June 2, August 26

A few of my Favorite Things

 Cotswold Cottage, tea

 Beautiful gardens

 and flowers

Historic buildings

Golden Hour

 One hot and steamy evening, Allison and I ventured out to Crosswinds Marsh and we were so lucky to have some lovely evening setting sun to light our photos.

 Male Mute Swan and female below

 Barn Swallow

 Cedar Waxwing

 Allison

Love the light in this one

 Look at that sky!

The Marsh

We're Going To the Zoo....

We're going to the zoo....
(only my two boys will know where that comes from ;-)

Detroit Zoo

 The Detroit Zoo is actually located in Royal oak, Michigan...you can see this tower from my son's back yard. I try to get there once a year but the best trip that I ever had at the zoo was with my photography group in the winter. Snow everywhere! But all the animals were out and I got great photos of the Polar Bears!
I'm wondering if my brother remembers coming here as a kid (I was in high school) when we came to Michigan to visit relatives. I seem to remember buying little animal glass figurines.
The zoo is always fun with lots of photo opportunities. We had fun until the heat wore us down and we headed for home,

 Allison

Penguin House

 The new penguin house just opened and got some press coverage on CNN when they showed all the penguins walking to their new abode......cute. You have to go in at an assigned time slot due to the popularity of these little guys. Reminded me of the movie "Happy Feet"

Butterfly House

 Always a fun place to go, especially in the winter. All butterflies are exotic....no locals, ha!

Arctic Circle

 No Polar Bears out today that's for sure. This Seal was showing off for us, coming right to the window and giving us a look over than swimming away on his back. He seemed to be having fun.

Along the way

 Great Blue Heron

 This Bear was taking it easy as it was hot and he had that big fur coat on. I thought that he/she was asleep until I saw my pics at home....just resting, I guess.

 Mr. Rhino

I'm not sure but I think that this is the new baby giraffe. It was the only one out and I thought that it didn't look very tall. Then I saw a write up about the new baby just born at the zoo a few weeks before.

Old St. Mary's, Greektown, Detroit. Michigan

 Old St. Mary's is located in Greektown right in downtown Detroit. It is a popular place with many places to eat and Greektown casino is also there.

There was lots of construction going on as well. We walked into St. Mary's and were greeting by silence......we just sat in a pew and breathed in the peace. A wonderful and beautiful Catholic Church.