Feb 4 2018

The South 下江南


A very quick tour of Huntsville (1-2) and Atlanta (2-4), during one of their coldest time: 2 degrees colder than New York on Friday, Feb 2!


Feb 1 2018

Marriott @ Space Center


5 Tranquility Base,
Huntsville, AL 35805

A room with a view

It’s a short walk to the Space museum and the space camp. The staff is nice but the refrigerator wasn’t cleaned. The swimming pool is small and the water is extremely hot – obviously it is not for swimming, -:)

    

 


Feb 1 2018

Huntsville 2018


This is a quick trip. I take Delta which connect at Atlanta. The distance between Atlanta and Huntsville is 200 miles, which is about 3.5 hours drive, which is about the same time to take a flight  – 30 min of flying time, plus you need time to go through security check and wait for the aircraft to take off and to land…

I stay at Marriott near the Space Center; get to see a few top of line houses on Lake Smith this time. On Friday I visited the Space Museum again, and took in the Beautiful Planet the IMAX wasn’t working the last time. Watching the wonderful movie, I couldn’t help but think, our global is small, our lives are short, why do we have to fight wars? Maybe build a few IMAX theaters, let ISIS to watch.

 

 


Feb 1 2018

Lake Smith


Near Huntsville. I visited a few homes on the lake, reportedly, top of line: ranging from $699k to $900,000 – kind of expensive: the nearest supermarket is 25 minutes away, and some area T Mobile doesn’t even service. The real estate taxes are really low, the $900k is about $3,000 a year. My gosh. An acre of land goes for about $150k in a community.


Dec 14 2015

A room full of jewelry

A jewelry artist’s work is being displayed at the Center. The artist, Kathy Chan is over 70 and has been livinh in Huntsville for more than 40 years.

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Dec 13 2015

Ding How II

Ding How II
4800 Whitesburg Dr SW,
Huntsville, AL 35802

It’s the only Chinese restaurant in town that serves dim sum. But the Chinese population is so small, the usual cart pushers are women, now being ‘replaced’ by a white kid and a black kid. It’s cute. Good immersion for the boys and an opportunity for old me to practice my rustic English, at long last, ha ha ha.

Surprisingly, the food is decent, home made (I heard some restaurants are buying frozen …) I was full by the time we left – looked like my Chinglish worked, to some degree. In case you don’t know, pointing fingers work too, when order dim sum, -:) So be brave, give them a try.

On Yelp


Dec 12 2015

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville is the fourth-largest city in Alabama in the heart of Tennessee Valley. Raymond Jones whose father Carl purchased the 2,500-acre farm in 1938. One side of Carl T Jones Drive SE is the farm with cows and across the street, is the modern mall and residential low rise building.

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There isn’t a direct flight from NY to Huntsville. Thanks lord it’s a pleasant ride, like a day on the beach. AA stops at Chicago‘s ORD. The second leg of the flight is small, served by one flight attendant – his belly is big so is his niceness.

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It’s in the region of the bible belt (the area encompasses southeast to nearly middle of the country. The shape is more like a corner or quarter of the country … rather than a thin belt), gigantic churches are everywhere and imposing. Police officers are hired to direct traffic on weekends.

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We’ve lunch at Ding How II on Sunday and 88 Buffet on Monday, then visited NASA’ Space & Rocket Center. Huntsville has three awesome camps. Space camp is one.

Charlotte CLT and HSV are definitely nicer than La Guardia LGA.

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Dec 12 2015

HSV

Huntsville airport is pretty modern. The main lobby has a piano. It has direct flight to DC. One of the army branch was moving to Huntsville years ago but the move wasn’t too successful due to not many people wanted to relocate.

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Dec 4 2015

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

Short for Rocket Center
One Tranquility Base,
Huntsville, AL 35805 “