Alaska Trip: Seattle

Seattle

Stopped over in Seattle. Had the morning about town. we will be back in a few weeks to have, another good look 

Finally Nicola managed to find some one smaller than her

A view of the famous like Street market where you can by anything and the fish mongers throw the fish around.

Outside the Art gallery a moving giant steel worker.

This ,London eye is on the water front, on a pier reminiscent of Aber pier in it's tacky shops. 

Nolan Trail

Nolan Trail

This is a really nice wooded walk around a reservoir in Newport News.  You do need good walking shoes and have to be aware of joggers who come huffing and puffing behind you as you saunter along.  Its around six miles long and well marked.  Keep Your eyes open you never know what you will see; we found this Black Racer on a tipped up tree bank:

Bird life abounds, the photo is of a pair of cormorants who were nesting in the area.

 The walk is punctuated with bridges with Mile markers to let you know how far or not you have walked.

 You don't have to walk along fallen trees, but why not?

Outer Banks. Duck

Duck Area

The whole area is stunning, with a narrow spit of land between the Ocean and a huge Lake.  I sat for a couple of hours on the inland side and found these tracks:

And this vulture:

Outer Banks. Wright Brothers and First Settlement.

Outer Banks.

We stayed here at Sanderlings resort out of season in February.  The great thing about staying out of season is its quiet and your choices for food are limited to the places open at that time of year.  These places exist for local trade and so tend to be homely and have good food.

North Carolina prides itself on being 'First in Flight' and has a good museum where the Wright brothers first took off with their aircraft.

They like their monuments big out here!

Surprising to see how little the basic design has changed over the years.

We went to the site of the first settlement of people from Britain.  When another ship came a few years later they found no one left at this settlement site.  Nicola thinks they wandered of into the woods married locals and lived happily ever after. Maybe!

I tested the sleeping bunks for size.  This one is better than my bunk on board the USS Monterey.

Apparently not the first aid tent but the English Flag at First Settlement.

Shenandoa

Christmas 2016 at Rose River

An incredibly beautiful place, we visited over Christmas 2016.  After months in the city it was so good to get back out to the countryside, to peace and quiet and fresh air.  Also great fishing which is recording in my other blog: HERE

While fishing for Bass, unsuccessfully, I caught a movement in the grass and saw this little chap, who had not heard or seen me till a reached for the camera.  This was the first opossum I have seen in the wild.

An alternative Christmas day! We packed sandwiches and made our way up to the Parkway Drive.  As it was Christmas Day no one was in the toll booths so my Radnorshire heart was pleased with that little saving.  We stopped after an hour and walked up to Stony Man point.  A lovely peaceful place to eat Christmas Sandwiches, spoilt only by a couple who arrived and filled our our ignorance of what we were looking at by pointing out where they lived, then realising they had the wrong valley and pointing out another place where they might live,  I resisted the temptation to push the good lady down the mountain thus freeing her poor husband, who had not been able to get a word in, and it would help her find home, which was down there somewhere.

On the way back we saw chipmunks playing around the trees.  A great Christmas day.

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

One of our favourite places to go in Norfolk is the Botanical Gardens.  At any time of year it provides a great walk through beautiful gardens with an abundance of wild life.

These two photos are taken in the fountain garden a nice place to sit and listen to the water.

Sylvan Heights Bird Sanctuary

Sylvan Heights Bird Sanctuary

Up and off to the wonderfully named Scotland Neck in North Carolina to a delightful bird sanctuary.  After passing over $11.00 plus tax (we can never work out the randomness of the tax thing) we were given a map and let loose in the park.

We were amazed by the brightness of this ibis.  It looks like its been painted in some sort of Queen of hearts homage.

The ducks in the first pond were so well feed they didn't what the extra feed that we had for them.  The Turtles, of which there were many, were the only ones seeking escape.

The flamingos were prolific this is just the one pond, there is a second pond of the same number.

Bright colours were everywhere.

I think the above is a fish eagle

My favourites were the humming birds.  My camera struggled to capture his wings on the second photo.

The weird and wonderful.

Roanoke Rapids Canal Bike Trail

A Good Mountain Bike needed!

A quick trip down to Roanoke Rapids in North Carolina. We stopped off to cycle the trail. The path was rough in places and we were unable to complete it when we came upon a deep stream crossing . 

These tiny goslins were part of a bigger group of Canada Geese we rode past.

Good parking at both ends, and along its route so you can choose how far you want to cycle.