Beetle Triumph

I watched in awe a couple of weeks ago as a large beetle was swimming in my pond, triumphantly make his way out of the water.  I was babysitting a 7 year old boy and I'm not sure who was more fascinated by it!  We watched as the beetle made his way to a lily pad, climbed up on it, swam towards a rock by the water's edge and climbed right up out of the water onto the rock!  The whole drama played out over about 15 minutes!
Here are a few photos of the inspirational climb of my backyard beetle!

Swimming towards lily pad.

Climbs up onto lily pad.

Climbs out of the pond onto rock.

 

Out of the pond!

Straddles between two rocks.

On the road to freedom!

East Coast

Just returned from another trip to the east coast, this time Ray joined me!  What an adventure it is to hang out with a large family!  There are things (and people) that I really miss about living back east...
I love going seeing the green scenery along the highways, the historic architecture and Atlantic Ocean. 

Feeding the swan family in Westhampton Beach, NY

Just a few of the thousand or more photos I took on the trip.

Pebbles in a rusty post along the beach in Greenport, Long Island, NY

Philadelphia Museum of Art