Myakka State Park

We arrived at Myakka State Park after a pretty long drive, but boy was it worth it. It was also worth the $6/car admission price. I was really looking forward to this place as it was supposed to be really beautiful, have a canopy walk and wild alligators (not like those zoo ones that were everywhere). This also turned out to be the nicest day in terms of weather.
The canopy trail was where we headed first. Turns out, it was pretty high and like, and in similar fashion to St. Paul’s Cathedral I got a little nervous climbing up (though this height was nothing when compared to the Cathedral). This time it was because the wooden structure moved with not only the wind, but the movement of the people walking around as well. To be honest, the walkway itself wasn’t too bad as long as the others on it were not being mean (like Dave was). What got me the most was the tower that was connected to the walkway. At 74’ tall, it was quite intimidating when it was so windy and younger children were jumping around. It was also a pretty tight space up there for five or six adults (The Konings, Dave, myself and two other tourists). I did however, manage to take a bunch of photos including a really nice panoramic of the view from on top of the tower.
We then walked back to the car and drove to the next parking area. We had lunch in a little eating area and then walked around that area of the park. We saw some wild alligators (we also saw some on the drive in) and also some turkey vultures. John walked down a culvert which was designated as not for public use (he was scolded by Pat upon returning to our group).Upon leaving we had one of the only treats of the trip (well, while we were with the Konings that is) – chocolate bars, so yummy.
(photo of Dave and I on walkway was taken by John Koning and the technical drawing of the canopy walkway and tower were obtained from the Myakka State Park website, linked at the beginning of this post).

Quotable Thursday #23

“Never mistake motion for action”  - Ernest Hemingway.

Fort DeSoto Park

Fort De Soto is in Pinellas County and has been named the America’s Top Beach for the past two years. We, however, did not get to enjoy those beaches very much during our trip as it was a bit on the cold side. The park itself consists of 1136 acres made of five interconnected islands.
It may not have been the greatest weather for the beaches, it was really nice weather for walking around the Fort for which the area is named. The fort is deserted of all furniture, equipment, etc with the exception of two British breech loading, rapid-fire rifles of 1890 vintage (installed in 1982) and four 12-inch M 1890-MI mortars (the last four remaining in  North America and original to this location – others are located in the Philippines). 

“

The eight 12-inch M 1890-MI mortars, manufactured at Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York, were breech-loading and rifled. The weapon had built-in safety features, such as a device which kept the mortars from being fired until the breech locks were secured, and the weapons were elevated to the minimum 45 degrees. Each gun had a 12-man crew to manually load and aim it. The crew would choose an 800-, 824- or 1,046-pound projectile, along with a powder charge in a silk bag weighing 54 to 67 pounds. After the powder bag was put in the mortar, the sergeant would hang a fuse containing 1.25 pounds of black powder on the breech end of the powder bag. The fuse was ignited by the electrical primer, which fired the powder bag charge. The minimum range of the mortar was 1.25 miles at 70 degrees and a maximum range of 6.8 miles at 45 degrees

.

” – Fort De Soto historic guide.
Once we had walked around the Fort a bit, I found a tree that was really neat looking, though pretty typical to Florida. I went and got Dave and we took some portraits in it. I even allowed him to take some photos of me.We then walked along the pier for a bit. We saw some wild dolphins, but they were unfortunately too far away (and too quick) for me to take any photos of them.
We weren’t able to stay at Fort De Soto very long as we had a very full day in the area, but it was really nice to visit. I would like to go back, perhaps when the weather is a little warmer and actually get a chance to experience America’s Top Beach the way it is meant to be experienced.

Busch Gardens

When I went to Florida with my family 18 years ago, we spent a day in Busch Gardens. To be honest, it is one of the parts of the trip that I remember completely on my own (in other words, without the assistance of photos). This is because my Mom exposed the film to the sun when trying to swap it for a new one and all the photos were ruined- including the ones of the koalas that were there on a special exhibit (and no Chris, there were no koalas at Busch Gardens, unfortunately they just cost way too much in upkeep for most zoos).
Dave and I went to Busch Gardens during our recent trip to Florida as well and it was awesome. First things first, we got adults tickets at the price of children’s tickets because we got them through CAA/AAA. If you plan on going anywhere for vacation in Canada or the States you should definitely check out their website to see if they have discounted tickets.
Secondly, we went on a Wednesday and there were very few people there. School groups normally wait until Fridays and families wait until the weekends. The locals have to go on the weekends because they work during the day. It was an excellent idea, and the weather helped too. It was sunny and quite nice, but a little chilly and I think it rained in the area before we got there because some things looked like they were just finishing drying up when we arrived.
One of the first things we did was a ride – oh yes that is right people you heard right, I went on a few rides while in Florida. At Busch Gardens on went on the Gwazi Tiger (the lion which runs along with it, was closed). It was a wooden roller coaster and had no flips or anything like that, but I still didn’t like it.
Next we went into the bird enclosure (which I insist are obligatory in any Florida zoo park). Dave bought some nectar for 5 dollars and few the birds which was really neat. There was only one other person doing it, a small girl, and since Dave was so much larger than her, the majority of the birds went to him (they did go to the girl once Dave’s nectar was all gone, so don’t feel bad for her). We then walked around the park looking at all the animals. Every once in a while Dave would go on a ride that I was completely uninterested in. He went on some crazy ones that went upside-down or dropped you straight down into a cave.

My favourite thing about the park though are the animals. They are well looked after (well they seem that way). Unlike some parks, you can actually see the animals in their exhibit and the park has a rail system and a sky tram that move you about the park nicely and enable you to see the animals really well.
Speaking of the sky tram, Dave and I loved that thing. It went from the top of the park to the bottom and back. It was the easiest way to move about the park, there was never a line, it was quiet and provided a nice view of the park.

And of course there was the obligatory self-taken photo of Dave and I while we were on the sky tram. This was actually take on our last trip on the tram as we headed out of the park after we got off this time.

Backed Up

About a month ago I realized that my photos from 1998 to 2006 were not on the hard drive. I of course realized this right after a reformat of my computer. I wasn’t too concerned at the time as I didn’t really look for them and assumed they had just been accidentally moved to another folder. Turns out they had actually been accidentally deleted at some point as tonight when I tried to go through these images to finish a post I started before the new year (also to try and find some path images for Lynn), I realized that they were gone. I started to get a little worried, and normally would have freaked out but was too tired tonight to go into full frantic-mode. Dave had a look at the hard drive with me and confirmed that they were in fact missing. Before I could get too worked up, Dave remembered my initial method of backing up my photos (pre-hard drive): CDs and DVDs. It seems like an almost archaic method of backup now, but it worked. I found my photos and am currently putting them back on the hard drive (and laptop).
They will work as a form of entertainment for a few hours as I go through the last 12 years in photo form.

Windows Live Writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have downloaded a new program that claims to make blogging easier and more straightforward. It is called Windows Live Writer and I am currently testing it out. I have allowed it to access my blogs to gather the necessary information to properly format my posts, but for now am just testing it out here.

It seems a little odd and quite frankly I am not all that impressed so far, but I have just installed it a few minutes ago and this is my first post, so perhaps the program and I just need some time to get used to one another.

I will be trying a few things with it over the next couple days, like scheduled posts and posts in the past. It claims to be able to better edit posts and more easily insert photos, albums and videos so I will need to try all of those things out before I can make a proper review of the program, though I have heard good things from other bloggers, particularly photographic bloggers (as you can supposedly more easily edit the size of your images).

Anyway, just thought I would let you all know what I was up to, just in case my posts look a little odd for the next little while. I am going to be getting back to my Florida posts, I think the past few days acted as a good break, but I have many more places to tell you about before I am done with that vacation.

Quotable Thursday #22

"My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that's the law" - Jerry Seinfield.

Way Back Whenesday: Duracell Tester Strip

Grandma Conlin always had one of these tester strips in her junk drawer and Madison and I thought it was the neatest thing. Okay, maybe it was just me. Either way, they were neat. They did not however, work nearly as fast as the commercial makes you think. In fact, sometimes they were so slow that you had to hold on to them long enough for them to become very hot.

Family Day

Today is Family Day here in Ottawa and I therefore did not have to work. It was a really nice treat seeing as how last week, our first week back form vacation, was incredibly stressful and not all that pleasant seeing as how we actually had to work.
I don't have a recent photo of the Beach family, or the entire Koning family, but I do however, have a photo of the Dave with his parents from Myakka State Park in Florida.

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day.

Homosassa State Park

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa Springs, Florida. It is home to 6 female manatees who cannot be re-introduced to the wild but have become a large tourist attraction. It is also home to many other animals such as a hippo named Lu, alligators, a bobcat and several species of birds.
When we first arrived at the park we waited in line for a boat to take us across a bit of water. After watching the first boat fill up, we realized that it would likely be faster to drive around the water and park on the other side than wait for the next one. So that is exactly what we did. I am writing this so that if you visit yourself, you just drive to the second entrance.
The first thing we did was watch the manatee program. A woman told us about manatees and specifically the six in the park and then they fed them entire heads of lettuce. You could also view the manatees from under the water, though the longer they ate and swam around, the dirtier the water got and therefore the harder it was to view them.
Once the manatee program was done, we toured the park and viewed the other animals. It happened to be Lu the Hippo's 50th birthday and he received a cake to eat and a tire to play with. For that reason he spent most of the day on the bottom of his pond playing with and chewing on his new tire. He came up for air once in a while, but he really didn't care about the tourists that day, and he was therefore not very photogenic.
Alligators on the other hand are incredibly photogenic as they really just sit in one spot, rarely moving an inch. I learned later on in the trip that alligators are at every park in Florida as you can pretty much just open the gates and they will come in. The same can be said about most wild birds.This crane for example was not a resident of the park, just a daily visitor during feeding time. He did, however, still act like it was his territory and puffed up as the other birds got close to him and his food spot.We watched the bird get fed as well, though this was a far smellier event - and louder too. The typical Florida shorebirds were there: ibis, cranes, pelicans, flamingos, etc, all just waiting to have their photo taken. The only thing that hindered this trip was the weather. It didn't rain but it was fairly chilly and walking in the shady woods was a little uncomfortable. That being said, it was still a really nice park and another great example of the rehabilitation efforts going on in this state.

Suncoast Sea Bird Sanctuary

The Suncoast Sea Bird Sanctuary is located in Indian Shores, Florida. It is apparently world renowned for its rehabilitation techniques and is home to many, many injured and stranded Florida birds including various pelicans, cormorants, owls, raptors (birds of prey), ibis, herons/cranes, and others whose names I have unfortunately forgotten. We walked around the facility and watched the birds interact with each other and later saw them get fed. It was interesting because there were many wild birds sitting on the net-caging. I couldn't determine if they wanted in or if they just wanted to mock the birds at the sanctuary.The sanctuary also happens to be right on the beach and when we walked out there we saw several wild pelicans and cranes. I slowly walked up to them and took some shots and as I got closer it became evident that they were quite used to humans and it took a fair bit of effort by Dave to get them to fly off (in order to try and get some flying shots - though they didn't really turn out as nice as I was hoping they would). It was a nice end to a very pleasant day and though admission is free, Dave and I donated a few dollars to try and help the centre because any place that helps that many animals is worth my money.

Quotable Thursday #21

"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this." - Bertrand Russel (1872-1970).

Clearwater Aquarium

As its name suggests, the Clearwater Aquarium is located in Clearwater, Florida. It is a home for rescued dolphins, sea turtles and otters. It is also home to various fish, stingray and nurse sharks. The most famous resident is Winter, who is a female dolphin who got tangled in a fishing net so badly that her tail eventually fell off. She learned how to swim without using a side-to-side motion similar to a shark rather than the up and down motion normal to dolphins, but as the muscle use was so different, a prosthetic tail was made for her. It is put on her a few hours a day but she uses the shark-motion otherwise.While we were there we saw the feeding of a sea turtle who had air in her shell and could therefore not dive under the water. There were also sea turtles at the aquarium who were missing fins mostly from motor boats, but also from sharks and other predators.We waited a little bit for the dolphin show which was really awesome. They told us about the four dolphins that live at the aquarium (for various reasons) and the methods in place to help return dolphins to the wild when they are injured or beached. They also had the dolphins perform for us which was really neat.The aquarium is about $13 to enter (for adults). I thought the entertainment alone was worth the money, let alone the rescue efforts they perform on a regular basis. I really like it despite its small size.
(Winter and her prosthetic tail image found through Google as she wasn't in a posing mode when we visited the aquarium.)

Strange House in Safety Harbour

Near Clearwater, Florida is Safety Harbour. Inside this area is not only a lot of cute shops and cafes and a really great pier from which one could see manatees (we didn't see any when we went unfortunately) but also a really interesting house.On the corner of 12th and 3rd Avenue there is a really neat, but weird looking house I am affectionately calling the Strange House. The Konings had been here before with some friends who winter in Florida as well and knew that Dave and I would love it. We arrived early in the day and got a ton of really great shots that I am just starting to go through. I have included a couple in this post, but I am sure many more will be posted on my Photography blog (as well as my Flickr account).Around the perimeter of the property were painted bowling balls, which were incredibly photogenic. There was so many things to see here that one could make a million trips here and still see something new. There were creatures and objects in every nook and cranny. The following two guys were my favourite (that I saw while I was there) quite possibly because of the frog-like creature on top with his little camera.It doesn't take too long to get to the house, nor does it take very long to take a few shots here. The hard part is leaving because as you walk out you are bound to see something you want to shoot and then something else immediately after that. The Konings must have been sitting in their car for nearly 15 minutes waiting for me to walk out of the yard. Definitely a must see if you are in the area.

Florida Vacation Introduction

Like I said yesterday, Dave and I spent the last two weeks in Florida. We spent 4 night in Disney and the rest of the time in and around Clearwater, Florida. Below is a listing of the sites we took in while we were on vacation.

1. Safety Harbour
2. Clearwater Aquarium
3. Sea Bird Sanctuary
4. Homosassa Park
5. Busch Gardens
6. Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadians Game
7. Fort de Soto Park
8. Myakka State Park
9. Disney
10. Cirque de Soleil show in Disney
11. Sunshine Skyway
12. Wagon Wheel Flea Market

We also ate at several well-known American Restaurants. We spent a fair bit of time lounging around the Koning's Clearwater condo and driving the roads to and from tourist sites.
It was a really great time and I would love to go and see the sites we missed and re-visit ones we didn't.
So much like after our trip to Montreal, I will spend the next little while posting about the different places we traveled to while in Florida - essentially February will be predominantly Florida month.

Back in Canada

Dave and I land back in Canada today. We were in Florida for the past two weeks and as I right this, a few days before we are planned to leave (scheduled posts are so wonderful), I know we are going to be tired upon arriving home, but also very relaxed.
Once I get back to my normal life, I will certainly be editing and uploading images on most of my blogs as well as my Flickr site - probably in a style similar to other vacations where I post about the specific locations we traveled to rather than days spent on vacation, etc. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get through all the images I certainly took while away, and I will be able to share my vacation with you all --- stay tuned.

One Minute Writer #52

Write about an instance of positive peer pressure you have experienced or observed.

As I have mentioned several times throughout the life of this blog, I am a hermit. I am a massive homebody and don't really see anything wrong with it for the most part. That being said, the reason I don't find any problem with it is likely because I have extremely outgoing friends who occasionally force me leave my house and have fun.
When I was younger, my friends would have to use peer pressure to get me to leave the house and do something with them. I would inevitably enjoy myself in whatever it was that they got me to do, but they still had to force me to do it - and I normally didn't give in easily.
Nowadays, I am more likely to leave the house when asked to do something with friends though this may be because my current friends know me better and have similar interests. In other words, the invite me to things they know I would really enjoy, but more importantly that I know I would really enjoy.

Quotable Thursday #20

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945).

Way Back Whenesday: Rainbow Brite

Though I didn't watch the TV show on a regular basis, nor owned any of the dolls, I remember Rainbow Brite perfectly. My friends had her dolls, and those of her little sidekicks and we would play with them now and then. The show was pretty classic though - Rainbow Brite, her little sprite sidekick and her colour pals would fight the evil villains of the show.

Groundhog Day

(the above Stephanie Beach photo was originally posted here.)

Happy Groundhog Day!!

According to folklore, if the groundhog leaves its burrow today after failing to see its shadow, it signifies that winter will soon end. On the other hand, if it sees its shadow, it will go back into his home and winter will continue for another 6 weeks. As much as I prefer the cold over the heat, I really hope he pops his head out, and keeps it out.

(bottom image from National Geographic.)

Blog of Note (February): Today I Saw

Another interesting blog entitled: Today I Saw. Essentially the creator and author, Jill, sees something around her each day, draws said thing and sends it "to someone she likes". It is a very simple idea, but very creative.