Lioness at the NC Zoo

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A heartfelt thanks to Donnie for taking me and the boys to the NC Zoo yesterday...  Between the cold  I've got and the effects of the chemo, he's doing his best to make sure I don't go out and get myself into too much trouble.  The boys track back into school on Monday, so maybe life will slow down a bit. I doubt it.  I also have my second of four chemo treatments on Monday too.  Trying to enjoy myself before that!

Here's a collage with my favorite shots of the day:

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You know I am loving that shot of my 3 guys on the gord in the vegetable playground!  No trip to the zoo is complete without climbing the spider web and the various other vegetables.  Even Donnie got in on the act!

Donnie Video  

Temps climbed up to 54 by midday at the zoo, and then they dropped back to 46 by the time we left at 4PM.    Unfortunately, clouds filled the sky for our entire visit.  A light drizzle moved up from the south (odd direction) as we headed to the van.  I am so glad the rain didn't move in any sooner.  The zoo was NOT crowded still somehow we managed to run into another family that goes to the boys' school.  Not too many souls visit the zoo in the winter although they are open every day except Christmas.  Actually, if you want to see frisky animals, go when it is not sweltering.  Winter is a great time to visit.  The female lion, red river hogs, chimps, and many of the other animals were up and about.

I saw a sign yesterday that said that there are 5 miles of trails at the zoo.  I  knew it was at least 3 miles.  Donnie counted over 8000 steps on his pedometer yesterday.  We enjoyed Chinese buffet for dinner:-)

My daily picture shows the lioness resting on a rock in her habitat.  It is HDR and a big improvement over the sooc cloudy day shot.  We were approaching the gorilla habitat when we heard the lion start roaring.   What a sound!  We raced across the Africa side of the zoo toward the lion enclosure in hopes of hearing and seeing what we assumed was the male lion roar again.  I'm not sure why, but the male lion was off exhibit.  However, the female lion did roar again, and I got video and countless pics.

Lion Video

We even heard the male lion roar off exhibit.

Joey's favorite zoo animal is the lion, and Johnny's is the gorilla.  So, after ditching the gorillas for the lions, I walked Johnny back to see the gorillas.  That was a real treat!  Two of them were at the window.  I got this video of Johnny interacting with what I assume was the smaller, female gorilla.

Gorilla Video

Donnie said his favorite experience at the NC Zoo yesterday was seeing the frisky ocelots.  The mom had 2 kittens last April, and they are as big as her now.  They frolicked in their pen to the delight of the folks looking on.  Look at how they played with us through the glass in this video.

Ocelot Video

When we first entered the zoo, and you have to enter on the North America side in the winter vs. the Africa side, we were treated to the Harbor Seal training session.  3 times a day, they feed and work with the seals.  The trainer explained that although they do teach them some fun tricks that most of the training is designed to acclimate the animals to having veterinary procedures preformed like drops in their eyes, nails trimmed, and teeth brushed.  We were delighted to see the few tricks from up top and then go underneath to watch the seals play with a toy.

Harbor Seal Video

As we headed to the tram from Africa back to North America, we stopped to watch the giraffes running in their yard.  As far as we could tell, they were ready to head to the barn for the night!  and eat!

Giraffe Video

The zoos two polar bears are off exhibit and have been moved to different zoos (Detroit and Milwaukee) while the zoo enhances their exhibit.  It's an 8 million dollar project.  Gulp!  I am sure it will be worth it in both helping to house additional bears and to put more than one bear out at a time.  They are tripling the size of the exhibit and could house up to 6 bears and maybe even do breeding at the zoo.  The new habitat is scheduled to open in 2013 along with a much updated Kids Zone play area.  In recent years, the zoo added a bee hive playground and a geyser simulation and we've very much enjoyed those additions, so we eagerly await these latest projects to be completed.  I just renewed my zoo membership for 2 years:-)

A Day of History

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RE yesterday's daily...  I'm really sorry that snake picture startled so many of you.  I assure you that I did not post it for shock effect.  I just liked the color and how sharp it was.  Yes, I did take the shot through glass.  That's one of the reasons I had to take so many to try to avoid the glare, frame him up just right, etc.  There were at least 8 of those guys in the enclosure that was about 5'X5'X5'.  None were moving.  All were wrapped on a tree branch.  Honest, they seemed so docile and just pretty to  me.  I had no issues with resting the lens right up to the glass for some of the shots:-)  Don't get me wrong, if I happen upon a snake in my yard, I get startled.  But, I've worked to desensitize myself over the years.  Usually if I see a snake in the yard now, I get closer and start taking pics.  I will even hold a snake at events where there's a trainer to assist and the snake is used to being held.  I didn't get that chance yesterday.  Anyway...that's my snake shot for the year...I think.

The boys and I did end up going to the North Carolina Museum of History yesterday.  I think I had only been in it one other time, and I think that was when the kids were much younger.  The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is right across Bicentennial Plaza from the history museum, but I guess science appeals to me more than history and the hands-on activities in the sciences museum hold the kids' interest better.  I just can't believe that we go to the natural sciences museum about 8 times a year and had barely had glanced at the history museum until now.  Well, no more!  It has been redone I feel sure since I was in it last time, and I was thoroughly impressed with the exhibits and well, the history lessons.  Joey asked a ton of questions, and we had many discussions as we enjoyed our stroll through the museum.

My daily picture depicts the inside of a textile mill.  I was totally impressed with whoever designed this parallel mirror infinite reflections shot of two textile mill machines making then look like an entire textile factory floor.  Wow!  The mirrors were parallel left and right and front and back!  I have run out of time to try to clean this shot up anymore.  Yes, you can see me in the glass.  I did run a noise filter on it.

Here's one other view:

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At the end, we watched a video that basically covered 1970-present day. And, as the video ran, I enjoyed seeing the historical places around the state pass by on the screen.   I smiled thinking, "We've been there.  We've been there."  That felt good.

A couple of key facts I learned or had reinforced in the video were:
1. Tobacco, textile mills, and furniture were the big 3 industries in North Carolina up until a few years ago.
2. North Carolina's number one industry is still agriculture with a diverse amount of foods grown.
3. 75% of North Carolinians now live in urban vs. rural settings.
4. 25% of North Carolinians today hold a college degree.

And here's a link to some other facts about NC that I found online and thought were interesting.

If you're a history buff, there are a slew of images of the exhibits in a new gallery dedicated to just today's pics.  The museum followed a timeline starting with explaining Native American culture, the arrival of the Europeans, life in Colonial Times, and the Revolutionary War.  It went on of course to present the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and even touched on the Gulf War.  We watched how military uniforms evolved over time as well as the gear the soldiers carried.  We saw how hard life was for some people.  We got a glimpse at politics and religion.  One exhibit showed a slave home in comparison to what I'll surmise as a middle class home.  We saw how transportation evolved from horse and buggy to trains to cars.  It was a good follow-on from our trips to the NC Transportation Museum and the USS North Carolina Battleship.

I do stop to pause for a minute and wonder if we should really dwell on the atrocities of the past.  Does teaching history really prevent us from making the same mistakes?  If we don't talk about how evil man is capable of being, will man still be evil?  Well of course we have to cover some history.  But, really, you should have been me for a few minutes trying to describe to an attentive and interested 9-year-old the Trail of Tears, why slavery existed and what the KKK was.  Gulp.  Thankfully I was able to end things with a reference to Martin Luther King, Jr. and how the Civil Rights movement drastically improved tolerance and respect for all regardless of skin color, ethnic background, religion, etc.  We've come a long way but still have a ways to go I concluded.

No trip to a museum is complete without spinning a wheel:

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The exhibit was showing how furniture was built using a lathe and a saw.

Joey concluded after seeing the Girl Scout exhibit that he now wants to be a Boy Scout.

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You're in the Army now.  You're not behind a plow.  ...

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This camera set-up had the boys in hysterics pretty quick.  I had to pull them away and regain control:-)

From a photographic perspective, I was fascinated by this image:

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Behind the man, there was a sheer curtain with part of the design, then some floods, and then a wall with even more of the design.  Unfortunately, the floods kept changing intensity, and I struggled to get the shot that I had hoped for.

This was Johnny's favorite exhibit.  The buttons on the display made different parts of the exhibit move including a train.

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And, for all you Nascar fans out there:

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They had a Richard Petty 43 and a Dale Earnhardt 3 there too.

Before we headed out yesterday, I captured these Yellow-Rumped Warbler pics:

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Today...Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

A Walk with the Dinosaurs and other Critters

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The boys and I went to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences yesterday otherwise usually referred to by me as The Dinosaur Museum.  Wow has this museum come a long way since I started going to it in the old building back in the early 90s.  I still remember how excited everyone was over the new Fossil Lab in the then new building.  Now, in April, the Nature Research Center will open one block over and be attached by a fancy walkway.  Should be exciting!

My daily is an Emerald Tree Boa.  I could not resist their green skin and pose and spent some time trying to get just the right shot.

If you've never been to Raleigh, you might appreciate the view of downtown from the south side:

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It's a relatively compact downtown, and there have been quite a few revitalization projects which have done a good job keeping the city looking nice and creating a safe environment to be out and about in.

Since I've been to the museum many times over the years and taken tons of photos, I really tried to take some shots at some new angles yesterday and/or do different pp.  For example, here's an HDR of one of the whale skeletons, I believe a blue whale,  that hang from the museum ceiling:

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Seeing those skeletons reminds me of going to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History when I was a little girl.  I hope to take the boys to Washington, DC to go to the museums there some day soon.  I was telling Joey of all the dinosaurs that he would be able to see there.  I dream of spaceships too:-)

Speaking of skeletons and dinosaurs in particular, here is a collage of some of the other exhibits:

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This museum boasts of having the only dinosaur with a heart...Willow.  That's the top right picture in the collage.

Johnny loves this huge earth, and I got down low today to include the words 'North Carolina' in the picture.

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I wasn't satisfied with any of my butterfly shots in the conservatory yesterday.  This is the best I got of a Blue Morpho:

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I was a bit humbled yesterday to learn that Owl Butterflies and Blue Morpho Butterflies are not the same thing:-)  They do look similar, but Owl Butterflies have one primary Great Horned Owl looking eye while Blue Morpho Butterflies have a lot of smaller eyes.  I won't be confused again at least:-)  You know the old saying...learn something new every day.

A couple of other shots that I liked:

This is an educational 'toy' in the Nature Discovery Room.  I found myself entertained by it.  The staff member supervising the room joked with me about it being fun for all ages:-)

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The typewriter below is from the office of one of the original museum scientists.  They have an area showing how scientists used to work and then another showing how they work today.  A computer replaced the typewriter.  They need to update the exhibit to show an iPad or at least a laptop as it has an old clunker desktop:-)

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The octopus below is part of the museums older specimens collection.  This would make a great Halloween shot!  I had to do it in B&W!

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The shot below is from a play area in the Nature Discovery Center.  Johnny sat in this area for some time playing with stuffed animal ocean birds and shells.  I remembered our wonderful day at the shore on Monday...

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Who can resist this cute bee?!?

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Joey asked me to take this shot:-)

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The picture below shows that there is still a lot of work to be done to get the new wing open by April!  I wish the glass on the window in the Nature Discovery Center had not been so dirty and had so much glare.

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We'll be headed to the North Carolina History Museum across from the North Carolina Natural Sciences Museum later today.  I am not as familiar with this one.

A View of the Pasture

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On the way to the beach on Monday, we drove past this pasture which is very close to my house.  I often want to stop and take pics here, but it's on a busy highway and there's nowhere to park.  Donnie and I both saw how pretty the light and frost was, and he volunteered to turn around and drop me off and come back for me in 5 minutes.  Yes, please!!!  So I started taking as many bracketed images zoomed out and in and from various vantage points along the fence.  I picked my favorite back at home and processed it as an HDR and then created several versions in Color Efex Pro.  I ended up posting the HDR version.

If I think the comp of a shot is worth the effort, or I'm just having fun, I usually try to pp it several ways and then pick the one I think works the best.  What that really means is that I give myself too many choices and then torture myself for a while trying to pick the best one  :-)

Here's the original:

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Here's one Color Efex Pro Version

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Here's another Color Efex Pro version:

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Here's one other view sooc that Donnie and I really liked.  I just wish I'd exposed the sunburst better:

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I often see Canada Goose in this field and sometimes a heron or an egret.  It's a beautiful south facing spot where I can get both pretty sunrises and pretty sunsets.  Sometimes all the cows are in the water in the summer cooling off.  I hope Donnie can drop me off there again on a favorable picture day soon.

A Day at the Beach

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I try to take the boys to the beach at least one day each track out period (January, April, July, and October). Remember, my boys are in year round school so 9 weeks in and then 3 weeks out plus normal school closed holidays. Anyway, based on warm weather, low wind, and mostly sunny skies, I picked yesterday as our day to go. Donnie wanted to go too and handled the driving (and lots of other things!) so that I didn't have the pressure of staying alert to drive and could really enjoy the day not to mention his company. We started out our day with a picnic lunch at the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area and then headed over the the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.  The two places are less than a mile apart.  After we left the aquarium, it was back to the recreation area for a walk down onto the beach which I knew was going to turn into two wet boys.  I just would not be deterred from taking in that ocean view!  The temperature of the ocean water at Fort Fisher right now is 54 degrees.  So, the air temp and water temp were about the same yesterday.  The boys lasted about 15 minutes, and then of course we got them dried off and warmed up right away.  As we left the area, we stopped at the parking area near a Civil War Monument and Donnie and I sat on the protective sea wall rocks and watched the sun set, the surfers trying to catch a wave, and a few pelicans and dolphins out in the water.  We topped off the day with Smithfield's Chicken 'n Bar-B-Q on the way home.  It doesn't get any better than that!

It was incredibly hard to pick what picture to post today since I took so many that I like either for comp or emotional attachment:-)  I finally settled on this gull shot because of the dof, light,and clarity of his eye.  I'll include a few other shots from the day below and probably follow up with another daily from our trip tomorrow.

The picnic:

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Here's a collage showing what I think are the best aquarium shots:

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I was really impressed with the shots that I was able to capture with the Canon SX40 HS.  It does handle low light shots much better than the S3 IS did.  I learned the difference between a skate and a ray yesterday.  We also were treated to the wood ducks being very active in their habitat.  Sometimes we don't even get to see them let alone get to watch them swim around for 10 minutes.  You should have heard how excited Joey was coming to find me and letting me know that the wood ducks were out.  I love those helpers in my picture taking!

They had the dive show at 2:30, and the kids waited (their idea) by the glass for 20 minutes to get front row seats.  They were motivated!  That allowed me to get quite a few good tank shots plus this very neat video of the divers interacting with the kids.

Both boys asked questions through the microphone, and I was so proud that they were so eager to do that.

In this collage, the boys just have to be boys!

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Johnny trying to squeeze in on this guy's girl.  She was quite smitten:-)  "He's smart. I really like this kid."

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On the beach, I think this shot sums up our time there the best.  "Mom, you know I am going to get more wet, right?"

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Yep!

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Beach collage:

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Here's me and Donnie as we sat on the rock wall:

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I love this picture even though I forgot and looked at the LCD instead of the lens (I should know better).

The dolphins:

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And, Donnie with the gulls (and grackles)...

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It started out as me throwing up the crackers and then Donnie offering to throw them up and then Donnie holding the crackers up as the birds grabbed them.  A thrill for me and a first for Donnie.  All fingers remained intact:-)  Please don't be too upset that I fed the birds.  It was really just a small number of crackers...

My hero!

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Donnie would like to point out the Alabama Crimson Tide logo for the 2011 BCS (National Football) Champions.

I'll leave you with this parting video of the day.  Something to make you smile...

Sam I Am

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Last night turned into family game night, and the fist game we played was the Green Eggs and Ham Game. That was officially Joey's idea and a thrift store find from a few years ago. It basically involves counting, memory, and decision making which is about what you'd expect in a board game. I hadn't taken any pictures during the day because I was too busy watching football and taking down Christmas decorations. Every once in a while I have to get chores out of the way instead of play:-) So, as we played the game, I took a few shots.

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We went on to play Boggle and Sorry!  Our strategy of keep the kids from wanting to wrestle with Donnie for  two hours straight worked!

A Walk in the Park

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It will come as no surprise to you guys that I have a bunch of very nice things to say about Donnie again today.  He's been the absolute best this week as I dealt with losing the rest of my hair.  It wasn't easy, but no sense dwelling on it anymore than I already have.  He went with me to get a wig yesterday and a few comfy hats, and I'm good to go until my own hair starts to come back hopefully sometime this summer.

Then on the way home he asked me where I wanted to go to take pictures. Can it get any better than that?  I suggested a wildlife viewing spot next to a substation in Cary where I've been seeing folks park and walk at for years but have never made time to stop and check it out.  Turns out it's a  real park with real trails and a very nice place to walk on a moderate winter's day.  It's called Swift Creek Bluffs Preserve by the Triangle Land Conservancy.  If you check out the map at the link, you can see the the trail that we walked.  We did everything but the stairs:-)

I have posted a male juvenile yellow-bellied sapsucker woodpecker picture as my daily.  We spotted him early in our walk, and Donnie helped me track him between a several trees.  I did my best to capture him on the sunny side of the tree and not up too high.  He would move trees, land in the shade, and quickly spiral up the trees...repeat.  30 minutes later on our way back past the same spot on the trail, we saw him again and I got a second chance to take some pics.  It was exciting.  If I'm lucky I see one or two of these guys a year.  I went back and see that I posted another one as a December 2009 Daily.

I have a gallery of textures and backgrounds which I've been adding to for a while now.  However, apparently, in 2011 I didn't add any new images:-(  I plan to start back in 2012, and I added a few from yesterday:  Thanks to Phil Nix for motivating me to get back to this.

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A beautiful creekside HDR:

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Speared!  I couldn't help but think of pitchingwedge33.

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I'll definitely be stopping at this 'park' again!  The boys would love to get their feet wet in the creek in warmer, or not, weather!

A wonderful conclusion to our day was dinner with our friends Debbie and Joe and their friend Martha.  Donnie snapped this picture with his iPod Touch:

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