REMENBERING DIANA

(cover of The Royal Wedding booklet )
(the stamps)
(a photo from one inner page)

Today's TV news talked about the memorial ceremony for Diana, the princess of Wales in England, then I realized it has been 10 years since Diana died in a car accident in Paris 10 years ago. I still keep a royal wedding stamp booklet issued by the British Post Office in 1981. At that time, the royal wedding seemed a fairy tale came true in real life; a princess married to a prince and would live happily after. But it turned out a tragedy in1997.

It seems even royal wedding can not guarantee "live happily after". No wonder there is no "Snow White part II".

WILD LIVES IN YELLOWSTONE

(bison and its calf)
(bear family)
(another bear family)
(can you find the wolf or coyote?)

We had our honeymoon trip in Yellowstone National Park in May, 2001. It was a wonderful 5-day trip. The most impressive thing was the wild lives there. So many many bison made us feel like in the movie "Dances with wolves". Because it was in early spring, so we also saw new lives!

Of course, bears are always expected by visitors in Yellowstone National Park. Whenever you see a lot of cars parking at roadside, then you know there is a bear or there are bears. Park rangers always there to make sure there is a safe distance between visitors and bears. We saw about 7 bears during that trip.

Talking about "Dances with wolves", we met something unexpected - a wolf! (or a coyote). We were hiking on a trail up to the hill to see the whole view of the Old Faithful Geyser. Suddenly I found we and a wolf (or a coyote) standing face to face. Because it was grey and standing near rocks, so it was very hard to see. When I saw it, we were just about less than 5 meters away each other. Be honesty, I was quite scared, because I was afraid there were more wolves around. I took out my pocket knife and ordered my wife back away to a safe distance, then I started to move back. Then...I took the photo shown here! What a close contact with wild life!

NASA 1992

(Space technology: what makes Americans proud)
(the huge assembling building)
(Space shuttle ready for launching)
(a tourist and an astronaut)

1992! yes it was long time ago. at that time I was a student in US and had my first Thanksgiving break. So I and a schoolmate drove from Georgia to Florida for a 5 day trip to Disney World and NASA . Disney was interesting, but visiting NASA was more exciting to me, because there is only one NASA in the world. And it was the first time I could touch space technology so closely.

p.s. It has been over 14 years since I took these photos, can you still recognize me?

VATICAN 2003

(Square of Vatican)
(St. Peter's Basilica)
(La Pietà sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti)
(Inside St. Peter's Basilica)
(Vatican Museum)

For a tourist in Italy and a Catholic, Vatican city is a must place you have to visit. I am a Catholic and also a tourist to Italy in 2003, so I visited Vatican city for sure! I remember that day was Sunday, but I went there in the afternoon, so I missed the chance to see Pope. But there were still a lot to see in the St. Peter's Basilica, the most important is the Pietà by Michelangelo. Because this valuable sculpture was attacked by a terrorist by hand grenade, now is well protected by bullet-proof class.

I also visited the Vatican Museum which collects a lot of sculptures and paintings related to Catholic history and others. Of course, the end of the Vatican Museum trip was visiting Sistine Chapel where you can see the "Last Judgment" on its ceiling; it is really an amazing artwork!!

THANKS FOR ALL THE VISITORS AROUND THE WORLD

I installed the ClustrMaps visitor counter for my blog on May 21, 2007. Till May 19, 2007, there are 2038 visitors around the world visited my blog. Thanks for all these friends' interest and hope you keep visiting my blog. I will keep updating new articles and photos, and hope all of you enjoy watching them. If you have any suggestions and ideas, please feel free to let me know.

Recently I purchased an all-in-one printer, so soon I will scan old photos to share something interesting in the past!