2016 Good Friday visit to Norton Art Gallery - Azaleas

Every year I loved to visit Norton Art Gallery and the park that they have there during the Easter season to see the azaleas in bloom.  This year I went on Good Friday- March 25th, since my family had the day off and I had the free time.  It seemed like it was the perfect day.  The skies were blue and the temperature was in the low 70's. We got there in the late afternoon and the way the sunlight was hitting the trees seemed just perfect to really bring out the colors and contrasts. When I went there it felt like I was getting a taste of heaven - it was so incredibly beautiful.  It seemed like we had gotten there on the perfect day.  Most of the azaleas were in full bloom and there hadn't been a major storm to knock them to the grown so the bushes were magnificent.
   I knew I shouldn't have taken the pictures but I couldn't help it along with many others- they were just to pretty and words just couldn't describe them.  We were using our cellphones and that seemed acceptable.  It is posted not photography but by that I think they were referring to professional photographers.  The thing with these pictures is I took a whole lot more than I thought I did.  I was only going to post a few of them but when I tried to select I had trouble deciding which ones to use.  They all seemed so nice.  I settled for 15 but they kept on changing.  Finally I settled on these 18.  Enough writing here are the images I walked away with-

azaleas at Norton Art Gallery 3-25-2016

pink azaleas at Norton Art Gallery 3-25-2016

 I just had to get this image of this rock.  Its a sandstone but I really liked the weathering on it.  It was obvious someone else liked it too and had it brought into the area. I could tell it had been position to where it was and wasn't a natural outcrop.  Along with those flowing water features - I can remember a time when they didn't exist.  And I know the person who has put them in.

 Just look at how they look like a river of flowers.

Azaleas at Norton Art Gallery 3-25-2016

 I really liked this water feature they have put in.  Its so peaceful and relaxing to be by.

 All good things must come to an end and the area was closing at 5:30 and had to exit the fenced in area.  At least they had some across the street that we could still look at and get some parting images.

 aren't they magnificent?? could you be there and not want to have taken an image?

Cruising the Caribbean - Day 6 - Tulum Mexico

April 10, 2015
Cozumel Mexico.  - My spouse and I have been to Cozumel more than once and because of that we really weren't too interested in doing the touristy things there.  The one thing we never had done was to travel across the straight to Mexico and visit the ancient ruins of Tulum.  In reading up on this trip the one excursion that was highly recommended was the Tulum Mayan Ruins Express so that ended up being the excursion we went for.

I was very pleased with our guide.  He had been an archeology major at a university in Mexico and he was of Mayan decent.  He was very knowledgeable about what he was telling us.  The trouble was he told us so much stuff it's gone in one ear and out the other but during the time it was fascinating.  What I also like was because there were so many other tours there he got headphones for us and we were all on the same frequency so he could talk to us about the different ruins.  If you ever do the tour that is definitely the way to do it.  It cut out so much of the distracting background noise of other tour groups.  And the tour groups were of people from all over the world and their guides were  screaming to be heard.

Here are the images I came away with.  This was telling you about the park area associated with the ruins.

 And this was the sign for the actual ruins.

 This used to be the actual entrance into the city.  Now it is closed off to preserve it and everyone goes in through a different way.

This was withing the compound walls and was the first impression you got of the place.

Now for the rest of the images.  The guide took us to this diorama of the area so we could see what he was talking about.

Years ago they used to let people climb on the building but now they realize how destructive that can be and you are not allowed to go on the buildings.  Because of that they guides take you into the field and talks to you there.  It was a hot day and our guide tried to get us under some shade and was appreciated for that.

Tulum, Mexico

the one thing I notice was that the building material used was limestone.

 The iguanas are kept in reverence and so it was pretty common to see them running on top of the ruins. 

 The palace

 The temple

 Temple Castillo -Tulum, Mexico April 10, 2015

 This is what would be facing the ocean.

Castillo - Tulum Mexico, April 10, 2015

 I like this because you can see how the area overlooked the ocean. 

God's of the Wind Temple at Tulum Mexico April 10,2015

 Here's the wall with all the vegetation growing on it.  I can understand how difficult it was to find some of these ruins and for them to be able to restore things to there former glory.

 Another iguana guarding the ruins.

 This was the map as we were leaving.  I think it should have been when you entered or given as a handout but then I think too many people would have hold up around it and you would have been lucky to get a brief glimpse of it.

I did get a closer image of the section that was in English.

If you like ancient stuff like I do this was definitely worth the effort to go see.  I highly recommend it. 

Wikipedia on Tulum
The map from Wikipedia





We had one more day at see and then we were back in Galveston.
I'm going to include the few images there left of the cruise.   As you can see the Navigator of the seas wasn't the only ship in Cozumel on that day.  They made sure you got onto the right ship. 

Oh what a fantastic trip / cruise that was and until we go on another trip--  That's all folks. 

Cruising the Caribbean -Day 4; Roatan Honduras- Monkey Town

The highlight of Gumbalimba Preservation Park is Monkey town.  To get there you have to go over the Pirate bridge.

The monkeys are in and area that is surrounded by water.  This is for there own protection.  But in this area they are completely free to move about however they want to.  We had to wait to cross the bridge because it was so rickety and narrow.

In the information on the park it listed the area as having spider monkeys, white face monkeys and howler monkeys.

This is the sign when you enter the area.

Also in the area we heard this munching noise and was curious as to what was making it.  They told us that it was the rabbits that were native to the area.  They didn't look like any rabbit I had ever seen before.

I expected them to go to the guides like this one did.

We were told don't go to the monkeys but if they come to you its okay.

 
There was one monkey that was guarding the area where his mate was hanging out.  He ended up giving us the best pictures.

White headed capuchin monkey at Gumbalimba Preservation Park, Roatan Honduras

 I couldn't believe after I turn away and was looking elsewhere he was like phoow now I can relax again.

I was not expecting them to get so friendly with me and my husband.  And I definitely wasn't expecting one to get on me. But she seemed to like my husband better.  They warned us that they usually like going to the taller people. 

As we were leaving we also saw some chickens that were native to the area too.

Wikipedia has this to say about monkeys./White-headed_capuchin
 I was surprised to find out their names is white-headed capuchin because they called them white faced monkeys.

The next day we were in Belise.