yeah, kinda missed that one, oh well. Saying that I did enjoy that first wedding, even if I was slightly metally scarred by the stag do (don't go drinking with doctors kids, it's not funny and it's not clever), I didn't feel like I had to rush out and marry somebody. It was good to see my old friend up there, it was good to see other old friends at the wedding too, also to see the new friends a made from the stag do.

The american weddings I went to were pretty much the same affair as the UK one. You know, ceremony - lots of food - lots of drinks - talking crap to people while slightly under the influence (ahem). It felt different to the UK one in the sense that I hadn't known these people all my life, I only met them a year before. I felt accepted though, I was doing the same as the other wedding, celebrating two friends with other friends.

Here is a picture from the first wedding, of Andres and Kelly. It is in a bar [well] after the ceremony, in Lancaster, PA. The best man, brother-in-law and the trouble makers, were rocking it well into the night.

Here is the second wedding in Durham, NC. Unfortuately I only got a picture of the hooligans here. Look how happy they are, anything to do with free booze? Yes, I was in the same state.

Ah, I see they got a snap of me too. Note the rosy red cheeks, ah bless.

More hooligans, I think Jeff (left) was contemplating climbing something here.

This is one of my favourite photos I have taken so far in the states. It's actually photoshopped, but it looks quite good, aye?

US election 2008

The election has pretty much been a constant feature of my time here in the states. It started before I got here over 18 months ago. Sheesh, they do go on a bit don't they? As I have been bad with the blog of late I thought I would write about my experiences of it all.

I didn't pay too much attention to the whole thing at first, as my general response was "but till more than a year! why are you bangin' on about it now?" or words to that effect. My take on it was, well I'm not too bothered as long as they are not republican, which I guess is the same as most British people.

The republican party did in general scare the bejesus out of me. I am sure one of them killed babies for fun, well at least puppies and/or fluffy bunnies. The only one that was kinda normal was John McCain. Thankfully he got the nomination or it could have got ugly.

It didn't really get going till democrats started hacking it out of each other. I still don't get this! I thought the republicans were the enemy guys? It was interesting hear people say things like "if Clinton get the nomination I am voting republican". To me that is like saying "Oh I really hate Blair so I'll vote BNP, even though I don't agree with their politics I just can't stand that Blair". I guess this is one of the many problems of having a two party system.

Well thankfully we had Obama win and we didn't get sensible people doing silly things like voting republican. By this I was pretty much sick of it. Like I guess the rest of the world, and most of America, well maybe except for FOX news as it gave them a good chance to be super right wing.

Watching the results lastnight was quite a surreal experience. Firstly it was in a bar. I never watched the general election results in a bar before. You would miss what Peter Snow and his swing-o-meter! It was a very american affair. Lots of clapping, high-fiving when Obama got a state. I did feel like a outsider. It wasn't my presisdent they were cheering for. Yet he will make a impact on my life, and on the lives of people in the rest of the world. I didn't join in. I was just glad it was going to plan.

When Obama won there was a huge roar, lots of clapping, congratulating etc. It was as if they had won a war. I felt slightly different. I was glad he won, but to me this is the begining. Not the end like these people were acting. The world has a long way to go to heal what Bush has done. Although I did join in for this bit. You know when in Rome. It did feel like I was witnessing history. We shall see what kind of history it is.

Next time I am not having a TV again till its over. It's just too painful to watch.