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.

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?

North Carolina: Wilmington and Jordan Lake

After Charleston we decided to take it easy and have a night in Durham and off and another small road trip to Wilmington, NC. It's only a 2 and half hour drive and both Jimmy and I like the beach. North Carolina beaches really are lovely.

Apparently, Wilmington is twinned with Doncaster (or Donkey as I like to call it). From that sign I reckon that Sheffield is about 3900 miles away from Durham.

Last time I was on this they were filming One Tree Hill, no such luck this time.

After our little trip to Wilmington, we stopped by Jordan Lake. Which is rather nice.

We got there at just the right time. Partially due to one of my famous short cuts.....


We finished the day with a burger at Dain's. Although we didn't have any Bojangles Jimmy did have a good tour of NC and SC and it was damn good to see him again. This concludes Jimmy's adventures in NC, more of my other adventures wil be coming soon.

Duke marine lab, Beaufort, NC

Ok I know it's been a while, but I am back. Firstly I am really sorry, I don't have an excuse. I am just lazy. The good news is, I did take a lot of photos. So enjoy all the updates I will try and roll of ASAP.

A few months ago we had a departmental retreat (in the form of a mini conference) to the Duke marine lab in Beaufort, NC. It was cool to get out of the lab and out of Durham and see some more coastal NC. It hit me how rich Duke actually is on this trip. We passed the UNC marine lab on the way, a 'warehouse' in moorehead city. Duke owns an island!

Here are some of my Lab group, front row left to right, Debby, Yee and Tao and Jeff and I on the back. As you can see we were doing a lot of work...

Here is the actual island and the view of Beaufort. The island to the left has wild horses on it. Behind that are the outer banks and the Atlantic. Tough life, aye?

Here is some of my department. Being the geeky engineers that we are we sat inside all day.

This is my boss playing a crazy game of pool. He was the only Professor that chatted to people other than professors and had a laugh with us. We had just finished working on my presentation that I had to give in the morning. My first real presentation. It went pretty good actually.

Here is a subtle picture of fat people on the beach.


We also visited a civil war fort, it was great. I just loved this sign.

It was a pretty cool design. Not your big ol' castle type thing.

A great view of the Atlantic too

I don't know quite why they had a cannon pointed at the wall, well it was a civil war after all...

Tough times back then

Ah NC beaches. We did work I promise.

Boone, NC

A few weeks ago a went on a 'bachelor party' or as we would call it a stag do. It was for a grad student who I work with, Andres. We went to Boone, NC. it wasn't a crazy Vegas affair, just beers and good food in the mountains. Here is Andres.

Here is Teja, who is a candidate for one of the craziest people I know. I know Rhodri! I look absolutely cream crackered as I have just driven 200 miles.

When they said in the brochure you need a 4 x 4 to get up the driveway, we were thought it would be fine. Thankfully we could walk it.

It was a little redneck but still bloody nice.


"we have to walk up that?"

The smoky mountains, part of the blue ridge mountains of the Appalachians mountains that run along the east coast.

They are also near the Great Smoky Mountains and have the characteristic haze.

I didn't take this photo as it was up a tower that was far to shaky for me to get up :(

The scenary was just fantastic

Here is a picture of the 'dudes' left to right: Teja, Randy, Andres, Hui and me looking cool (ahem)

Obviously I can't post pictures of the drinking so here are some trees.

Some scary looking ones

We also went fishing. Surprisingly caught some fish (OK it was in a fish farm), one of those bad boys is mine.

They tasted bloody good. Lemon, herbs, butter and a grill.

A night at the 506: the great 8 showcase

Here is a little photoblog update. It is me playing with my new camera at a red collar gig. I took all these without a flash for that old school grainy black and white effect. Remember to click on the photos to see them big.

One of the best things about being back in Durham is the music. On Saturday I caught a show at the aptly named Local 506 showcasing national, sorry, local talent. The so called great 8, which you can see a cool flash applet about. The first band I saw properly was 'I was totally destroying it', I have seen them before, and are pretty damn cool. I think they fit into the local scene well as the local bands round here seem to be trying to reclaim pop music or at least rock 'n' roll. Unfortunately I was still working out how to use my camera and the pictures I got were pretty bad.

I did get some of Red Collar though. The first shot is actually of a film that was being shown throughout the night of the great 8. I just thought it came out nice, especially as the guy in the white t-shirt is the guy in the white shirt.

Things started off pretty quiet.

When you don't use a flash it's hard to capture motion in focus, but it does show the energy the band have.

They do move around on stage.


I got this shot on the go of 'hey come on let's go go go' from the song 'stay'

A shot with the whole band. It's tough when you're trying to fight off all the fan girls and boys for a good space to take photos.....