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For many years Betsy and I would make a two-day circle through the mountains of east Tennessee and western North Carolina to enjoy the autumn colors. We haven’t done that this year since we’ve both had some health issues and the autumn colors are pretty dull this year.
Fortunately we have many photographs to remind us of the glorious colors we did see in previous years. This picture was taken along the Foothills Parkway a few years ago.
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I have only recently begun going through some of the pictures I took when Betsy and I visited the Grand Canyon in June, 2011. That was during our first trip out west, and the Grand Canyon was everything we were told it would be. I took many more pictures than I should have, but I must admit that pictures can’t really do the canyon justice. This picture was taken at Maricopa Point on the morning of June 15, 2011.
eWe celebrated Betsy’s birthday this year by going to Maggie Valley, North Carolina. We traveled part of the way along the Blue Ridge Parkway, also a favorite drive for us. I got this picture of My Beautiful Bride at the Raven Fork Overlook. August 5, 2025..
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I got this photo of the Grand Canyon from the Rim Trail on a June morning in 2011. The Grand Canyon is awesome from any observation point. We never got tired of the view.
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One of the high points of my first trip to China in 1987 was a visit to Xian, China, to see the terra cotta soldiers.
Xian was an ancient capital of China, and was the home of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The terra cotta soldiers made up an army that was buried with the emperor and was to guard him in his afternoon. The terra cotta army consisted of at least 8,000 soldiers of all ranks plus horses and chariots.
The soldiers were still being excavated when we were there, but we could see column upon column of soldiers
The facial characteristics of the soldiers were amazing in their detail and variety. It almost seemed as if soldier represented a unique individual.
The attention to detail also included the uniforms of the soldiers, as can be seen in the archer shown above.
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Back in the good old days when my Beautiful Bride and I could hike, we visited Yahoo Falls in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, Yahoo Falls isn’t very big, although it is tall and very pretty. I got this picture from a bridge on the trail to the falls.
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I first went to China in 1987 as part of an exchange program between my college and a Chinese university. As part of the agreement, our hosts arranged for our group to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers.
In order to see the soldiers we had to take an overnight train from Beijing to Xian, the old imperial capitol of China. We arrived in Xian in the late morning, so we were given a tour of the city before going to see the soldiers the ext day.
One of the landmarks of the city is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (pictured above). We were able to go into the pagoda and get a bird’s-eye view of the city.
We also visited the Stone Forest, which is a museum of steele’s going back to the imperial era. We couldn’t read the inscriptions, but they were still very interesting to see.
Later in the afternoon we visited the old city wall of Xian and walked along it.
While walking along the wall we saw a drum that was used to sound an alarm when needed. The drum was in a watch tower along the wall.
Since we were in Xian on July 4, our hosts took us, after dark, to a hotel that served foreign tourists. That hotel had a sidewalk fireworks display in honor of the Fourth of July. I’ve never been so close to a fireworks display in my like.
If you would like to see more pictures of Xian, click HERE.
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One of the highlights of the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing is the ‘marble boat’. It’s not really made of marble, although the superstructure was decorated to look like marble. The original boat was built in 1755 by Emperor Qinglong, but was destroyed by British forces in 1860. The current boat was built in 1893 by the Dowager Empress Cixi Legend says she used funds allocated for the Chinese navy to build this boat at the Summer Palace, but that story has never been proven. The ‘marble boat’ is a pavilion that was used bu the empress for enjoying the beauty of the Summer Palace while she had her breakfast or dinner. I got this photo of the ‘marble boat’ when I visited the Summer Palace in 1987.
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Several years ago, when both Betsy and I were younger and could get around better, we celebrated my birthday by traveling duo Fort Payne, Alabama. At that time we were tracking down waterfalls and there are several in the Fort Payne area. One of the waterfalls is Little River Falls, pictured above.
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When Betsy and I visited the Grand Canyon in June, 2011, we reached the eastern end of the canyon in the early afternoon. We thus had the time to stop at a couple of overlooks as we drove to Grand Canyon Village, where we had our reservations for our stay. I got this photo at Lipan Point along our way.
