Zoo! Take three

Okay, this is definitely the last entry for the zoo. All of these are from the aquarium.


It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, trying to get decent pictures in here. Between the lower light and the fish constantly moving, a majority of my pictures turned out blurred:



A sea dragon:



And another sea dragon. These were so cool:



An albino lobster:



Jellyfish! For some reason blogger keeps making the picture vertical instead of horizontal like it actually is, but oh well:



No idea what this is called, but it looked cool:



Again, just liked how this looked:



It's Nemo! *Just keep swimming*



Some kind of crab:



And here's one last picture from the aquarium:


And that's about it from our zoo trip. I miss taking pictures. Now that it's nearly summer time and the weather has been nicer, I'm hoping to get some more day trips in. If and when I do, I'll be sure and post on here!

Zoo! Take two

Okay, time for some more zoo pictures! After this entry I'll probably do one more with some pictures from in the aquarium, and then I'll be back on to regular entries again. Here goes...

After seeing the Prince of Persia movie last week, I just can't look at ostriches the same way:



I have a bunch of pictures of different kinds of monkeys. I'll be the first to admit I don't have a clue what any of them are actually called:



Shark! *hums theme music from Jaws*



Om nom nom:



Penguins - again, annoyed with having to take pictures through plexiglass but this one turned out okay:



Again, not sure what this is, but it looks cool. It also looks kind of bored:


LEMUR!!!



More of some kind of monkey...thing...


Sea lions - this is probably the only decent picture I got of them. They're damned fast!



This actually scared me half to death. Was walking down a path and it was 2 feet away in the bushes, just watching us:


Right, that's enough for this entry. Like I said, I'll probably post one more shortly, then hopefully finish some of the other entries (namely, reviews) that I have halfway done.

Zoo! Take one

On Good Friday this year, Danielle and I went to the zoo. After some traffic from hell (half the city of Pittsburgh evidently had the same idea as we had) and a catastrophe averted in the parking lot when I dropped my $500 zoom lens onto the concrete (thank goodness for filters!) we managed to get into the zoo. I hadn't been to the zoo in at least a decade, and I had a blast. Took a ton of pictures too, so I figure I'd post a few entries with some of my favorites.

Kitty!



There were two rhinos and I thought they were going to fight each other, but no such luck:


Another kitty! It was hot out, and they all seemed to be napping:



This one has been my desktop background for a few weeks now:



I am fairly impressed with how this one turned out, since I couldn't actually see over the fence I just stuck my camera up in the air and snapped a few pictures:



Giraffe!




It's looking right at me!


Black bear with an itchy back:



This probably isn't the best picture I got of the elephants, but it's the best one I got with the baby elephant. Which was one of the cutest things. Ever.



I really like this picture, except for that annoying glare from the plexiglass we had to look through.



And one last polar bear pic!


Okay, that's enough for now. I will probably do another two entries of just pictures. I'm sure I could do one entry from the aquarium alone, plus another one for the monkeys and some other random pictures. Those ones will be up soon, and then some reviews are on the way!

Ireland, day 7 (pictures)

For the last of my Ireland blogs, I'll leave you all with some pictures of my last real day there...

A picture of the coastline at Giant's Causeway:


The edge of the causeway:


Me and Jade at Giant's Causeway:


Giant's Causeway, looking up at the cliffs:


Random view on the way to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge:


View from the bridge:


View from Carrick Island:


Another view from Carrick Island:


Me, on Carrick Island:


Belfast - not sure what this building was:


The closed down Pittsburgh bar :(


The mall in Belfast that we went to:



And that's it - the end of my Ireland blogs. Hope you all enjoyed them! Regular updates will resume soon, and Nano is about to start so I'll probably start those updates as well.

Ireland, day 7 (Northern Ireland)

And so we come to my last full day in Ireland. After our first night back at Jade's since the beginning of the trip, we made our way back into Northern Ireland. We drove past the Bushmills Distillery on our way to Giant's Causeway.

I'd said from the minute I landed in Ireland that if any one day was going to have good weather I wanted it to be the day we went to Giant's Causeway, as it was one of the first places I'd ever planned to go and I was really looking forward to it. It actually worked - it was a gorgeous day, all day. Sunny and warm and I don't think it rained even once, unless maybe at one point while we were in the car (all of those rides kind of run together).

We had breakfast in the cafe in the visitor's center and then took a bus down to the causeway. It was gorgeous, and I got far too close to the edge trying to get the pictures I wanted, but I somehow managed not to get my camera wet. I also put a coin in a crack between two of the rocks - according to superstition it's supposed to bring you good luck. We climbed around the rocks for a while and Jade told me about the legend associated with the Causeway.

After an hour or so, we went back to the car and went a few miles down the road, to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The bridge wasn't as high or scary as I thought it would be, and the scenery was fantastic. The views looked like something out of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We went across the bridge to Carrick Island. It was tiny but we wandered all around it. I was kind of surprised that they had no fences or anything around the edge of the island. There were a bunch of signs warning that the edge was unstable and there were rocks below, but nothing actually stopping you from going to the very edge.

Once we left the bridge and walked the mile back to the car, we made our way to Belfast. We didn't do anything in particular while we were there. We'd heard of a Pittsburgh bar there that was dedicated to the Steelers so we were going to get lunch there. We managed to find the place with little difficulty but it was closed down - all boarded up and everything. So disappointing! Instead we went to a mall and had lunch there. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but it was excellent. We wandered around the city for a few hours and shopped, and I bought a lot of souvenirs for family and friends.

We eventually left the city, after a fiasco trying to get out of the parking garage where we left the car. We drove past the Harland and Wolff shipyard, where the Titanic was built, though I didn't manage to get any pictures of it. We made it back to Jade's fairly early so I was able to get everything packed up for the trip home.

And that's it for the trip really. I got up super early the following morning to pack up the car and get to the airport for my flight home. Jade dropped me off and I got onto my flight with no difficulties. I flew into New York first, and from there to Pittsburgh where my mom was waiting to pick me up. I definitely was not ready to come home, but I enjoyed the time I had there, and it was definitely the trip of a lifetime. Hopefully I get the chance to go back one day!

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1. Me at the entrance to Giant's Causeway
2. Giant's Causeway
3. Me crossing the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge the second time (it was slightly windy!)
4. A picture from before we got to the bridge, showing the island.
5. Belfast

Ireland, day 6 (pictures)

Here are some pictures of our adventure around County Donegal.

The "surfing beach" at Bundoran:


Underneath one of the fairy bridges, thought it looked cool:


Me sitting in the wishing chair at Bundoran:


Random picture out the window on the drive between Bundoran and Killybegs - I just thought it looked cool:


View from the road between Killybegs and Slieve League:


After climbing the Slieve League Cliffs - you can see where we parked the car at the left of the picture, at the end of the mainland (yes we were that high up):


Picture of the Slieve League Cliffs:


A view from the top of the cliffs:


Another picture of the cliffs, the boat on the water gives you a vague idea of how big they really are:


The Gweebarra River, found while wandering around on the way to Letterkenny:


View from the Atlantic Coastal Drive in Downings:


Another view from the coastal drive:


And one final view from the coast drive:


I have quite a few more pictures from the drive - there were a lot of spectacular views despite the drive only being about 5 miles long. This will give you a good idea of some of the scenery though!

Only one more day left...