Life Is Beautiful!

A friend asked how many states I haven't been to, and we realized that there are less than 1/2 a dozen I've not driven through.  This time around, I realized that from Tennessee on, one drives through an undulating green sea of trees, rolling meadows and farm lands.

The shot above is from along the I-81, driving North, through Virginia.  

The next one I took while leaving a rest stop in Tennessee.

There are also sprays of wild flowers which adorn the medians of highways, including Buttercups, Day Lilies, Queen Anne's Lace, Black-eyed Susans and Daisies, like these, 

from the city of Frederick, just before I left for Korea.

Flowers are as natural a part of Eastern US's landscape, as Asia's.  I'd not noticed the lack of them growing wild this time of year in Utah and Arizona until driving here.  

Trees grow right up to and even canopy over byways, 

as pictured here on a rural route in Shenandoah Junction, WV.  

Just took this photo this afternoon.

Architectural styles range from European and early American to eclectic and modern.  I never tire of the variety.  Just this afternoon, I noticed this unusual old manor, 

somewhere on top of a hill in Virginia, I believe.

Historic Harper's Ferry is too full of nooks, crannies, hidden stairways and sharp angled roads, fascinating old buildings and a gorgeous ancient Catholic Church to capture sufficiently in the time I had today (which was borrowed), 

but it should be on your "must see" list, if you love early American towns.

 With significant involvement in the Civil War, and nestled in between the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, Harper's Ferry has survived several floods and attacks.  It

attracts tourists far and wide, and loyal residents call it home year round.  

I still remember how awed by the place my son and I were when we first moved East from AZ.  

Gently lit up at night, it's truly like a fairy land.

Seeing the historic district and embassies of Washington, D. C. are worth a trip East, in my opinion.  I took this photo when I obtained my VISA to go to Korea a couple of years ago.  But, 

you haven't really seen Maryland, until you see the outskirts and rural areas, like where I'm staying.

Lake Linganore is a community built in and around ponds, woods and farmlands.

This community is what we left when I decided to move to Utah.  

Part of me has repeatedly wondered what possessed me to make such a move. 

On the other hand, the beauty of Arizona has never been so poignantly real to me, as when surveyed from the Superstitions with my brother Joe on Wednesday, following a rain storm the night before. 

And Utah's canyons are breath-taking, like this view of Provo Canyon.

Quite simply, there is beauty EVERYWHERE, if we take the time to notice.  This has definitely been a week to drive that fact home.  Hoping this summer does the same for you!