In early October, I visited Lumber River State Park, the penultimate state park in my quest to visit them all. Naturally, I took my camera, and these photos were the result. Sadly, this small park offers lackluster hiking.
The final photo album from our trip to Washington state is finally up. This last album focuses on Mount Rainier, which is easily one of the most beautiful national parks I’ve ever been to. The hiking here was fantastic, even though it was tough on the old knees!
We visited Mount Saint Helens while in Washington state, and had some of the best hiking conditions while there. If you ever visit Washington, I highly recommend visiting this amazing place.
Our last stop in Olympic National Park was Lake Crescent, a remarkably blue lake with some really neat things to see. I have two more photo albums to post from our Washington visit, both of which are really neat!
Photos from our trip to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in Washington state have now been posted. I have three more photo albums from this vacation to post, which I hope to get to in the next week or so. Then I’ll be (nearly) caught up!
Today’s album post comes from our visit to Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park.
Today’s photo album update comes from a trip to Rialto Beach, located on the western shore of the Olympic peninsula. This beach was a really neat place to walk, as the beach was made entirely of pebbles (there was virtually no sand anywhere). Though walking on the pebbles was tiring, the visit was totally worth it.
I’ve posted album number three from our trip to Washington in September. This album details our visit to Hoh Rainforest, one of the rainiest places in all of the United States. It was a remarkably beautiful place.
While on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state back in September, we visited Olympic National Park. One of our stops was at Hurricane Ridge, a popular spot for visitors to the park. The views from this portion of the park were spectacular, as these photos will attest.
To inaugurate the launch of my new photo album software, I’ve just posted my first photo album from our trip to the state of Washington back in September. This is the first of 9 albums from this trip, and I’m excited to post these albums because we saw lots of cool stuff. Stay tuned for more!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been diligently working on rewriting the software that powers my photography site. Today, the new version has officially launched! This rewrite is mostly a bunch of back-end changes to make my life a lot easier, but it also includes some front-end changes as well. Here’s what’s new from a technical perspective:
As is typical when I launch stuff like this, there are still a few known issues:
I’m sure there are probably bugs lurking here and there. Let me know if you encounter any.
Back in March of 2010, I mentioned that I had a goal of visiting and photographing every single state park in my home state of North Carolina. In May of that same year, I narrowed my definition slightly to be those parks that have public facilities and for which attendance records are taken. At the time, there were 40 such parks (another has since joined their ranks, for a total of 41 as of this writing).
On Saturday, October 29, after over six years of park visits, I finally completed my goal!
My final state park visit was at Hammocks Beach State Park, the only park with ferry-service to its primary land parcel, Bear Island. Photos from this visit are coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. Photos from all of my other state park visits can be seen here.
One question I’m often asked when sharing my love of state parks with others is: which park is your favorite? This is a really difficult question to answer, as every single park in our state has something unique to offer (which, incidentally, makes visiting them all so worthwhile). That said, I thought it would be fun to rank some of the state parks from the viewpoint of my favorite park pastime: hiking. In this post, I’ll provide a breakdown of my favorite parks to hike in for all three regions of our state: mountains, Piedmont, and coast. I’ll also post a list of my least favorite parks for hiking.
North Carolina is blessed with terrific mountain state parks. Here are my favorite mountain state parks to hike:
The Piedmont area of North Carolina is typically very heavily forested, which makes for some great spots to walk in the woods. Here are my favorite Piedmont parks:
Some of the most unique state parks in North Carolina are located along the coast. Here are my favorites:
Of all the state parks I’ve visited, I had more pure fun at Merchants Millpond than any other. Canoeing in the millpond there is a delight, especially on a comfortable day. You’ll see plenty of wildlife (including alligators!) and you won’t want the experience to end. This park has good hiking opportunities too, so it’s win-win.
Three state parks truly stand out in my mind for least impressive hiking opportunities:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this round-up of my visits to various North Carolina state parks. I encourage everyone to visit them all, as it’s a great way to see our beautiful state!
Back in September, my wife and I visited the newest state park in North Carolina, Carvers Creek. Located near Fayetteville, this state park is still in its infancy. It was a very popular place to hike, however, as we found it fairly crowded the day we visited. I’ve posted some photos from our visit.
I grew up eating this soup, which also goes by the name chicken soup with herbs. My family, however, called it “green chicken soup” because the soup has a greenish hue to it. This is a favorite!
(*) Can substitute 1 quart of half-and-half for these two ingredients
Start by cooking rice separately. We do this by combining 1 cup of rice, 2 cups water, and 1/2 Tbsp. salt in a Pyrex cooking dish, covered, microwaving for 18 minutes on 50% power.
While rice is cooking, and in a large saucepan, dutch oven, or boiling pot, melt butter and blend in the flour. Cook this roux for one minute. Add the milk and cream and, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture thickens. Add the chicken stock, cooked rice, chicken, chives, marjoram, dill, nutmeg, and turmeric. Green onions may also be added, if desired. Stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Can be garnished with chopped parsley and/or toasted sesame seeds. Pairs well with hearty breads.
This soup is very thick (more like a stew), so when reheating it, you may need to thin with milk or water (it thickens as it sits in the refrigerator).
Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted a few photo albums from a trip earlier this year to Chicago. Here are the albums:
Last week, while on vacation in the northwestern corner of the United States, I was notified by a few people that my article Stack Overflow Hates New Users had made it onto a news site I was previously unfamiliar with, hackernoon (actually, the article was a part of a longer piece entitled The decline of Stack Overflow). It’s rather amusing that an article I wrote over four years ago is still being cited by people, and I think that says a lot about the community surrounding the venerable question and answer site. I’ve been a user at said site for over four and a half years, and I have a few additional things I’d like to discuss.
Seeing as I have already written about things I learned using Stack Overflow, a list of my gripes with Stack Overflow, and a few suggested improvements for Stack Overflow, I won’t rehash those here. What I would like to talk about, however, is how I think new users should approach the Stack Overflow experience:
I cannot stress this point enough. Before you ask a question on the site, search it to see if a similar question has already been asked. Over 95% of the time, at least one person will have already asked a question that should point you in the right direction. Don’t use the built-in search, by the way; like many site search boxes, it’s pretty lousy. Search with Google using the site:stackoverflow.com operator, and include any relevant keywords that could narrow your search (searching is an art form and non-trivial!).
This is probably the biggest mistake new users make: they don’t provide enough detail. Asking detailed questions takes some practice to master (I still haven’t mastered this). Before you click that “Ask Question” button, ask yourself these questions:
Being short and to the point, yet detailed, is a difficult balance to achieve, but find that balance and you’ll reap the rewards.
It’s very difficult to get a lot of rep points in the beginning, so be patient; building trust takes time. Set mini-goals for yourself. I personally set a goal to get to 2000 rep points so I could edit other posts without having to have my edits approved. Once I reached that goal, I stopped worrying about points altogether (it’s not worth worrying about)! Also, be courteous to everyone, even the jerks on the site (of which there are a number). Know-it-alls tend to like to flaunt their intelligence, and Stack Overflow is an outlet through which they can scratch that itch.
I’m a big fan of Arqade, a sister site to Stack Overflow focused on video games. The community there is much more friendly and welcoming, and if you earn enough reputation at a site like that (only 200 points), you’ll automatically get 100 bonus points on every other Stack Exchange site!
Stack Overflow is a great resource to use, but it’s one that I keep at arm’s length. These days, I tend to ask more questions than I answer, and I often find answers to questions I have through other people’s postings. It’s easy to get swept up in the competitiveness of the site at the beginning, but if you avoid doing that, you’ll have a much more pleasant experience.
I’ve recently posted the final two photo albums from an early spring trip to northeastern North Carolina. One highlights Dismal Swamp state park, while the other covers various northeastern NC sights.
Earlier this year, my wife and I spent some time in north-eastern North Carolina on vacation. While there, we visited Merchants Millpond state park, which I would rank among the most scenic in the state. The day we visited happened to be the centennial celebration for the park, so the crowd was larger than usual. That said, we had a fantastic time. We rented a canoe and explored the pond, making this outing among my favorite state park visits to date. Here’s the accompanying photo album.
Last December, on a particularly warm day, my wife and I visited Cliffs of the Neuse state park. Located just south of Goldsboro, North Carolina, this park has some very interesting geography. High cliffs tower 90 feet over the Neuse river, in an otherwise flat area of the state. As usual, we took along our cameras, and this album is the result.
I’m backlogged on photos, so expect more in the coming days and weeks (I have 10 more albums to post!).
I’ve posted some macro photos from a trip to the zoo last fall. I’m woefully behind in my photo posting, but I hope to remedy that in the near future.