Day 170

Today, we started our 9 day vacation. We left at 4am. The first leg stretching stop was in SC at a rest stop with a welcome center.

For lunch, we went to Uncle Buba's in Savannah, GA. Then, we walked around Forsyth Park before embarking on the next part of our long drive for the day.

These small birds were eating from the grass along the street we parked on.

The sun was shining bright through the oak trees. Oak trees by the ocean are different than those by us. Salt water causes the tree branches to twist as they grow. They also have Spanish moss growing on them. This is common along the Southern coast.

This pet bunny was relaxing in the busy park. It was on a leash and wasn't nervous around the large amount of people at the chalk festival. Since it's a pet, it doesn't fit with my normal wild creatures. However, it was surprisingly very calm for a bunny in a busy park with lots of dogs.

We headed to Jacksonville, FL for the evening. After checking into our hotel at the Mayo Clinic (I kid you not), we headed for the near by beach.

Like most beaches, there were seagulls. I love the reflective qualities of the water on the sand.

John found this on the beach. John thinks it's a jelly fish. I thought it might be a boob implant.. I know, I'm the gorey one. Either way, it was neat looking. I wasn't allowed to poke it.

The receding water caused ripples in the sand. Darker sand was deposited in the valleys of the ripples. Because the wet sand was so reflective, the setting sun glowed brightly on it.

This is what the sand looks like as it absorbs the remaining receding water.

This is what the sand looks like from being walked on by many people. It's like small dunes.

While walking back to the car, I saw these tall pink flowers...

...and these cactus flowers.

We wanted to eat dinner at the beach. An irony of Jacksonville is all the bars that line the beach. Given that the Mayo Clinic (best known as an addiction rehab) is located in Jacksonville, FL, the large amount of bars must keep them in business with some locals too. Since, we couldn't find a suitable place at the beach to eat dinner with Alex, we went in search of somewhere else. On the way to find a suitable spot, I took a photo of the setting sun. We found Gumbo Yaya. It's a small place with wonderful New Orleans food. Very delicious and worth the search.

Day 169

Today, I was getting ready for our trip, so I took photos by our house. There have been multi-colored flowers dropping down from a tree in front of the house. I googled to figure out what they were from. I found out they are from a tulip tree. I had to squint hard to figure out which tree they were coming from. It helped that blooms were dropping as I was searching. Once I figured it out, I took more photos of the tree.

The rhododendron is in full bloom and the bees are abundant.

The sun was coming through the trees in a glittery way. It took a few tries, till I could capture the broken up light.

Day 168

A lot of early spring plants are dying shortly after they bloomed. However, there are new plants blooming and growing. There were lots of creatures today.

I found this tiny butterfly while taking flower photos

The white azaleas in our yard are wilting. They have had lots of rain and sun, but it's their nature to die quickly.

The dogwood blooms have mostly dropped off all at once, regardless of variety or when they bloomed. Very odd.

These are dying pink azaleas.

These flowers have grown paler overall, in color.

The center has changed in this flower.

This bush has recently grown new leaves.

This bush in our yard, has sprouted pink buds.

This chipmunk stood still for a while.

I took a step forward and it ran into this hole. I waited patiently and it poked back out of the hole.

There have been major storms in the area, but we have had light sporadic rain. Since we have a sky of thick clouds and clear sky, when the sun set, the clouds turned pink and purple.

John found this little frog for me. I tried to take clear photos without flash, but they weren't clear. I had to use flash, to pick up it's details, like the warts and blue spots.

Day 167

Today, I took photos of the baseball field of Alex's school, as she ran around the track before school started.

The field was covered with buttercups.

There were a few dandelions...

...and clovers.

This is blurry, but I like the impressionist feel that it gives to the field of buttercups.

This photo, there is a cluster of buttercups that were focused on.

Day 166

Today, I took more photos along the main path

This is a bloom from a tulip tree. If you count the ants carefully, you will count 5. I took this photo upside down, so the amount of ants is a total surprise to me.

This is pollen

These are new flowers that someone just bought.

The Japanese maple has been nibbled.

Green leaves. These are from the purple shoots.

Day 165

Today, I took photos of new plants along the main path.

I think these are some type of rose.

These came from the pine trees.

We have lots of caterpillars and inchworms who have been busy chewing on leaves

This weed like plant has a very long stem. I'm trying to convince my neighbor not to cut it down, just in case it has beautiful flowers.

These are vivid red azaleas

Pink and white azaleas

My white azalea is already losing it's blooms. This bee was taking advantage of the pollen in this one. You can see that a petal of this one has a hole in it. That might be from caterpillars or inchworms.

This is from a tulip tree. Tulip trees are tall  like oaks and maples, so it's hard to see their blooms way up high, to see which of the trees is a tulip tree. I will try to find the tree though.

The rhododendron started opening up it's blooms. I walked around to the back of the bush and was greeted by two large bees. They were so big that the clusters shook when they entered the flowers. It was amusing to watch them from a safe distance, as they gathered and dropped pollen.

This the second bee. It looks like a weird little alien.