Saturday, March 29, 2014

Ocean City, Maryland

 I am linking up with Gemma's  Scenic Weekend


 These are some shots of our recent weekend getaway to Ocean City, Maryland..

  Hubby and I, my shadow shot.


A broken pier from the storm Sandy..


The amusement pier will be opening soon..it will not be long till the sounds of summer will be there.


Over a hundred streets of beach, hotels, stores and restaurants.. 


A view at the inlet.


 The view from our room, a little too cloudy for a sunrise..


We a great room on the corner, it had a cool wrap around balcony.. we could see the ocean and the bay.


 The Ocean City inlet..


Sunset at Ocean City's inlet..

I hope you enjoyed the photos and our visit to Ocean City, we like to go before the crowds are there..



I hope you enjoyed my travel post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.  

 Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Gemma for hosting Scenic Weekends.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

More from Alaska

March 20, 2014

 I am linking up with  Oh, the places I've been @ Tablescaper   and check out  Gemma's  Scenic Weekend   And Friday Postcards

I am posting some photos from our cruise to Alaska. Our ports included going into Glacier Bay and Juneau. My previous post included photos from our stop in Sitka.




Our cruise ship went into Glacier Bay..we were met by a Glacier Bay National Park ranger.









  The three shots above are hubby's photos from his helicopter ride to the glacier from Juneau, Alaska.



A shot from above our cruise ship in Juneau, Alaska.


A long day of sunlight and a pretty reflection.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Sitka National Historical Park


March 13, 2014

 I am linking up with  Oh, the places I've been @ Tablescaper   and check out  Gemma's  Scenic Weekend   And Friday Postcards

I have done many post on our trips to various National Parks in the USA, I wanted to do one I missed on the  Sitka National Historical Park. The park is within walking distance of the cruise ship docks.




The photos in this post are from my archives but I realized I never posted much on our stop in Sitka.  We had one day to see and do as much as we could.  We paid for a tour which took hubby, son and I on a guided hike thru a pretty forest. After our guided hike, we still had time to explore we decided to check out the Totem Pole trail in the Sitka Nat'l Historical Park. The photos above show the Totem trail, it is one mile long in a beautiful temperate rainforest and includes the Indian River estuary. 


Originally the poles were donated by various village leaders to the governor of Alaska for the people of Alaska.. The poles were on exhibit in the 1904 St Louis World's Fair and then the poles were shipped to Sitka to be erected in a goverment park. Since 1904 the original poles deteriorated and replicas were carved.  At the time of our visit the poles on the trail were replicas. 


The Totem Poles tell a story about the people who carved them. On the right is a replica of the Raven/Shark Pole..showing at the top is a Raven then a shark or dogfish, a wolf or a fox and a bear used at the base figure.


There are 15 stops along the trail each displaying a totem pole.




On the left totem pole is the Wolf Pole. The top figure is a man possibly a village watchman, the middle figure is a wolf and the bottom is a salmon.  The wolf and salmon may represent the clan's crest symbols.   On the right is the Raven Memorial Pole, the oldest type of totem pole. A memorial pole is in honor of an individual either living or dead.

We were able to complete the Totem Trail and walk back to our cruise ship. I hope your enjoyed our walk and the cool Totem Poles..you can see that they each have a story to tell.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy day!


I hope you enjoyed my post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.  

 Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Gemma for hosting Scenic Weekends. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper
And Keryn from Friday Postcards


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Living Desert Zoo Carlsbad, New Mexico


November 9, 2013

 I am linking up with  Oh, the places I've been @ Tablescaper   and check out  Gemma's  Scenic Weekend   And Friday Postcards


 I am sharing some scenes from the Living Desert Zoo in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Living Desert Zoo exhibits 40 species of native animals and hundreds of species of native plants. These are critters and plants native to the Chihuahuan Desert. There is 1.3 miles of trail, walk along seeing the wildlife, native plants, flowers and of course seeing the native wild birds.



It was in the Aviary, I saw my first Roadrunner. They are quick movers and kind of funny to watch. I did not count this captured bird as a lifer but later in the trip I started seeing the Roadrunners in the wild. I was really surprised to see a lot of House Sparrows in the Aviary.


I love the cute roadrunner and the  hare riding the armadillo?

The Roadrunner in the aviary.


Are these birds are native to New Mexico,  they look like they belong in Costa Rica. They are a cute couple. I do NOT  remember their name, I am guessing the Red-Crowned Parrot.


A display of the pretty native plants.


A Eurasian Collared Dove, not a native but I found it in one of the trees in the zoo.




A cool Mountain Lion seen at the zoo, I did get to see (no photo) a real wild mountain lion at the Bosque Del Apache NWR later in the week.


The Black Bear is another native animal seen in New Mexico..




The Great Horned Owl..


A beautiful butterfly on one of the native plants.



This was one of the few lizards I saw during the vacation, I was expecting to see more.


The native plants at the zoo attracted many different butterflies and moths. I believe this one is a Sulfur..Clouded Yellow.


Another one of the pretties.  I have to find a website for native butterflies and moths of New Mexico.I hope you enjoyed the walk thru the zoo.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy day!


I hope you enjoyed my travel and scenic post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.  

 Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Gemma for hosting Scenic Weekends. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper
And Keryn from Friday Postcards


Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

 Shenandoah National Park, Virginia Oct 21-22 hubby and I enjoyed a short getaway to Shenandoah Nat'l Park staying for the night in Harr...