Friday, July 6, 2012

July 4th Celebration Special

Hurray for a day off on the 4th of July. It was a bit strange to have a holiday in the middle of the week this year. I think my brain is still adjusting to the fact that it isn't the weekend....yet.


Wednesday we started the day by going to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. They have a ton of plants and things are separated into different regions. (Africa, Mexico, California, South America, Mediterranean, etc) One of the most beautiful places was the Asia section and the Japanese pool. It was beautiful and calming and the are was filled with dragonflies.



As we were leaving the pool I heard a rustling sound and discovered a reptile chilling on the rocks. I'm honestly not sure what kind of lizard thing it is, but I'm glad he stayed somewhat still while I took his photograph.

I saw several butterflies at the gardens, but none of them were hanging out in one spot long enough to photograph. I did luck out in catching a hummingbird on camera though. She was quite a bit away from me, but I'm just thrilled to have actually gotten something more than a blur on film. I think this is a female Anna's Hummingbird.





We walked around the gardens for several hours and still didn't even make it to all of the regions. There's also a bamboo forest and a redwood grove. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased a family membership so that I can go back whenever I want and can take friends. (If Ben and I go twice with an additional friend we make back the membership price and I very much plan on taking visiting family here. )

After the gardens we went to the marina for fireworks, which are kind of difficult to photograph. However I liked a few of the photos I took because the reminded me of space and galaxies.


I think it looks more like something from the hubble telescope than from a gunpowder rocket.


I have been trying to update on the weekends as I have more time in the day to edit photos, but I may be away this weekend on my first trip to a real aquarium in Monterey. I guess this is supposed to be one of the best aquariums and I want to see if I can get pictures of seahorses (I don't find most fish that interesting...)

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2 comments:

  1. Enjoy your visit to the aquarium. I find the coloring and shapes of fish similarly interesting to flowers - but they do have the disadvantage, even in an aquarium, of disappearing from one's field of view sometimes before one can get a careful look at them.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe,

      The aquarium trip was good, hoping I got some good photos!

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