Month: July 2021

'scene' along the way, adventure, bucket list, exploring new places, facing facts, friends, fun, learning, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

Cape Henlopen State Park…

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Riding the Cape May ferry has long been on my bucket list. And since I lived in MD for over 30 years you might assume I had gotten around to it. But I never did, and our attempt to do it yesterday didn’t work out either. Planning ahead was required, or buy a stand-by ticket and then wait and see if you get to go at all. That didn’t sound like fun, so instead we went to Cape Henlopen State Park to see what we could see. And we immediately found two lighthouses. Sometimes you just get lucky.

This is the Harbor Rescue Lighthouse off in the distance.
The red one is the East End Breakwater Lighthouse. This is the view from the beach.
Our view was from the very long fishing pier where we got into a fun conversation with a fisherman who suggested that we come back for sunset from the pier. We didn’t, and that was lucky because it wasn’t a great sunset last night.
That wasn’t the Cape May ferry as I first thought. Just a water tour boat.
There was a lot more to see also, when I could tear myself away from more shots of the lighthouses.
You didn’t have to bring your own kayak.
I might bring my iPhone on a kayak, but not the big camera I was carrying.
,We found that the beach was full of colorful umbrellas. And there was a virtual parade of people heading onto the beach loaded down with their own beach paraphernalia.
I was surprised to notice the lighthouse in the distance.
This is where they keep track of boat traffic in the area.
Big boats require big boys.
This is the lightship Overfalls. A portable ‘lighthouse’ of sorts.

So while I didn’t get to ride the Cape May ferry, I can’t say that I was disappointed in the day and how it turned out. Someday I will learn to plan ahead a little better.

'scene' along the way, adventure, birds, black and white, exploring new places, family, friends, fun, grandchildren, kids, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

Dewey Beach sunset…

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We arrived in Dewey Beach and found our accommodations included a short walk to view the sunset. And family to boot! How great is that?

Should I sit, or should I kayak? Or just take pictures…
The requisite Great Blue Heron joined us, just like back home!
I loved the row of seagulls. They were making a racket.
The sky was pretty in both directions…
My granddaughter and her friend wandered onto the beach and I asked them to strike a pose. I don’t think they minded one bit.
They gave it their all!
I like people in my shots.
Another day ending, but more days of fun ahead!
'scene' along the way, adventure, connections, family, finding my way, friends, fun, grandchildren, life goes on, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

Stops along the way…

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On Friday we were headed to the Heritage Gardens, which I posted about. But I forgot about our stop to see this pretty gristmill along the way.

We purposely looked for this grist mill to take a few pictures, but it turned up right on the route.
It was prettier than I expected.
It was a quick stop, but so fun to see it.
This church was equally pretty but an unexpected find. St. Patrick’s in Falmouth.
We came across this church while we were driving around, and when we parked to take some photos we found a vendor setting up in advance of an event of some kind.
Here he is, the proprietor of Reid’s Real Baking. He was fun to talk to, and his bread and blueberry handheld pies were great. Stop if you see him, okay?
We stopped again when we saw these quite small cottages on stilts. They were cute, but I’m not sure I’d like to be inside looking out the window at a raging storm.
This is the Nobska Light, the same lighthouse that’s in the feature photo. With only a few parking spaces we felt lucky to snag one for a closer look.

I’m a lucky woman. Not only have I had someone special to enjoy this journey with me, and spent time with old and new friends, and family, but I’ve also spent the last couple of days with my daughter and family. So I’ve spent more time face to face with people than on the computer. And all the while I’ve been taking pictures, but I’ve lost track of all the places I’ve been and photos I’ve taken. But I’ll find them, they are in this computer…somewhere.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, Amazing artwork, bugs, butterflies, flowers, friends, fun, gardens, life, life goes on, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

It’s all about the bees…

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Heritage Gardens was supposed to be about the hummingbirds. I was there two years ago and came across a shrub that was just off the walking path and the flowers there were making the hummingbirds very happy. And the hummingbird moths too. So in my usual way I totally expected them to be right there waiting for me to take more pictures of them this time. So much of life has changed in the last two years, why should I expect the hummingbirds to be carrying on in the same way? I’ve certainly chosen a bit of a different path for myself these days, I guess they can too.

I was attracted to the intense blue and purple colors of this hydrangea.. The bee was a bonus.
Gorgeous hollyhocks.
The charming windmill.
Chipmunks are so cute, and we don’t see them in Florida.

Wait, I said this was about the bees, didn’t I?

Orange bee…
Pink bee…
Purple bee…
Oops, this is a butterfly!

Lego sculptures were found throughout the gardens.

Same picture from this angle…
And then from this angle.
And now we see how this was done…

We had such a nice day. And when we got back my friend got to reunite with two close friends from childhood for the first time in over 20 years. After all my travels and reconnections these past few years I know just how great that feels. What a very nice day.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, bucket list, connections, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

Cape Cod…

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We spent Thursday driving around the Cape, stopping at Race Beach in hopes of seeing the three lighthouses off in the distance. The feature photo is one of them. If we could have found parking I might have taken more. It seems P-town is having an up-tick in Covid so we didn’t walk around there. But at the Cape Cod national seashore we found the Three Sisters Lighthouses.

And the closing of the parking lot near the Nauset Light caused us to find and walk the trail and take pictures from the grounds as opposed to a photo from the parking lot. Serendipity.

As we headed toward home we stopped at the marina in Wellfleet and saw some pretty scenery. And we ate some really good ice cream too. All in all a nice, relaxing day.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, boats, foggy sky, friends, fun, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip, technology

The Cape Cod Canal…

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We reached the canal on Wednesday, but too early to continue on to check in to our motel. So we found a bench in the shade, and sat and watched the world go by. Or the boats, one speeding faster than another. And people on bikes. We got out our bag of snacks and munched, and took pictures for quite a while. And then it happened, just as it was time to leave. Something different, a tug boat pulling a barge came into view as it passed under the Sagamore Bridge. It was a treat to see it after an hour of more ‘normal’ shots.

But when I looked at the pictures later I saw that they looked dull, and I blamed the snow-white sky. Yesterday I said I needed to learn how to replace the sky in photos, and today that’s what I did. While it’s easy to do, there is a learning curve and lots of additional adjustments you can do, so I chose only a couple of pictures with sky involved, tweaked them just a little, and called it a day. The wonders of technology.

As the tugboat and barge continued toward the Bourne Bridge I saw that the tugboat was called the Sapphire Coast, and was out of Chesapeake City, MD. And the barge was a cement hauler. I guess I never wondered how cement got from one place to another, but I don’t think I would ever have imagined it traveling on a barge through the Cape Cod Canal.