Ricketts Glen State Park

 On Saturday hubby and I hiked the Falls trail at Ricketts Glen State Park. Ricketts Glen State Park is located 30 miles north of Bloomsburg, Pa. The falls trail is a 3.2 mile loop passing by 21 waterfalls. The other waterfalls are located off other trails. It is a very steep and sometimes difficult trail. We took our time stopping to enjoy the waterfalls and I was listening for the birds and taking photos. We did spook a turkey off the trail. And I saw a few Chickadees and turkey vultures soaring above us. It is a little early for the warblers though I do think I heard one off the trail. Ricketts Glen is noted for 23 varieties of warblers and the Bald Eagle. The park is also included in the Susquehanna River Birding trail.

The sign shows the Falls Trail and list the names of each waterfall that we saw, they range from 11ft to 94ft being the tallest.

Ricketts Glen has a total 23 waterfalls, beautiful hemlock trees, lots of pretty ferns and moss and bridges that cross the rivers.

The steps were steep and uneven and now my legs are feeling like I used muscles that I did not even know I had. LOL!

We crossed several different bridges along the way criss-crossing back and forth over the river.

After spending about 4 hours hiking on the Falls trail and at the park we headed to Wilkes Barre, Pa to spend the night at a Best Western hotel. After checking into to our room we headed to the Mohegan Sun casino at Pocono Downs. We had dinner at their Timber buffet, lots of good seafood and dinner choices. They also had other restaurants like a Ruth Chris and a Johnny Rockets, a great variety. The casino was very crowded, also included a long line of people waiting to see and get autographs of an actress on  the show Jerseylicious? After dinner we were ready to head back to our room for the night.

Thanks for the visit, enjoy your day!  

Atlantic City, NJ

I am linking up my travels with Scenic Sunday

Last Sunday and Monday hubby and I enjoyed an overnight at the Showboat Hotel and Casino. They offer great deals for their hotel rooms on the internet for Sundays- Thursdays. We had a room on the 20th floor with a slight view of the ocean and a great view looking toward the sunset and the bayside.

 

This was the part of the view from our room. The first evening it was a little foggy. Dinner was at the House of Blues restaurant. Nothing fancy I had a great salad and pizza and hubby had the ribs.

We also had a view of the wind farm , which is located on the bayside. Across from the wind farm is the Edwin Forsythe NWR.

 

We were out on the boardwalk early in the morning this is the Showboat Casino and the new casino-hotel called the Revel. We had a great breakfast at the Johnny Rockets restaurant in the Showboat. I enjoyed the little view we had of the beach and ocean while we were eating our breakfast.

 

Above is a view of the boardwalk and casinos it includes the Taj Mahal towers and the Showboat.

 This is Trump's Taj Mahal Hotels and casino. The Taj Mahal hotel has two towers. I really like the design of Trump's hotel& casino, but we were very happy with our room at the Showboat.

We were up early to watch the sunrise on Atlantic City's famous beach.

The new hotel-casino called the Revel has a ball on the top which turned colors in the shot above the ball is green. It reminded me of a large golf ball?

While we were there on the beach watching the sunrise the ball turned green, blue and red. It would be cool to stay a night in this beautiful new hotel. It seems to be the tallest hotel/casino in Atlantic City.

Before we checked out of the Showboat, I got some more shots of  Atlantic City's skyline and beach.

Another view from the Showboat was the lighthouse on the bayside.

Thanks for stopping by my post. 

Views from the top

 Do you feel like sometimes you are on top of the world? Life has its ups and downs but mostly life has been good.
For my Scenic Sunday I thought I would do a post of my views from the top of the world. Well not really the top of the world but some seem pretty close to it.  Actually these shots are from various trips hubby and I have been on, we love to travel. The 22 years we have been together I believe we have managed at least one trip a year sometimes two if we could swing it.  My hubby likes to see the views from the top of mountains so we have hiked, we have driven to the top, we have taken trains and we have taken lifts.


As usual you can click on the photos for a larger image.

                              After a hike to the top of  Mt Tallac we had a view of Lake Tahoe.

                             

   After a train ride and some fancy lifts we arrived at the top Jungfrau, Switzerland

                                  

  Jungfrau Ice sculptures

       

Above another photo of  Jungfrau.  Also, while in Switzerland we also took lifts to see a view of Mt Blanc, which is the highest peak in Western Europe. We were actually in the clouds and did not have a great view. Once a cloud broke I believe we actually see the peak for a short time. By then I was ready to go down and kiss the ground. The lifts were small and shaky. Nothing like the lifts and trains we took to Jungfrau or to see the Matterhorn.

 

        

 Above more hiking and climbing mountains, this time In Yosemite California.

                           

  Hiking to the Yosemite Waterfalls.

          

     We have driven to the top of the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park

                       

The Going to the Sun road is a narrow winding road and in some places has waterfalls running right under the road.

                             

     Sunrise on top of the Haleakala Crater Maui, Hawaii. We saw the sun rising above the clouds.  If you go here wear some warm clothes it was freezing cold at the top of the crater.

Looking down from the top, a view from our helicopter ride around the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The NaPali coastline was gorgeous.

The helicopter ride took us into the Waialeale crater, Kauai, Hawaii where we saw waterfalls just about all of 360 degrees inside the crater.

Kauai's  Waimea Canyon... the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Kauai, Hawaii

I hope you enjoyed my views of the top and  looking down from the top. I enjoyed reliving some of our trips thru my photos. To see more beautiful and wonderful scenes please visit Scenic Sunday

Thanks to the Holleys for hosting Scenic Sunday and thanks for visiting my post. Have a Happy Weekend!

More from Panama

Since I posted about Panama's Bridge of Americas below I decided to do another Panama bridge. I am linking up with Scenic Sunday and Sunday Bridges

The Centennial Bridge in Panama was built and finished in 2004 to ease the overcrowded Bridge of the Americas. It is the second road crossing the Panama Canal.  The bridge is a cable-stayed design and is a total span of 3,451 ft. The main span clears the canal by 262 ft. allowing large vessels to pass below.  The bridge was also built to withstand earthquakes which are often felt in this area.

 

These ship look huge from a distance and even larger when you are right next to them.

One of the Panama hotels we stayed at is the Radisson Rainforest hotel.

 The hotel had two pools, we were so busy sightseeing we did not have a chance to even swim.

 

The view from the rainforest hotel. There is also a golf course at this Radisson Rainforest resort.

The Radisson's lobby and bar. It was a beautiful hotel, I wish we could have stayed longer.

To see more beautiful and scenic photos,  please visit Scenic Sunday  and Sunday Bridges.

Thanks to both of the hosts, the Holleys of Scenic Sunday and Louis the host of Sunday Bridges. Thanks also for visiting my post and blog. I hope everyone has a Happy weekend.

Panama Scenes

I am linking up with Sunday Bridges  and Today's Flowers    and   Scenic Sunday

I am posting the photos smaller but if you like you can click on them for a larger image. 

These are shots taken during my trip to Panama, the bridge was seen during our boat ride on the Panama Canal and the flowers were seen on the grounds at the various hotels in Panama .

I have some info on the Bridge of the Americas was built to re-connect land that was divided during the building of the Panama Canal. The bridge is 354 high and 5,400 long. The bridge crosses the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal at Balboa near Panama City.  The United States built the bridge at a cost of 20 million. The bridge was part of the Pan-American highway until the Centennial Bridge was built in 2004 and at that time the highway was re-directed.

I wish I remembered all the names of these pretty flowers. I believe the photo above is Bird of Paradise but I thought there are two types of flowers that look similar. If anyone can id these flowers and plant, I would appreciate the help.


Edit: With the Help of Diane B and Bernie I found out the flower above is called Lobster Claw.

Bernie helped with all the flower id's. This is Red Ginger also known as Ostrich Plume and Alpina Purpurata

Again thanks to Bernie the plant above is called Alpinia Zerumbet Ginger. It also bears funnel shaped flowers.

Check out more photos at Sunday Bridges    and   Today's Flowers    and  Scenic Sunday

Thanks to all the wonderful host of these fun memes. Thanks also for stopping by to see my post and I wish everyone a HAPPY WEEKEND!

Covered Bridges of Frederick County, Maryland

I am also linking up with Sunday Bridges
Thanks to Louis for hosting Sunday Bridges. I hope you get a chance to visit Sunday Bridges. 


Remember if you like you can click on the photos for a larger image.


I was surprised to learn that Frederick County, Maryland was home to three historic covered bridges. There are a total of eight covered bridges in Maryland. At one time there were 52 bridges in Maryland but, neglect, fires, storms and progress have wiped them out.  Each of the three bridges in Frederick County are beautiful and are structured differently. I was able to take some photos of each bridge while on a daytrip with my hubby to Thurmont, Frederick County, Maryland.

 The Loys Station bridge is 90 feet long and is the multiple kingpost design.

The first stop was at the Loys Station Rd covered bridge and this one was my favorite of the three covered bridges.

Why cover bridges? The answer is wooden bridges with exposed superstructures were vulnerable to rot. In the 1800's  farmers  needed inland transportation and wood was a plentiful building material.

It is 101 foot long and is called the burr arch design.

This is the Utica Mills covered bridge and as you can see the inside structure looks entirely different that the first Loys Station Bridge.

The Roddy Rd is 40 feet long and is a single span kingpost design.

This is the Roddy Road covered bridge and the smallest. It was the last of the three bridges on our 30 miles loop covered bridge tour. Each of the three bridges have a weight and height restriction. Now, I would like to find the other five covered bridges in Maryland. I am sure I find where they are located just by doing a Google search.

I hope you enjoyed my covered bridge post and I am linking up with Scenic Sunday.  Thanks to the Holleys for hosting. And I thank you for stopping by to see my post. Have a Happy Weekend!