I'm home!

We just got back from our trip to New Mexico earlier this afternoon. Great weather, great food, and great experiences! I took over 150 pictures and will have to sort through them, but I will eventually get some of them posted.

I mentioned in my last post about the reading material I took with me. I finished James Michener's "Chesapeake." And I am already half-way through Kenn Kaufman's "Kingbird Highway." I will also post on these two books soon.

Meanwhile, I did not have any time while in Socorro to check all the blogs I subscribe to; I only had 1/2 an hour to check email and blogs Sunday morning before heading for the Las Vegas NWR (Las Vegas, New Mexico). And then I took the time (about an hour) to check blogs and email again once we arrived in Albuquerque yesterday afternoon. But I was overwhelmed with the amount of email, and over 200 blog posts to catch up on. Whew!

If I don't get something posted in the next day or two, I want to take this opportunity to wish all of my blogging buddies a very Happy Thanksgiving!

East Coast Vacation

Red and I have returned from our week long vacation back to the Mid-Atlantic states. We visited what is known as the Historic Triangle, which includes Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, and the Yorktown Battlefield. We also visited George Washington's boyhood home, called Ferry Farm located in Frericksburg, VA. This is where we did some tour guided bird watching on the property. We then drove to New Jersey to visit relatives and participate in a family reunion. The following day we drove back south again to continue our vacationing historic areas. We managed to visit Annapolis, MD, Washington, DC, and Mt. Vernon, VA. And as usual, never enough time to visit everything we wanted to see. Nevertheless, we did enjoy our vacation and we have spent the last several days going through and editing our photos - a very time consuming activity. Red has posted about our flight to Richmond, VA and posted a few pix of our visit to Historic Jamestown.

Here are my photos (with comments) - sorry if some of them are repeats of what Red posted.

This is a view of the James River. As you may note, the weather was mostly cloudy, very warm and humid, quite muggy for most of our trip.This is a close-up of the sign seen in the previous photo. I think you can see an enlarged view of this by clicking on it. If you can see the enlarged view, you will note that there are quite a few archeological digs going on there in Jamestown. The most active one (photos below) was located between the Memorial Church and James Fort. Here is the sign regarding the most recent excavations. If you want to be able to read it, click on the photo to get an enlarged view.

Here is the statue of Pocahontas.

And here is Captain John Smith's statue.

These are views of the James River with a cannon (not sure if it is authentic or a replica) used to protect the people of Jamestown.

We saw this boat go by on the James River - is this a barge?

And this stone is a tribute to the original settlers from England (1607) given by the Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars (1928).

And this "house" is a research center which is private, not open to the public. I was so attracted to this building and its landscape I just had to post it. Not only is the building itself very attractive, but the lawn and the crepe myrtles around it were breathtaking.

Vacation time

My daughter, Heidi, aka Red, and I will be flying to Richmond, VA early Wednesday morning. We are planning to visit Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg Thursday and Friday.

Friday night we'll probably stay in Fredricksburg so that early Saturday morning we can attend a birding tour at Washington's Ferry Farm. The tour begins at 8 a.m. and lasts for 2 hours. It will be led by Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast. There have been over a hundred species sighted at this location, so I hope to see a few that I can add to my life list.

After the birding tour we will drive up to New Jersey (southern end) to attend our family reunion. This family reunion is on my mother's side where the majority of this family has lived and stayed in the Norristown-Philadelphia area for many decades.

Last week I went shopping for a new piece of luggage. My old luggage does not have wheels except for the largest piece. I think it's a 29-inch bag, large enough for a two-three week trip. But this trip is only for one week, and I don't need anything that big. So I got myself a Samsonite 21-inch upright.

It certainly has plenty of pockets on the front, as well as several more pockets and pouches inside the bag. And there still seems to be plenty of space for clothes, too.

Sunday we will drive in a southerly direction. We are hoping to visit Annapolis before heading to Washington. Can you believe this native of Baltimore has never visited the capital of her home state?

When we get to Washington we are hoping to visit the Museum of Natural History (a favorite of mine), and the Library of Congress. We also want to visit the memorials on the mall and hopefully will visit one of the Smithsonian buildings. I'm also hoping we'll get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I haven't been there since I was in high school, the year after John F. Kennedy was buried there. There's always so much to see and do in Washington and the surrounding area.