RANDOM PHOTOS FROM VACATION

No, this is not the house we stayed in while we were in Florida.  It's the Carpenter's House within the Old Spanish village - the Dow Museum of Historical Houses - in St. Augustine.  I love St. Augustine.  I liked the lean and the shutters - those may be crows?

There is so much to see in St. Augustine - and not just the touristy things.  Get a bit outside the touristy areas and you find marinas and charming houses and streets where people walk their dogs and smile and say hello.  I think I could live there - as long as I didn't have to drive over the Bridge of Lions every day :)

Visited Marineland and saw how they train their dolphins.  Not your typical dolphin show, these are trained in order to be in the water with guests who pay a higher price than those who just want to watch, and they don't really perform but interact with the people.  They did look like they were having fun but you never know.  These animals are so intelligent and I always wonder if we have the right to capture and "train" and show off certain animals.  The kids seemed entranced by them and the dolphins seemed interested in the kids, too.  In this photo, the trainers were feeding the dolphins before the kids got in the water. 

Alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  A photographer's dream if you're into nature photography since they have a rookery there and the birds fly in and out (they are not contained within the park) to breed and nest every year.  Great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-color herons, little green herons, roseate spoonbills (last year was the first year they nested there).  The noise of all the birds squawking and making crazy noises, defending their turf, is incredible!

When you want to get noticed, fluff up your hair!  Because the birds are used to all the people coming by on the boardwalk to see them, they are often within touching distance from you - but I have never been foolish enough to try to touch a bird with a long, thin, sharp beak like that.

The high/low tide variation at Crescent Beach (where we stayed), just south of St. Augustine, creates wonderful sand sculptures and designs.  The white is from the wind whipping the top of the sand around, the darker sand is from the water having dried on it, and the hint of the golden color is the sells crushed and creating a more cinnamon color - almost a gold vein running through the light sand at times.