Hershey Pennsylvania Part II, Hershey Gardens

Part of the prize package was admission to Hershey Gardens which began many years ago as Milton Hershey's Rose Garden.  This place alone was worth the trip to Hershey, PA!  For someone getting into photography, gardens like this are full of opportunities to practice different types of shots as well as just see really cool stuff!

Click on this.  It looks much better full size....

Another one that benefits from viewing full-sized.

Once again, Anais is MAKING me take her picture!  She just can't seem to stop!  

This ended up being one of my favorite pics.  It was just a quick, random shot with no set -up.  Seems that many times, this type of shot ends coming out great! 

Hershey, Pennsylvania Part I

Anais won a trip on the radio to Hershey, PA.  Not to Hershey Park, but to the Hershey Lodge and the Hershey Gardens.  We went last weekend and also went to their zoo while we were there.  

In these photos, I tried to capture what you won't typically see if you go to the Hershey area as we spent quite a bit of time driving outside the tourist part of town to see the 'hidden' parts of the Pennsylvania countryside.  

As always, if you click on a photo, it will bring up a different interface where the pics will be much larger and a little bit easier to navigate.  Enjoy and don't forget, all of the old blogs are archived to the right.

This is where we DIDN'T go.  Looks nice, but it was great to not have to deal with all the screaming people at an amusement park! 

This guy was all chill in his log at the Hershey Zoo while the young otter was going crazy playing all over the place! 

We thought this was a baby owl but it's actually full grown.  I know it's hard to get a  good reference in this pic, but he was about six inches tall.

This Grey Wolf was just digging in a hole in the ground like a dog!

I spent a bit more time on B&W's on this trip.  I took several shots in both color and B&W, then converted the color shots later to compare.  They looked exactly the same as the original B&W so I think all of my pics will start out in color from now on, that way I will always have the option of going back to color later if I do end up converting them.

This is Lancaster, PA. 

Lancaster.

I broke the Hershey trip into three parts to keep them short.  There will be two more to follow from the Hershey Gardens, including one set of nothing but butterfly's.

Vegas Part II-- Hoover Dam

This is Part II from our recent Vegas trip.  I wanted to keep the "non-gambling" part separate from the "gambling-part", although we didn't actually gamble at all!  We did find our way through just about every casino on the strip though!  

We took a charter bus to the dam which seems to be the way to go now-a-days.  We didn't have to rent a car, pay for gas or pay for parking, plus we got a nice narrated tour there and back which turned out to be much more fascinating than I thought it would be! 

If you have never been to the dam or on the tour, I highly recommend it.  The cost of the whole package, bus ride from Las Vegas,  narrated tour there and back, and dam tour (which included going down inside the tunnels and to the power-plant) was less than $40.  There are other packages with more stuff, but we didn't have all that long. 

Looking across toward the Arizona side.

This is looking down at where the water exits the power-plant below the dam.

Canyon below the dam.

This is the new Pat Tillman bridge.  If you don't know who Pat Tillman was, you should look him up.  He was a real American Hero.  He gave up a lucrative career in the NFL to fight for our country and lost his life over that decision.  

I took this October 3, 2011, at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium.  Pat Tillman left the Cardinals to fight and die in Afghanistan.   He is one of a very short list of professional athletes to do this. 

The complex method of capturing runoff water in the tunnels below the dam!!! 

This power-plant powers parts of Nevada, Arizona, California and several other states.  The power generated by the dam is secondary to the actual purpose which was water. 

The recently completed Pat Tillman Bridge.

The dam was originally called Boulder  Dam and was later re-named for President Hoover. 

Yes, these signs are there and no, there is no barricade!!  It is possible to climb right over and slide down if one were so inclined.  It is NOT possible to slow this slide upon reaching the bottom, although it IS guaranteed this slide will stop quickly, if you know what I mean!!!!!

Lake Mead.  The white area shows past water levels.

The state line is right in the middle of the dam which, for now, people can still access.

Can you believe they built it in 4 years?  Think of all the construction projects in your area which have been going on that long....

The last two pictures below are from a large mural on the ground near a memorial to all those who lost their lives in the building of the dam-- and NO, there are no bodies in the dam.  They only laid six inches of concrete at a time and anyone falling into that concrete could easily be rescued.  Besides, leaving rotting bodies in the concrete would weaken the dam...

I hope you enjoyed this short tour of Hoover/Boulder Dam!!!!!!