Sea shells in Barnegat Bay

Earlier this month we visited New Jersey's beautiful Long Beach Island and stayed in Barnegat Light. One of the things we love to do is explore the sea life in the bay. Here are a few photos from this year's finds:

I found a neat-looking shell and after I picked it up I realized the other shells on it were moving. Pretty cool! I'd never seen anything like this with so many others attached.

Spotted this clam shell on the shore of the bay. Shell was firmly intact, but no one was home

Found this clam in Viking Village. Someone was definitely home, but as soon as we came near, this critter clammed up tight. You can see a bit of the opening before he shut the door completely.

Cloud formations over Shenandoah National Park (photos)

This is the third of a series of photos I'm posting from our trip through Shenandoah National Park.  A wonderful trip! If you live in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland or Washington, D.C., this makes for a fab day or weekend trip. 

We started off in Front Royal at mile marker 1 and drove to mile marker 62 where we exited Skyline Drive on Route 33. These are some of the sky views we saw along the way.

Chasing butterflies on Skyline Drive (part 2)

This is part 2 of a series of photos I'm compiling from a recent trip down Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. The first post was of butterflies and this post is too, but today I

wanted to focus on closeups of these beautiful critters.

Chasing butterflies on Skyline Drive (part 1)

This past weekend we decided to go for a ride and see where the day would take us. We ended up on Skyline Drive, starting at the Front Royal entrance. We've done this trip several times before, but always in the fall. 

It was really fascinating to enjoy the park in the summer. We drove 62 of the 105 miles and saw stunning scenery, lots of wildlife and gorgeous wildflowers. Not to mention it was a beautiful 73-75 degrees the entire ride, unlike the high 80s and 90s we have in Northern Virginia.

The milkweed and other wildflowers attracted tons of butterflies. These beauties were literally everywhere you turned. Here are some shots I took.

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