Atlantic City, NJ

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

These are some scenic shots from our trip to the New Jersey shore and Atlantic City. Atlantic City's boardwalk is famous from back to the days of the popular Steel Pier, a diving horse and concerts. When I was young traveling with my family we saw concerts featuring the Supremes, BJ Thomas  and do you remember the group called 5th Dimension. Atlantic City now is mostly high rise casinos and hotels. There is a pier with a large mall.

 

The view of Atlantic City  and a gorgeous sky from our hotel room.  The next larger building is the Resorts Hotel and Casino.

 

The Trump Taj Mahal Casino and hotel on the Atlantic City boardwalk. We were out on the boardwalk hoping to see the full moon.

 

Next door to the Trump is the Showboat hotel and Casino..

A shot of the full moon from our hotel room at Trump's Taj Mahal .

 A sunrise over the Atlantic ocean.

Since I live in Maryland I could not help but to take a shot of the sign showing Maryland Avenue and the sun rising. We use Atlantic City as a base to stay when we visit the Barnegat Wildlife Refuge and some times Cape May. 


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

Guadalupe Mountains

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

 It has been awhile since I have done a travel post, I never really shared all of the sights we saw while visiting New Mexico and Texas.. These photos are from that trip and a stop at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

The Pinery trail is located behind the Pine Springs Visitor Center.

The Pinery trail has exhibits describing the vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert.

The views of Guadalupe Mountains from the visitor center.

Driving along the National Park Highway we stopped and took a look at El Capitan from the opposite side.

The view of Guadalupe Peak and El Capitan. It is the 8th highest peak in Texas.

 Linda Lake is a large salt basin located on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Not far from the pull out for El Capitan we stopped at this Lake Linda..The layers of blue were very pretty.

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. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper
And Keryn from Friday Postcards

Atlantic City, New Jersey and Barnegat Lighthouse

 January 19, 2014

On Thursday, hubby and I went on an overnight visit to the Jersey shore. We drove as far as Barnegat Lighthouse Beach, then we headed south to Edwin Forsythe NWR and our somewhat of a free night at Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.

At the Barnegat Lighthouse beach  we saw the Common Loon, Long-tailed Ducks and Harlequin Ducks. Lots of Scoters, Brants and Sanderlings and gulls.

Two Long-tailed Ducks with a Harlequin duck in the middle.. This was one of the only Harlequins I sighted at Barnegat this visit. In past years I have seen higher counts.  I wonder if something is happening to them?

At Barnegat the Mergansers were plentiful..

Snowy Owl on the roof of the Edwin Forsythe NWR visitor center.

This is this third Snowy Owl I have seen since late November. The first sighting was in Delaware, second sighting was in Maryland and this last Snowy Owl was in New Jersey.. They seem to be everywhere  this winter..

 

Above is a view of the sunset from our room, a shot of the Taj Mahal Casino and the almost full moon.

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Thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

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

 Hubby and I spent a week's vacation sightseeing around New Mexico and spent 3 nights in Carlsbad. These are some scenes from inside the Carlsbad Caverns located in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The stadium seats outside are used mainly for the bat flight in the evenings.

Exploring the Big Room. There is a paved one mile loop trail to follow and lit up to highlight some of the more decorated parts of the caverns. Access to the Big Room is either by the elevators ( descending 750 ft)  in the visitor center or walking the mile down from the Natural Entrance. We did both the Natural Entrance and the Big Room walk.

I would not want to use this ladder, do you want to try exploring new rooms? This is not it but they have one section called the Bottomless Pit. And there are some sections yet to be explored and are not open to the general public. You can pay extra to go on separate guided tours, more on the experienced level of caving or what my hubby calls spelunking.

I wanted to show the size of some of the cave formations with hubby standing somewhat next to one. It is said that 6.2 football fields could fit inside the BIG Room which totals 357,480  sq ft.

I took a lot of photos inside the caverns and I can only post so many, I would to show some of the decorations and colors. One of my favorite decorations are called Draperies.



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. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper

National Parks CLOSED

 October 5, 2013

 I am linking up with Gemma's  Scenic Weekend 
 also please visit with Oh, the places I've been @ Tablescaper And Our World Tuesday

I am sharing my views of our National Parks..which are now CLOSED due to the shutdown.

Our government should be ashamed of themselves...the politicans are acting like children instead of doing the job they were elected to do..FOR THE PEOPLE..not for Corporations and not for themselves.

I hope they can come to some kind of agreement and end this silly shutdown..put furloughed workers back to work and open our National Parks. Not only is it a loss for the visitors.. the National Park System and the local economy is taking a hit...hotels, stores and restaurants will all lose business.

Acadia National Park, Maine

Arches National Park, Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Canyonlands Natiional Park, Utah

Cascades National Park, Washington

Everglades National Park, Florida

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Glacier National Park,, Montana

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island Hawaii

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina


 

Lassen National Park, California

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Redwoods National Park, California

Olympic National Park, Washington

Sequoia National Park, California

Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive Virginia

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yosemite National Park, California

Zion National Park, Utah

Millions of people from the USA and from around the world visit our National Parks every year.. In the year 2012...280 million people visited the National Parks..As you can see hubby and I also love our National Parks...Over the years, hubby and I have visited many of the National Parks around the USA. I can not imagine being turned away and not allowed to enter. I feel sorry for the people who were made to leave, who reserved hotel rooms and planned a yearly vacation all around visit the National Parks. Hubby and I have a trip planned soon to visit Carlsbad National Park and Guadalupe Mtns Nat'l Park.. I am hoping this shutdown is over before our trip..

I hope you enjoyed my scenic weekend post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday 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 the host @ The Tablescaper
thanks also to the hosting team at OurWorldTuesday

Chincoteague & Assateague

 I am linking up with Gemma's  Scenic Weekend

 These are some of the pretty scenes from last weekend's visit to Chincoteague and the Assateague Island National Seashore. We only stayed on night and since this was somewhat of a last minute trip, I missed out on our usual Best Western hotel room. I prefer the Best Western it is located right outside the park. This time we chose the Fairfield Inn, a new hotel that opened off the the main street in Chincoteague Island.

 

Seen in the distance is the Assateague Lighthouse.

The beach at Assateague Island National Seashore.

The boardwalk trail at Tom's Cove.

A beautiful day barely a cloud in the sky. 

 

An early morning misty view of the lighthouse .

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