But this little area is no more than 3 or 4 feet high, and packed full of delicate formations. If memory serves, it was called the Doll's Theater.
After the cave, we returned to our sojourn in the winds of west Texas. We spent two nights at Guadalupe Mountains National Park's campground at Pine Springs. Last night, I had a dream that we were part of a military experiment to see how tents withstand winds!
Thankfully, ours held up well and we were able to take a morning hike. In the distance you can see the signature landmark of the Guadalupe Mts, the large rock outcrop called El Capitan.
Lastly, our entire trip has been under the light of a more or less full moon. We have been able to operate outside at night without any other source of light, and the moonlit landscape is eerie and awesome, to boot.
Out in the Heart of the Dunes, the distant mountains provide more blue than the sky.
Ironically, though, my best photos were not of ducks, swans, or geese at all. Tree swallows, bluebirds and red-wing blackbirds all tend to hang out on the wire fencing prevalent in Middle Creek. This time we were able to roll up to a swallow and get a few shots before it spooked.
And finally ...
Here's one of the trails in the "Sea Camp" area of the island. Just a little down the trail is an actual campground. As we walked through the campground, we noticed many birds: numerous cedar waxwings, a common yellowthroat, some type of wren, and a very close encounter with what was probably a ruby-crowned kinglet.
The trail marker wasn't upright, but it was still picturesque, earlier hikers had decorated it with shells.
The surf scoter is probably the oddest of all of them, with an oversized bill and dots of contrasting colors on its head. But even the plain plumage of the black scoter comes with a big orange, oddly shaped bill. These two scoters are in the above picture, and that's about as close as they came in to the jetty's rocks. A friendly white-winged scoter, though, sidled right up and posed for a group of photographers, most of them shooting with cameras and lenses right out of what my Dad would have. The ice blue eye was really striking when seen this closely.
And here's the bonus, a long-tailed duck drake. You can just make out the two extra-long tail feathers in the photo. One of my favorite birds of the day!
Fort Frederica is on St. Simons Island. Its a partially excavated colonial-era fort. The original settlers grew oranges, and some trees have been restored. With no one to eat them, they lay on the ground. I thought the picture looked almost like a selective color shot.
The old streets are marked, too, making a nice perch for this Eastern phoebe. At least that's what I think it is.
Lastly, I wanted to get a nice shot of the stereotypical "look" of the coastal South - a live oak awash with ferns and spanish moss.
This was at Ft. Frederica, too. This little park was a nice surprise - we visited it simply from seeing its name on the map. The open parkland is studded with oaks and oranges and overlooks the river. I thought that it must've been an idyllic place to live, even in past centuries, until I realized that we were there in February, which is well before all the itching, biting, annoying insects come out to play.
Ok, ok, this isn't a duck, its a dunlin. Shorebirds seem to like Barnegat just fine, too. The ducks are coming right up - below is a group of six or so Harlequin ducks.
These guys have spectacular plumage. I saw a harlequin duck back in 2005 - I turned around, and there it was, and then it was gone. We got much better looks at them this time. In fact, none of the birds seemed at all concerned about human presence, making for some nice photographic opportunities. I'll post some more soon, maybe :)
Cumberland Island borders Kings Bay's Naval Submarine Base, whose specialty is ... submarines, of course! Here's one leaving the base and heading towards points unknown. At one point its hatch opened and people emerged and walked to and fro on its top as it continued its journey.
Armadillos are a common sight on the island, and aren't scared of humans. Nonetheless, they look like something straight out of prehistory or science fiction, but something still vaguely cute. 
A walk on the beach side of the island revealed some great birds, including American oystercatchers ...
I first noticed this bird fluttering through a half-snow covered chrysanthemum. It wasn't leery of human presence at all, and approached within six feet of me several times. It flipped and flitted through the snow while I watched and snapped pictures, for a total of about 20 minutes over two or three different sessions.
As an aside, this wild nor'easter weather also failed to discourage the presence of Pennsylvania's first recorded Allen's hummingbird, which is still feeding happily away at a feeder in a suburban Lancaster County townhouse development. Us Easterners are familiar with the ruby-throated hummers, who are not particularly cold hardy. However, each year, more and more reports of rufous, and now Allen's hummers are turning up in the east. These birds are well equipped to deal with temperatures into the teens and may stay in a northern area where feeders are available until late December and even January. Quite an interesting development!
A group of palm trees backlit by the marquee of the Flamingo casino.
An elaborate light fixture in the Golden Nugget casino.
ornamental cabbage and chrysanthemums
These little gourds can be had for 3 or 4 for a dollar and are a fall staple of the festival's sales spots, along with mums, pumpkins, apples, whoopie pies, and ham & bean soup. Not to mention that everything under the sun can be found at the yard sales and impromptu flea markets that sprout up across the county for this four-day festival.
Several weeks ago, two enormous steam generators destined for the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant arrived in the United States. A French company called AREVA constructed the generators, which were shipped by boat across the Atlantic, north through the Chesapeake Bay, and as far along the Susquehanna River as the water depth would allow. Then, the generators were boarded onto specialized carriers to make their way across Lancaster County at 3-4 mph. They arrived in town Friday, and were parked along a side street for the weekend.
These behemoths are 74 feet long, 25 feet high, and weigh in at over 1,000,000 pounds each. The logistics of moving them safely are apparently tremendous, as the sheer weight is a threat to local roads and bridges that were not designed to handle such loads. To help alleviate the strain, each generator is loaded onto a carrier with 24 axles. Each axle supposedly carries weight equivalent to a fire truck. The generators appear to be accompanied by a large fleet of State Police Officers at all times, and local newspapers report that the convoy is over a mile in length when on the move. 
Yesterday, however, the birds upped it a notch. As we were crossing the Susquehanna River at the start of our commute, we saw a large bird fly over the bridge. I couldn't confirm it was a bald eagle, but when I looked to the right, I saw a second bird with the distinctive white head and tail flying low and fast over the water. This eagle eventually landed on a rock in the river, next to another large bird. But they were too far away at this point to ID the third bird. As we arrived in York, we figured it would be too great a coincidence to see our "regular" eagle. But, we kept our eyes peeled, and sure enough, the eagle was perched on the concrete box. This time he had a friend, a second eagle sitting on a small stone in the stream. We turned the car around to get a better look, and took a picture with the only camera available to us, my coworker's iPhone. Today, with my camera in my lunch sack, we saw no eagles at all ... go figure!
This is Summit Lake in Lassen Volcanic Park, with Lassen Peak in the background. Our first night of camping was spent in the edge of the trees to the right. Lets just say that this was a bad time to discover that we'd forgotten to pick up any bug spray. As the sun went down, I walked out along the lake and found this hidden view - you had no idea the mountain was back there from the campsite.
