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.

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.

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

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

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.