It had been an unusually warm winter for United States' eastern coast, with not much snowfall near Washington DC (that can survive a full day without melting). So in the middle of January 2020, just before the start of spring term, I flew to Seattle and decided to have some moments of fun with snow.

Our fourth day in Yellowstone National Park, spent between majestic Yellowstone Canyon and Mammoth Hot Springs, and some stunning landscape and wild animals in between.

Another day of watching various geysers of Yellowstone National Park, with a few wildlife encounters.

A day spent on watching various geysers in the lower-left corner of Yellowstone's figure-8 loop.

Another day full of activities as we were heading from Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone.

There weren't many interesting natural sites in winter in the mid-Atlantic region. So for some fresh air, I headed for Annapolis, Maryland on the Saturday of Dec 7 for a more culture-related trip.

First weekend of November, before all the leaves were gone in the mountains, my friend and I ventured into Shenandoah National Park for a camping trip and a last peak of autumn. And this post would be about all the things that didn't went wrong that weekend (a lot of them did...).

When I looked at the poster of Astra Lost in Space, I saw a group of younglings among stars and planets. When I watched its first trailer, the scenes were like the 2013 movie Gravity being tamed by cartoon brushstrokes. And its second trailer was like the first part of The Martian (2015), only that the entire team was stuck behind this time. I thought, this must be some exciting tales of a Sci-Fi journey through space, like these movies.

And I was wrong, the first of many curveballs the series threw at me.

It's a weekend towards the end of October, when foliage forecast was at its peak for mountains in the mid-atlantic region, something that I wouldn't attempt to miss. This time, I ventured into Northern George Washington National Forest and hiked Buzzard Rock Trail, in the best of autumn colors.

Another autumn day as my friends and I ventured into nature again. This time we were visiting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, hiking Whiteoak Canyon / Cedar Run Loop and Bearfence Mountain.