New England Aquarium

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What a busy week that last week in August turned out to be! I had a wonderful day with Nancy, Alex and Dawn at the Roger Williams Park and Zoo. I told you all about that but then I was surprised by a visit from some of my New York relatives. They were taking their kids to the New England Aquarium in Boston and wanted to see if I wanted to meet them for the afternoon. Silly question. Of course I did!

I had a work commitment in the morning but it turned out that I finished at the perfect time. I got a Text from them letting me know they were about 90 minutes away and so was I! Could that have worked out any better if we’d planned it?

I headed into Boston but today I chose to drive in. I knew parking would be expensive and it was. $35.00! And the garage only took cash. Oh well what’s that saying, Admission $20.00,  Imax $10.00,  parking $35.00 , an afternoon with family…PRICELESS!!

George is my Nephew and his wife is Kelly and the two awesome kids are my (dare I say it) GREAT Niece Catherine and  GREAT Nephew Patrick.

Of course they are GREAT but  in this case I’m referring to the generational fact that I’m not just an aunt but a great aunt..WOW. I am getting old!

I haven’t been into the Aquarium in quite a while so it was fun to go again and to watch the kids get so excited about the great ocean tank. We even got to see the divers go in to feed the fish.

They’ve added a new Shark and Ray Touch Tank since I was there last too. Everyone enjoyed that, adults and children alike.

The sea lions aren’t on a separate boat anymore either. They have a beautiful enclosure where they are out for visitors to see all the time instead of just when the trainers come in to do a show.

Catherine slipped under the sea-lion statue for a photo moment.

Cute and she thought of it all on her own.

We also squeezed in an IMAX 3D show.

We were busy every moment.

The kids were great too. After that long drive they still held up the whole afternoon. I was very impressed. George and Kelly can be very proud.

Finally as it approached closing time we headed out.

The kids, and I bet the adults too, were getting hungry. George, Kelly and the kids headed over to Faneuil Hall to the food court and I headed back to the car. I had things I had to get done so I had to beg off from dinner but the time we had together was lots of fun.

Thanks guys for inviting me along! 🙂

Roger Williams Park and Zoo

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Back from Maine life did not slow down. Summer is flying by. The deadline for the opening of my stall at Cape Cod Crafters was looming so much of my time was concentrated on getting the type of pictures they said would sell for my cards. A quick photo shoot at Nantasket and then back home to fold and package cards.

Finally the big day came, the stall was open and I was hopeful life could return to normal.

That’s when Nancy reminded me that we owed the kids their annual summer outing. I enjoy it as much as they do so we had to squeeze that in. We wanted a zoo or Aquarium so we had narrowed it down to 3 choices…the Zooquarium in Yarmouth (Cape Cod), Mystic Aquarium (Mystic , CT.) or Roger Williams Park and Zoo in Providence , RI. I compared prices and travel time and  Roger Williams was the closest and in the middle for price so Roger Williams it is.

I hadn’t been to the  Zoo there in quite a while. I went the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular the last 2 years and I like the Carousel Village for pictures but it’s been closer to 20 years since I’ve been to the Zoo itself.

Here are some of the sights and scenes from the trip.

We saw a dominate tortoise “beating up” on his “lesser” cage mate. Yup. It’s 2 males jousting for dominance. It’s pretty clear which one was winning.

No Lions, Tigers and bears but for once the Snow Leopard was where it could be seen.

The Flamingos were nice and pink.

And look at that tongue on the giant ant-eater.

We spotted a cute little red panda. That was quite a hit.

Our national bird, The American Eagle was majestic as he perched in his enclosure.

I think it’s safe to say that we all had a good time.

Too many pictures, not enough room!

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The kids played in the “misters” and we found the green eggs to go with the ham, but I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, I do not like them Sam I AM (Dr. Seuss)

One or Maybe Two Final Comments on this Maine Visit

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Rise and Shine it ‘s time to check out and get on the road home but I can’t help feeling like it wasn’t quite complete. I got a decent picture of Pemaquid Light but not the one “in my head”. One more try…

I checked out giving a call to the Hardy Boats as I pulled out of the parking lot. They said they were fogged in and to call them around 11:00 for an update. Since that gave me a couple of hours to kill I headed north to Maine Wildlife Park.

It’s not too big. I walked most of it in a little over an hour but you do get great views of native wild animals.

The park takes in orphaned or injured animals that would not survive if left in the wild.

There were raptors like eagles, a red fox, coyote, deer…some of the cutest fawns you’d ever hope to see, bears and turtles, bobcats and cougars.

I was following one of the game trails. A sign thanked the Kittery Trading Post for the use of the fake animals. I’d just seen one of them. At a pond was a Great Blue Heron. Now I’ve taken enough pictures of them that I knew something wasn’t quite right, still it was a good enough imitation that I had to look really closely. And yes, it wasn’t moving but live herons can stand still for hours when they are listening for fish and frogs.

Walking along the path I was thinking that the noise I was making would scare away any wildlife. The path was gravel and no matter how hard I tried I was “crunching” . Out of the corner of my eye I spotted what looked like a moose. I chalked it up to another fake put along the trail as decoration so I was not ready when I turned the corner and came face to antler with a cow and bull. The bull had a full rack of antlers, still in velvet.. The cow drifted away but that bull just stared me down. I grabbed for my camera.

I just had time to get off the one shot before a family with two young children came around the corner. The kids were having a great time whooping and hollering and that was when Mr. Moose had enough and slipped silently back into the woods. It’s amazing how such a large animal can be so quiet.

Leaving the Park I was thrilled with my visit but it was time to check in with Hardy Boats. They said they were going out but that they were going to delay until 12:30. That was good. I could take a leisurely ride over.

When I arrived I again parked up on the hill and walked down to the dock. The closer I came to the water the foggier it got. I bought my ticket and chatted with the attendant. She told me of a spot where I could drive that might let me get the picture I wanted if I couldn’t get it from he boat. Her father is part of the search and rescue team in New Harbor and he is out to Pemaquid almost daily rescuing people who fall on the rocks. That made me glad that I’d chosen to be conservative yesterday.

I settled down to wait. A family came down to fish from the dock so it was fun watching the action.

About noon the boat pulled in.

The fog was still really thick so it wasn’t too surprising when they canceled the cruise.

My ticket price refunded, I took a quick run over to the spot I’d just been told about. The fog was so thick I couldn’t see the lighthouse at all. Disappointed I headed back to the south. Amazing how just a few miles inland the fog was gone , the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

Lunch time found me passing a bunch of interesting looking shops known as Heritage Village. If I had more time I would have loved to explore them all but for now I’d settle for lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant.

It just seemed fitting somehow. A fish sandwich was plenty. It was very tasty and I would eat there again. I must say I haven’t had a bad meal at all while in Maine. Lunch out of the way it was back on the road.

There was just one more thing I had to do before I left the Pine Tree State.

I had to meet Lenny the 1700 lb. chocolate Moose and his companions, the dark chocolate black bears.

Lenny resides at Len Libby Chocolates just south of Portland in Scarborough, ME. It’s definitely worth a stop. A full size chocolate moose is almost as rare as the real life kind! To the best of my knowledge Lenny is the only one of his kind.

But even if Lenny wasn’t there, the homemade candy is awesome. They also have ice cream. They have a candy that makes me think more of a caramel but they call it Len Libby Taffy. They were giving free samples when I was there. Soooo good.

So, my friends, that about wraps up my Portland trip. I didn’t get THE Pemaquid picture of my dreams and I didn’t have time to visit York’s Wild Kingdom but I would not have missed the Maine Wildlife Park for the world. It was a great visit. I saw a real Moose and got some great pictures of Nubble light decked out for Christmas in July.  I have a feeling I’ll be going back to Maine again.