The rain around here has been relentless this week. It started mid-day on Monday and has continued to pour ever since. This morning, it's gray and very overcast, but NOT raining. However, that appears as if it will be short-lived, because www.weather.com is showing more storms here starting in about an hour and going through the night, light showers tomorrow morning, and MORE storms tomorrow afternoon.
Here is an amazing video of flooding in Ellicott City, MD. This water is running DOWN the hill from the tremendous amount of water that was dumping on the area.
So much flooding caused a retaining wall in Ellicott City to collapse, smashing several cars parked nearby.
(photo from the Ellicott City Patch)
More pictures of Ellicott City, from the Baltimore Sun:
Check out the flooding on Rt. 29, which is a major road (3 lanes in each direction) connecting Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC. This flooding is right outside the entrance to Columbia, MD.
Kenzie and I decided to drive around Laurel and Savage yesterday and take photos of flooding. Here's some of what we saw:
Flood waters receding on Contee Road behind Laurel Hospital
Water into the woods (and over the bridge the night before) on Brock Bridge Road, Laurel, MD
Further down Brock Bridge Road, near Annapolis Junction, MD -- bridge at the river completely covered by flooding
Another view of the same area -- see the large tree that floated downstream and is across the road?
Water and mud left as river starts to recede.
Laurel Lake, extremely full!
Another view across Laurel Lake
Spillway/overflow creek for Laurel Lake
You can see in this photo how much higher the water was the day before!
Little Patuxent River, Savage, MD (taken from the Bollman bridge next to Savage Mill)
View of river from opposite side of bridge
And lastly, a video I took of the Little Patuxent River:
It's lightly raining right now; I guess the next round of storms is gearing up. I'd better get off the computer and keep working on my Ark!
Port Canaveral wasn't one of the locations where our ship was originally supposed to stop; however, Hurricane Irene changed those plans. At first, I wasn't too thrilled about this stop. I've been to Florida SOOO many times before; why would I want to stop there on a cruise?? But it was what it was, and we were determined to make the best of it.
We were supposed to go on a special trip at Grand Turks to visit an uninhabited island and see/touch stingrays in the wild. Since we were no longer going to Grand Turk, we decided to use our refund for a different side trip. We eventually settled on an airboat ride into the Florida swamps to look for alligators. Mackenzie was a bit ..... dubious??.... at first, but as you'll see from the pictures, she had a GREAT time!
A view of Port Canaveral from the ship
Kenzie's ready for another adventure!
Looking at one of the other airboats and the dock
Ready to GOOOOOO!!!
Look closely -- it's our first alligator sighting of the afternoon!
And here it comes.....
Captain Kenzie, ready to to go hunt down those varmints!
After the airboat ride, we were given a demonstration by a local animal rescue group that specializes in wildlife/exotic creatures. Here are the "critters" they brought for show and tell......
So guess which one Mackenzie had to hold afterwords?????
ugh.
Back at the ship, leaving Port Canaveral, and enjoying the warm breezes.
A view of Cocoa Beach from the balcony of the ship.
Another look back at the beach
And last, but not least, our towel critter for the night? Is it a bulldog? Not quite sure......
I had to drive Mackenzie to Pioneer Girls tonight, as well as go to a client's home. On the way there, we were astounded by one of the most beautiful sunsets I have EVER seen in my entire life. I stopped at the stoplight and took pictures with my cell phone camera (the other drivers must've thought I was NUTS!!!). After dropping Mackenzie off, I drove to a nearby church that sits on top of a hill and took more pictures from there. In real life, the colors were MUCH more vivid, especially the oranges and reds. The quality is only so-so because of using the cellphone camera, but I hope you'll enjoy these anyway!
