Category Archives: Photography

Acadia

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The Northeast region of the United States has many historical sites especially related to the American revolution. However, when it comes to national parks, only one of the 58 US national parks is located in the region: Acadia National Park in Maine. I wrote a little bit about Acadia as part of my series of postings on my New England trip a few weeks ago, so this posting is also about Acadia, but a different aspect of visiting the park that might be interesting to potential visitors.

If you ask any locals or frequent visitors to Acadia for a favorite place to visit inside the Acadia National Park, one likely answer is the Jordan Pond. It’s a nice pond in the middle of the park that is located near the Bubbles, two mountains that are among the well-known landmarks inside the park. The scenery is wonderful, but what makes a visit to Jordan Pond memorable is a stop for a lunch or dinner at the Jordan Pond House Restaurant situated near the Jordan Pond. The restaurant has wonderful view of the Jordan Pond and the Bubbles, and it’s also famous for its popovers. These popovers are served fresh from the oven with a meal there, part of dining tradition dated back to 1870s. I followed the suggestion and stopped by at the restaurant for lunch. The popovers are indeed worth the visit (and the wait for table during the busy season).

The photo below was taken from the lawn just outside the Jordan Pond House Restaurant. You can see the Jordan Pond and the Bubbles in the distance. During the summer, the restaurant also has outdoor seatings at the lawn area.

Jordan Pond

Shenandoah

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Shenandoah National Park is the nearest of the 58 US national parks from my home, around 60 miles away. As such, it’s a great place to go for weekend outdoor activities when the weather is nice. The main route through the park is the Skyline Drive, which stretches around 100 miles from the north entrance to the south entrance of the park. There are a couple of highways that cut across the park, so you can also enter or exit the park at those points instead of coming or going all the way to the end.

Most people visiting the park stay only on the Skyline Drive. It has many nice lookouts where you can stop and enjoy the scenery. But if you’re physically able and have the time, I think you can enjoy the park even more by hiking through some of the 500 miles of trails within the park. Some of these trails take you to places with scenic views of the Shenandoah Valley, while others take you to waterfalls and streams. About 100 miles of the legendary Appalachian Trail goes through Shenandoah, so you might meet hikers in the middle of doing that epic journey. During the hike, you might also encounter the wildlife, from deer to wild turkey, rabbit, or even black bear. So for nature photographers who live in DC area, this is one of the popular photography destinations nearby.

The photo below was taken from a lookout on Skyline Drive in the morning, not long after the sunrise. You could see some of the clouds and fogs still covering the lower altitude area in the valley.

Morning at Shenandoah

National Parks

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If you’re going to places in the United States to take photographs of nature or historically significant places, you’re likely to visit a property managed by the National Park Service. The National Park Service manages close to 400 sites throughout all United States states and territories, including national parks, monuments, historical sites, and some other properties. There are 58 of them that are specifically designated as national parks, and these include some of the most amazing natural places to visit on earth like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. I had been to some of those national parks during my travels in the continental United States, so for the next few days I will write postings about each of these national parks that I had visited and highlight a favorite photograph I took at each of these parks. If you’re interested in learning about these national parks through images, you can check out Terra Galleria, the online gallery of a photographer named QT Luong who had gone to all 58 of the parks to take amazing photographs in each of them. This gallery is definitely inspirational; I would love to visit more of these national parks if I have a chance.

The National Park Service-managed property that I’ve visited the most is a special kind of ‘National Park.’ Wolf Trap National Park in Vienna, VA, is a national park specifically dedicated to presenting performing arts. The main venue within the park is the Filene Center, an amphitheater where various kinds of performing arts (music concerts from various genres, musicals, classical music, dance, opera, comedy act) are shown every night during the summer months (May to September). During the winter months, there are also performances shown almost every night at a smaller venue called the Barns at Wolf Trap. What I like about Wolf Trap is that they have a diverse selection of performances to choose from, and you can usually get tickets at the last minute for very reasonable price to watch these performances. Though you can get assigned seats inside the amphitheater, I usually prefer getting the cheaper lawn seats at the back of the amphitheater where guests are allowed to set up picnic and have food and drink (Wolf Trap is the only National Park Services property where visitors area allowed to bring alcohol to the premise). It makes for a fun outing with friends during the nice summer nights.

The photo below was taken at one of the performances I attended at Wolf Trap. In this performance, the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was played on large high definition screens, accompanied by soundtrack performed live by an orchestra and a choir.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at Wolf Trap

Bibimbap and bulgogi

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The last stop on the Seoul City Tour before we headed back to the Incheon International Airport was lunch at a local restaurant. I did not know the name of the restaurant as the sign was written in Korean, but it’s pretty clear from the picture outside the restaurant that they had beef dishes.

At the beginning of our tour, the tour guide explained that we could pick from two options for lunch; each person could get either bulgogi (grilled beef dish) or bibimbap (mixed vegetables over rice). I had had both of these dishes before, so I just picked the bibimbap. Some of folks in our tour group had never had either of these Korean dishes before, so they had to decide after listening to our tour guide’s description and looking at photos of the dishes.

When we entered the restaurant, we were seated at a couple of long tables in one corner of the dining area. The restaurant was pretty small, and it was actually quite packed with locals for lunch. I thought that’s good to see the locals also eating at the restaurant; that means they’re not catering only to foreigners/tourists, and the food should be quite authentic.

I sat together with three new friends that I made during this tour. Wendy was from Los Angeles, CA, and she was on the way back home after visiting Thailand and Indonesia. Susan was from Philadelphia, PA, area, and she was on the way home after visiting Laos and Cambodia. Rajan was from Houston, TX, and he was on the way to Malaysia and Indonesia for business trip. My brother lived in Los Angeles area at that time, and I had worked on projects in both Philadelphia and Houston, so I was able to relate with all of these travelers. It was pretty cool listening to Susan and Wendy talked about their experiences during this trip (pretty neat hearing about my home country, Indonesia, from the perspective of a visitor like Wendy), and I was able to give recommendations to Rajan on possible places to visit during his upcoming visit to Jakarta.

The meal itself was pretty good. This was the first time for these other travelers trying Korean food, so it was great to see them first getting surprised seeing the various side dishes served with a meal at a Korean restaurant, and then enjoying the dishes for the first time. My bibimbap was pretty good — similar to what I had before in the United States.

After lunch, we headed back to the airport to end the tour. We had to go through slow-moving traffic, so our tour guide was a little concerned that some of us might miss our flight. She asked for everyone’s scheduled departure time, and we found out that I had the earliest departure time compared to others. We ended up arriving at the airport about 35 minutes later than expected, but fortunately it was still enough time for me to go through the security gate and walked to the departure gate. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare til the boarding time for my connecting flight.

That ended the 22-hour stop in South Korea during my trip from Washington, DC, to Jakarta, Indonesia. I wasn’t expecting it to be full of adventure, but I’m glad I was able to get a glimpse of South Korea during that brief stop. If you ever have to stop in transit at Incheon International Airport, I highly recommend making the most out of your stop by taking the transit tour.

The photo below was taken at the restaurant while we were waiting for our food. You could see me with my three new friends, Wendy, Susan, and Rajan, and around us were the locals either their lunch in a busy restaurant.

Lunch in Seoul

Cheonggyecheon

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After a brief stroll on the main street of Insa-dong, we hopped on our Seoul City Tour bus to go to the last sightseeing stop of the tour, Cheonggyecheon. Cheonggyecheon is an 8.4 km-long, modern public recreation space in downtown Seoul. This was an urban renewal project that changed an eyesore scenery in the city into a beautiful public park with nice landscaping.

We only had few minutes to take a look at part of Cheonggyecheon. It was quite nice to see the park among the highrise buildings, and hear the sound of water flowing from the stream. There was a walking path along the stream, and the wall along the side of the path was decorated with murals that depicted scenes from Korean history.

The photo below was taken from the steps down to the walking path from one of the streets that cross over the stream. You can see some of the landscaping done on the stream. It seems to be a nice place to stroll and retreat momentarily from the hustle and bustle of the city. I think for photographers coming to the city, this might be one of those nice urban places for shooting photographs.

Cheonggyecheon