After reading many beautiful and heartwarming articles written by mothers and daughters about Mother's Day, I wanted to share some of the photos and stories of animals I've seen around the world taking care of their young.  Some of you know that I've been involved in animal rescue for many years and have a soft spot in my heart for all animals.  I am always amazed at how protective and caring animals are of their offspring.

  I really wanted to write a post in honor of all mothers and especially those that are often overlooked on Mother's Day each year.  If you have pets you are a mother they could not survive without you!  I wrote a similar post about animal mothers and their offspring for Mother's Day a couple of years ago.  One of my readers was very grateful that I had posted it.  Sadly not humans have a mother at all or one that they are close to. 

My husband and I have also taken in several stray pregnant cats.  We found homes for all of the babies and mothers including the seven orange ones in the second photo down.  We actually kept the mothers - Princess (the black cat) and Peaches (orange cat) for ourselves. 

The monkeys that I saw at the Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali we're so fun to watch.  The babies were so cute and well taken care of by their mothers.   I thought this mother was showing tremendous patience with her little one.
Here is a mother monkey feeding her baby what appears to be some coconut:
I saw many elephant mothers with their babies in the Serengeti National Park while in Tanzania:

I've always said that I believe very little of what I hear and only some of what I see.  The same goes for photographs as I know now that they can be edited and manipulated in many ways.  I still often get asked by many of my friends and people why I would want to visit some of the places I do - especially Antarctica and Tanzania in Africa. 

It's great to be able to punch a few buttons on my cell phone and pull up some images from my Instagram account and show people a few pictures of these places.  I can tell by the looks on their face that they understand why I would want to travel so far away into places that many perceive to be dangerous.   At least I can show them why I wanted to see certain places in person.

You can use any of my photos in a variety of sizes for free without worrying about getting in trouble as they are free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.  My profile on Pixabay is HERE

Above is a photo of myself in Paradise Bay and below is Paradise Bay which I thought was the most beautiful part of Antarctica which is saying a lot.

This ship seemed so small compared to the other ones I saw and compared to the glaciers surrounding it

The sun would go down around 11:00Pm and come up around 3:00 AM
The glaciers were so much bigger than I expected and it really was not as cold as I expected.  It was generally around 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

This was the closest thing I saw to a sunset and it was almost midnight

The following photos were taken on in Massai Land and on safari in Tanzania.

  These zebra kept running back and forth past these lions.  I was so scared they would get caught playing their "game".

Thank you very much for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions.  I really enjoy hearing from my readers.  I hope you are all having a wonderful week.   

~Michelle

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I visited Costa Rica two times about five years ago,  It's definitely a place I would love to return to.  I dug up these old photos that I took with a very inexpensive point and shoot as I'm planning to take my husband there for his birthday this fall.  I fell in love with the nature and the untouched beauty of the country!

We stayed at the Los suenos Marriott on the west coast.  It was a two hour drive from the nearest airport on very mountainous and curvy roads.  It was an enjoyable trip given the lush, green, and gorgeous scenery we saw on the drive.

We went on a jungle tour where the animals were everywhere!  We watched this sloth cross the road VERY slowly!

These pale-faced monkeys were everywhere.  It was so amusing watching them play in the trees.  They wanted food so most would walk right up to you,

This one wanted the banana I was holding very badly!  Of course I had to reward him for striking this pose for me :)

AND how does one ignore a face like this?

The jungle like most of the country was very undisturbed by humans.  I hope it remains that way.

We were brought to a lovely lagoon/swimming area after the hike through the jungle.  The water was a great temperature and was so refreshing!

 The Los Suenos Marriott hotel is nearby a town named Jaco which is very popular for surfers.  The waves were much larger than they appear in my photo.  Hopefully I will capture more of the wave action during my next trip!

Here are a few images taken at the Los Suenos Marriott which was a beautiful resort that I would definitely recommend.  I loved watching and participating in the daily water aerobics shown in the last photo :)

 Thank you so much for stopping by.  I love to read your comments or questions and and reading other people's blogs as well.  Your e-mail address will never be published.  Until next time, take care my friends!

  ~Michelle

On Pixabay you may find and share images free of copyrights. All pictures are published under Creative Commons public domain deed CC0.  

When I started this blog a little more than 3 months ago, it was basically just to chronicle my travels.  I planned to only use photos that were taken by yours truly.  I still plan to use only my own photos EXCEPT when I am planning to travel to a new place and want advice on whether I should go and or what I should do when I get there - IF I go. 

Here is a photo of a place which I think is my dream vacation.  I wanted to reach out and ask my audience if they have been to this supposed island paradise, heaven on Earth, or most beautiful place in the world?  I got this photo from Pixabay and the photographer is "WikiImages".  You can see 2 photos of Bora Bora at this web address:  http://pixabay.com/en/photos/?q=bora+bora&order=best&image_type=&cat=&orientation=

Pixabay is very selective of the images they make available for use so you can be assured that you will probably find some nice images to use for whatever purpose you need them for and not be concerned about a copyright violation :)  To view more specific information about using photos from Pixabay please see http://pixabay.com/en/service/faq/

Here is a link to my account which I try to add new images to everyday:  

http://pixabay.com/en/users/Mariamichelle/

Here are my five most popular images:

#1

Dolphins in Lovina Bali

#2

Floating Lone Tree in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand

#3

Lion in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

#4

The Azure Window on Gozo Island in the Mediterranean

#5

Sunset in Key West, Florida

 If you've been to Bora Bora, please let me know what your thoughts are.   Basically, I want to know if it's worth the high price or is it all hype.  If you loved it what did you do for activities?   Thank you in advance :)

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I love to read your comments or questions and and reading other people's blogs as well.  Your e-mail address will never be published.  Until next time, take care my friends!

  ~Michelle

 In late July of 2013 I traveled to Tanzania with a group called "The Giving Lens".  This group was founded by Colby Brown who was the lead photographer for National Geographic for four years.  We visited schools, an orphanage, families affected by AIDS and went on a three day safari in the Serengeti National Park and Ngorogoro Crater.  This trip would be classed as "adventure travel".  During the ten days I was there we stayed in three different areas of Tanzania including Moshi, Karatu, and Robunda.  I have many public albums with hundreds of photos on my Facebook page in case you want to see more.

Participants had the option of sleeping overnight in a boma in Masailand  like this one:

This was one of two group trips that I have been on in the past year or ever for that matter.  I decided to write this post so the post I will be writing later this week might make more sense.  With the growing popularity of group travel, I think it's very, very important to choose the right trip and know what questions to ask before committing to one of these trips.  Here is a brief synopsis of the 10 day trip I went on eight months and nine trips ago.  

Visiting Children in the Schools

I took this photo of Colby Brown and I was honored that he used this photo in an article he wrote on his blog A Road Less Traveled:  

 http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/an-adventure-through-tanzania-with-an-iq260-from-phase-one/

My photo is at the very end :)

The kids loved my sunglasses at the schools we visited:

Visiting Children in an Orphanage

Visiting Massai Land

 Safari in the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorogoro Crater

 I will leave you with a beautiful aerial view of Mount Kilomanjaro, which is the closest I got to the summit, as I was leaving Tanzania:

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I love to read your comments or questions and and reading other people's blogs as well.  Your e-mail address will never be published.  Take care my friends!

  ~Michelle