Yates Mill - View from the Boardwalk

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Taken earlier this week at Yates Mill from the boardwalk and pp'ed in PSE and Nix Color Efex Pro.

Pink Princess

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I was in Wal-Mart this morning, and they had all their Valentine's Day stuff out.  I just couldn't resist.  I know it's a bit early...not even February yet, but I think there's always room for romance and that vivid color is refreshing on this cold winter day.  Taken with my iPhone and pp'ed with PSE and Nix Color Effects Pro.

Ruby-crowed Kinglet

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Taken a few minutes ago just out the backdoor.  I see the male (pictured in my daily) and female (pictured below) often.  Not  a super technical shot, but I thought you might enjoy the cute little bird anyway.

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Dreaming of the Beach

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Another shot from our beach trip on Monday.  I loved how naturally silver this shot turned out sooc.  I also liked the shadow.  That's Johnny running towards me.  There's another shot where I caught he walking sideways in front of me and where his feet/legs show motion nicely, but it was blurry:-(

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This shot that also shows the texture of the wind blown sand is also interesting I think.

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The boys and I were at Yates Mill yesterday, and I captured this neat shadow picture of me up on the boardwalk.

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Their yearly Mill as Muse photo contest deadline is 2/2.  I don't think I have a photo this year worthy of entry, so I don't think I'll participate this year.  Better get busy for next year!

Snow south of Raleigh last night was a complete bust:-(

The Shore at Pine Knoll Shores

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The boys and I did a day trip to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores yesterday.  Typically, we go to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher because it's closer and also a great aquarium, but this time we wanted a change of pace.  This was our 3rd trip to Pine Knoll Shores, and we spent the night the other times we went there.  It is 159 miles to Pine Knoll Shores, and it was estimated to take 2 hours and 56 minutes.  On the way down, we made just one quick stop and it really did take around 3 hours.  On the way home, it took a bit longer due to more and longer stops although I have to say that we never did hit any traffic issues.

You can see the route to Pine Knoll Shores here on Google Maps  I totally relied on the GPS on my phone to navigate in both directions.  It felt a bit bold to be out on NC 111 in the middle of nowhere on the way home, but it was smooth sailing.  I enjoyed not being solely on I40 or I95.

In contrast, the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is 145 miles and is estimated to take 2 hours and 28 minutes.  Really not that much difference.

There is a 3rd NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island, and I hope to get us there some day.  That one is 208 miles away.  I don't think we'll be doing that one as a day trip;-)

The aquarium had free admission yesterday for the MLK holiday.  We get in for free with our NC Zoo Membership anyway.  We chose yesterday because the weather was really nice

Everyone has their favorite thing to see at the aquarium  For Johnny, it's getting to go to the touch tank.  At this aquarium, they have a large tank with rays and guitar fish plus another touch area for horseshoe crabs and welk.  For Joey, it's watching the dive show. They had an extended show yesterday from about 2-3, and we had front row seats and I got a lot of great pics.  My favorite it trying to get jelly fish pictures:-)  We also enjoyed the river otters and octopus.

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I don't go to the beach and not go on the beach even if it is in the middle of winter:-)  Like I said, the weather was really nice yesterday.  It was about 55 with a light wind at 3:30pm when we went.  We spent about an hour.  I took pics and collected shells.  The boys dug in the sand and got their feet (or more) wet.

The pretty shot I've posted as my daily was taken during this time.

Here's a picture of Johnny getting wet.

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Here's a picture of Joey enjoying himself too.

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You might wonder where Donnie was.  Poor guy is doing some computer contract work and was stuck at home.  I didn't forget though...

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All in all, it was a great day.  Until spring break...

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Sitting Pretty

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The boys and I went to Yates Mill on Saturday and walked the mill pond loop.  This branch has been visible in the water in this location for a while now, and I often see ducks or other water fowl standing on it.  I was pleased on this trip to see a cormorant and to capture this silhouette with the shiny water.

It was really a glorious day to behold, but it was 35 out and the winds were 10-15.  We were definitely bundled!

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Sidewalk A

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The SmugMug Daily Photo Community has started a new Sunday challenge.  This time, we are looking for letters of the alphabet again, BUT the idea is to post a photo of a letter that is not an actual letter.  The item photographed should be in the shape of a letter.  It is not critical to go in order, but I'll try.  Also, I'll take letters as I find them and not necessarily the day before or actual post day.  I've started a gallery to keep track of all my 'raw' letter shots.  At some point, I'll create a gallery with the best and finalized pictures.  I intend to have a color and B&W of each letter too. For the 27th week, the idea will be to post a word made out of the letters (i.e., LOVE).  If folks are stuck, they can look at alphabet photo galleries on Google that others have done for ideas as well as just take a shot of a sign letter.  So far, I am thinking R will be the hardest letter.  I thought Q might be, but then I stumbled across a reasonable Q.

Today's daily alphabet shot is of an A taken in the sidewalk at the NC Zoo on Friday.  Joey spotted it!  It was fun at the museum and zoo this last week to get the kids and Aunt Debbie involved in looking for letters.

Originally, I was going to post a shot of this Lego brick bridge piece that looks like an A, but it was kindof boring as a still object.  Or at least I couldn't make it interesting.

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Donnie had this great idea to throw the letter in front of a blue sky, and we gave it a good go, but it was pretty hard, and I ended up liking the sidewalk crack shot better.  The A in the sky shots turned out not in the right direction, blurry, sky went cloudy, etc.  Plus the A was awfully small in the frame.

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Go Broncos!

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