I think some penguins have a case of the mondays....

Like all wild animals, I would assume that penguins get territorial, but I couldn't believe these three penguins started a brawl right in front of me.

              -"Hey, we having a fight guys?"

                                                   -"Easy guys, I don't want a fight."

This doesn't seem quite fair to me, can you see that big huge beak?

 I love this little foot hovering over the edge.

                  -"Ummmmm, are we being watched"              

                     -"act cool guys, act cool."                                 -I'm getting the heck out of here.

No less than five minutes later there four were hanging out together like typical guys.  Have a big fight, ruffle some feathers, and then be done with it.                

Newly learned Maryland Zoo fun fact of the day: all the males have bands on their right arms, while the females have bands on their left arms.

Love Always,

Meg

I Declare This Week...Penguin Week

I have to make a huge confession, I don't watch football.  There, I said it.  I know where my family allegiance puts me, I cheer for the right team when forced, but I don't like football.  

So today, instead of watching football, I went to the Maryland Zoo.

I had the good fortune of showing up during feeding time, when all the little penguins were out and about.  (this picture is from the end of feeding time)

This is their current enclosure, in the next year and a half they will have a brand new home.  

I learned tons of fun facts.  Such as penguins molt all of their feathers at once, so this pathetic looking little guy is either quite ill and old, or more likely he is in the process of growing new feathers.  

This little guy decided to do a little penguin cannon ball.  Adorable.  

 (I took these pictures with the song, I think I can fly stuck in my head, just saying.)

I was looking at this little fellow, imagining that he was trying to take flight as he flapped his wings for several minutes straight.  I giggled as this situation is the exact reason I started this blog.  Trying to find my footing or path to fly in.  Boy was he determined.  

 This little guy is flying just fine, under the water that is.  Penguins are so graceful.

Here are the penguins flying around in a pack formation.  

I literally sat and watched the penguins for hours.  Thus the title of this post, there will be a week's worth of penguin posts.  There were fights and feeding frenzies, it will definitely be a fun filled week. 

Love Always,

Meg

P.S. This post was submitted to Sunday Snapshot

Getting back in the habit of taking pictures

Ok, so I've been MIA for a while, almost no posts on the blog.  But I am back.

I think we all get caught up with work and life's little stresses, and possibly forget to take a little bit of me time.  This is definitely what happened with me.  I'm going to try to post at least once a week, start back slow.  I hope to discover more of Maryland and our surrounding states.  

 We have some beautiful black eyed susans in my front yard, I definitely had to document them.  

And of course Mr. Winks, the fiercest three pound Yorkie I have ever met.

Love Always,

Meg

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

Today I made a trip to Cumberland, MD, which is the farthest west I have ever been in Maryland.  The purpose of the trip was to see the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

 The railroad has a steam engine train and I was dying to get some pictures of it.  This is a picture of a caboose that I saw while I was waiting.

 This is the lovely train pulling into the station, it was huge.

 Having never seen a steam engine train before, I was truly surprised by how much smoke and steam was coming out of this train.

 This is the driver who was refilling the train with both steam and coal while the passengers got on.

 It was hotter then hades out, I can't imagine how hot he must have been in that engine.

 This was one of the coolest things that I have seen in a while.

 Now is the time that I have to say, I didn't do enough research before going.  I thought that the train was going to be coming around another bend.  I raced over to a cemetery that overlooked the train tracks. I set up my tripod, and was giddy with excitement.

Then I had to quickly change my stance to get a picture of the train coming around the bend.  While I like these pictures, I am going to have to come back and get the pictures that I was envisioning. 

 Heres the train coming a bit closer around the bend.

Finally here is the train coming directly passed me.  To set the picture, I am standing in the middle of a bush, cast the tripod to the side, and am desperately trying to quickly set my camera to expose for the train driver. 

I will have to go back to cumberland, I didn't take any pictures of the town, or of the parks on the way, so this is definitely part one of two. 

Love Always,

Meg

Visiting the Charmery

Tonight the girls and I went to Hampden and get some dinner and ice-cream.  A new place cropped up named the Charmery and it is pretty exciting.  

They have the typical flavors such as vanilla and chocolate but they also have....

 OLD BAY AND CARMEL ICE-CREAM.  To the non Baltimoreans who read this blog, old bay is a spice that goes on everything.  Crabs, fries, eggs, and now ice-cream.  This was wonderful. 

I will have to make this a tradition and go there often.  Yummo.

Love Always,

Meg

Seamus the Frog

Quite honestly after my last post, I had every intention of curling up on the coach and watching a little TV.  But then this little frog came into my life.  I named him Seamus.

He is a frog of great character and not the least bit skittish.He is also quite inquisitive.  

But before long Seamus set his sights on greater things.

 Until we meet again Seamus.

I also made friends with a little gecko, I named him Rusty.

Love Always,

Meg

Hilton Head Day 3

This is my last full day in Hilton Head and the first thing I saw when I woke up was this ibis sitting on the grate out back.  I spent about an hour taking pictures of it.  

I laughed hysterically when he scratched his chin like a dog. 

Every so often he would try to dry out his feathers by extending his wings.

"No more pictures please." hahahahah

Finally he started preening his back, contorting into what looked like an extremely uncomfortable position.  

Once all the excitement died down at home, my mother and I made our way to Harbor Town.

I love this lighthouse, I think it is because it has such nostalgic memories from when I was a child.  Every summer, my family would come to Hilton Head at least once to visit my grandparents.

That being said, I had never actually climbed to the top.  I saw the most amazing view.  I tried to get a good picture of the flag billowing in the wind in each of my pictures.

I have no idea what this boat is for, but it looks pretty cool. 

And finally, the manditory spanish moss pictures. 

Today was a much more relaxing day, stayed close to home and still got some amazing pictures.

Love Always,

Meg