Alaska 2 Years Later

Just returned from a trip back to Alaska. We were there almost 2 years ago to the week, and the changes were interesting. First, we stayed at Alyeska again, which since last time has been purchased by the guy whose dad owns GEICO. He has promised to build a new chair up to the glacier bowl (you still have to hike a traverse up to it now...) and to make the resort a more attractive place for vacationers and snow lovers. It looks the same right now on the outside, but the bed was wayy less comfortable. Last time we had the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, and this time, not so much.

We went to Portage Glacier, one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen, expecting the worse after seeing what the Mt. redoubt ash cloud had done to the Alyeska Snow, but were pleasantly surprised...here is what it looks like last week...
This is what it looked like in 2007...not much change, even when we got up close to it.

However, Exit Glacier just outside Seward had changed, and the ash from the volcano could clearly be seen coating the glacier...Here it is last week...

And this is what the "toe" of the glacier looked like in 2007, a pretty dramatic difference.

Just south of Portage Lake and Glacier is Byron Glacier, a place we really love to hike. The weather was horrible this time, rain, sleet, windy and about 35 degrees, but we hiked it until our gear was soaking. Looking up at Byron glacier, this is the scene last week...

And this is what it looked like in 2007. There was much more snow 2 years ago, even though the time difference of our visit was just one week.

The biggest surprise for us was what the volcano, which is only about 70 miles away from Alyeska, did to the top of the resort. Last time we were there, the top of Alyeska still had tons of snow and even was running a ski and snowboard camp for local schoolkids and teens. You can even see someone on the chairlift in the middle of my photo...

This time, the ash from the volcano settled onto the snow one day in mid-May, and that same day the resort got about 20 inches of volcano-laced snowfall. When the sun came out a couple of days later, the reflective nature of the glass-pumice fragments made the snow all but disappear completely, closing the resort weeks earlier then normal. Here is a shot of what it looked like last week.

Take-aways? Alaska is an amazing and wonderful place, and Alyeska is an excellent location from which to stage your explorations on the Kenai Peninsula. Oh, and the Chair 5 restaurant in Girdwood has great pizza. While we were at Alyeska we also experienced a volcano-related 5.6 earthquake, so it's a great place to visit, but as we drove around the Kenai, we were keenly aware of the "Tsunami evacuation route" signs and the "volcano safe-location" indicators...

Thanks for looking, and you can find the rest of my shots at my webshots page...click the link on the right to access it.

Gun Registration in TV Shows

The Campaign to make us think that Guns are Already Registered…

I’m a fan of the CSI shows (even though CSI Miami is really shot in Santa Monica or some other “hilly” location, we don’t have hills in Miami…but I digress). One factor I noticed in their dialogue is when one of the CSI’s is “tracing” a gun or bullets used in a crime. It is very common for them to access a “database” of “registered” firearms to determine that the perpetrator of the crime has or has not registered a weapon.

Soooooo, the United States has a database of “registered” firearms? No, it does not. However, there are ways for the Federal government (BATF) to at least guess. Each time anyone purchases a gun from a Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealer (an individual already cleared by the US Government to buy and sell weapons) a record of the transaction is kept as long as the dealer is in business (BATF form 4473).

Even licensed gun dealers that sell at gun shows must, by federal law, strictly adhere to background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

However, sellers who are private individuals are not bound by law to use the NICS, thus the “Loophole” of sorts, though many State Laws may mandate such a screening. Additionally, some states have laws requiring that a purchaser observe a waiting period before taking possession of a firearm from even private sellers, unless the buyer is a concealed firearms permit holder. These waiting periods typically range from 3 to 10 days depending on the state where the firearm is purchased.

Now – to a reason for this post…on FOX, CNN and the other stations is a news story about some stupid moron who has threatened our Chief Executive with violence. In the story we are told that the suspect has at least “8 registered guns.” Really?????

With which government agency are they registered? I see that this freaks car is registered in New York, one of only a handful of states requiring registration of handguns (the type of weapons he is supposed to possess) so perhaps those guns are registered in New York. If that is the case, the NY “licensing authority” for the borough in which he obtained the license for the guns should, by law, have the caliber, description and serial numbers for his guns.

You might already think, thanks to the liberal media and “crime” shows that all guns are registered with law enforcement. They are not. Yes, some states do require some form of registration to purchase a handgun, so here are a few notes about relevant states and registration requirements – as far as I’ve been able to determine.

DC (where legal ownership of handguns was just recently provided, though the permitting and registration process is quite onerous – plus there are no LEGAL gun shops in DC as of yet.)

Hawaii – you can submit a permit request, get fingerprinted by the FBI (yes, THAT FBI) and then purchase a handgun, though you cannot have it loaded in your car.

Illinois requires those interested in purchasing a handgun to get a state permit, and the city of Chicago and several other smaller cities have outright bans on handgun possession (unless you are a criminal).

Maryland allows its residents to own guns; it just requires them to watch a video about gun safety before the state issues a registration card in their name, which allows them to purchase guns. Additionally, the completely useless Integrated Ballistics Identification System is used in MD so that all guns have a ballistic “fingerprint” of a round fired from the gun registered with the State Police – which by the way, has resulted in 0 arrests…that is Zero, yep, the big Goose Egg.

Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota all require handgun purchasers to be licensed by a law enforcement authority in order to purchase or transfer a handgun.

Nebraska and Nevada require some form of registration to purchase as well and in Clark County; handguns must be registered with the police.

NJ, while strict, is nothing compared to New York, which is by far the strictest in the US, even making it impossible for police to own certain firearms and high-capacity magazines.

South Dakota requires purchasers to obtain a license from law enforcement that allows purchase of a handgun and Wisconsin just plain hates anyone with a gun, which is weird, since you’d think that lots of people own them up in the woods…and in Wyoming, they, like Texas, give you a gun when you land at an airport or cross the borders into the state.

Now, why is all this registration language making its way into popular media entertainment? Is it so we will already know the terms and be aware of the process when the Government decides that it has to register all firearms? Is it being done so that we think it is already law, and thus, when it becomes law we will readily accept it?

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks all of the above are true, and that perhaps, we have already let the genie out of the bottle. The Supreme Court ruling about gun ownership in DC, DC vs. Heller, seemed to put our right to keep and bear arms in stone, but, think about this, any ruling by the Supreme Court can be overturned – yes, the Supreme Court has the last word, within the American judicial system, on questions of constitutional interpretation. However, a Supreme Court decision regarding interpretation of the Constitution (like, say, the 2nd amendment) can be overturned by a constitutional amendment. A Court decision on interpretation of federal laws can be overturned by Congressional enactment of a new law.

So, vote early and often, and only for the RIGHT candidates…

Louisiana Honor Air

Group of WWII Veterans from Louisiana travel to DC
One Veterans Story

According to the historian for the U.S. Coast Guard, two hundred and thirty one thousand men and 10,000 women served in the Coast Guard during World War II. 3.5 million WWII veterans still live.

My dad, George W. Davison of Shreveport, was one of the 231,000 men serving their country during WWII in the Coast Guard. He enlisted at 20, traveled by train to New Orleans where his ship, the USCGC Grand Rapids had finished its outfitting at Plaquemine Shipyards. Commissioned in New Orleans, the Grand Rapids and its crew of 190 soon joined the war. During the war, the Grand Rapids was stationed in the North Atlantic, home of constant 40mph winds, sideways blowing snow, rogue icebergs and 20 foot seas. Though the weather was quite a shock for the southern-raised 20 year-old, he took his duties as a gunners mate very seriously, regardless of the weather or seas.

“You know, we had to be ready, as we sent reports back to the mainland about weather and patrol events, we were always aware that German U-boats were looking for us,” he told me once. “So, even if we had to chip the ice off our guns, we held practice sessions so that we’d know what to do if a sub ever did find us.”

Dad’s never been too vocal about his WWII service, other than to tell me a funny story about a fishing competition he won by catching a shark and that no matter how the cook prepared it, it tasted terrible. Honestly, he’s just not very talkative in general, and so, when he expressed interest in traveling to Washington, D.C. to see the newly built WWII Memorial on the National Mall, my family was supportive and we all encouraged him to go.

So, for the second time in his 87+ years, he got on a plane (with100 other WWI veterans this time) chartered by the Louisiana Honor Air group, in Shreveport and came here to DC to see the memorial.

Opened to the public April 29, 2004, the World War II Memorial sits in the heart of the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It honors the 16 million men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces, the more than 400,000 who died and all who supported the war effort from home.

As the group exited the plane, they looked spry and chipper, ready to tackle the city and its monuments to their heroism. The WWII monument was their first stop, where they were greeted by former Senator Bob Dole, who was the national chairman of the group responsible for securing funding to build the memorial. Dole spoke to every person that came up to him, as did his wife, Elizabeth Dole.

I looked at my dad, as he took it all in. He and I decided to go ahead of the group and just meander around the monument.

As he looked around, tears formed in his eyes. Each state and the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war is represented on the monument and dad walked over to where the word Louisiana is etched into the wall and I took a quick photo. Then, we went over to the Atlantic Ocean portion of the monument. The North Atlantic is where he spent his war-time service, and he just stood there, looking at the water. He’s always had affection for water of all kinds, and I could tell that just being there with men and women who had also served their country at its time of greatest need was an emotional thing for a man not accustomed to emotional displays.

After lunch, the group hit the FDR Memorial. This is by far one of the largest memorials on the mall. It sits on the Western edge of the enclosed tidal basin, just next to the Jefferson Memorial and our famous cherry trees. Anyone who served in WWII called President Roosevelt Commander-in-Chief, and as the group and dad walked the monument, I could hear comments about the WPA and the Civilian Conservation Corps, his wife Eleanor, and the Manhattan Project. I watched dad as he took in all the data about Roosevelt that he had forgotten or not known.

Poignant to me was dad’s comments about the statues (seen above) of men in line waiting in line for food during the depression. He said that he still remembers those things happening, as if it were yesterday.

From there, we went to Arlington National Cemetery, where we saw the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an emotional ceremony, and dad strained on his tiptoes to see the soldiers as they changed places and as a wreath in honor of the Louisiana veterans was placed in front of the Tomb.

After that, we went over to the Korean/Lincoln/Vietnam monument area, and dad walked around the Korean memorial. It is one of the coolest I think, with the soldier statues walking through a rice field. He really liked that, and he also really liked the ice cream sandwich we got him at the refreshment stand!

Off to the Iwo Jima, where, as dad walked around, he quietly told me the story of a boyhood friend, a third base heavy hitter on his high school baseball team, who died as an infantry man on Iwo Jima. I had never heard the story, but as dad told it, he had tears in his eyes.

Back at the airport, and as he and the other veterans shuffled up the escalator to the special TSA lines, he smiled, looked over at me, and said quietly “thanks son for meeting me here, it was a special day” and in those 11 or so words is how I wanted my dad to feel at the end of the day. He and his generation prevented the Nazi’s from dominating the world, they liberated the Jews from the concentration camps, and they produced the means to end the war.

Who really knows how to judge the measure of a man? Is it in how much love he has for his children, his wife, for life itself? I don’t know the answer, but, I do know that in many ways my generation is very different from my dads, as is the current generation different from my own, and I am thankful to have my father and the measurement of his life by which to measure my own. I only hope that if I am fortunate to reach the wonderful age of 87 as he has, I will be as aware of the people who love me as he is of the people who love him.

I want to thank the Louisiana Honor Air staff, and the person(s) who made the trip possible through their generous funding. My dad, and the other veterans were well cared for and the level of detail and thoughtfulness was amazing. They did a hell of a job!

Did Lewis and Clark have permits for their guns…

OK, it is beyond question that the Washington Post is a gun-hating rag, known herein as the “GHWP”, and is intent on editorializing and opining as much as possible about their perceived inherent evils of gun ownership and that anyone who deems it necessary to own and use a firearm is obviously a criminal in need of rehabilitation or re-education.

Over the past two weeks, they have had articles or editorials every-other-day about the above statement. Even gave that nut job Bloomberg from NY a ton of ink space when he was here to talk about all the illegal weapons his criminals in NY are buying, ostensibly at Virginia gun shows. I’m sure that when he and his liberal friends (especially the ones in the White House and DHS right now) are successful in shutting down what they perceive as the “gun show loophole” then they’ll go after gun shows in Wyoming, or Alaska, or they’ll find some way to make it totally illegal for someone who is “legally able to own a firearm” to sell another person who is legally able to own a gun that they no longer need…in other words, a face-to-face transaction (which by the way is still legal – I can sell a firearm to a resident of my own state who is not prohibited from owning a firearm—someone who is over 18, no felony convictions, etc., and yes, there are ways I can check to make sure the person buying the gun is not prohibited from owning it)…

Just today in the Post, is an article about how Mexico would be a paradise; all beaches, coronas and tiki huts, were it not for all the illegal guns, especially the “assault weapons” streaming across the border from the U.S., being used in numerous drug cartel murders. They even have a neato name for it, the “iron river.” The Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukkhan (uh, is it just me or does that last name sound vaguely middle-eastern…just saying…) is quoted saying that U.S. law enforcement officers on the U.S. side need to be given a “more prominent role” on the border.

HUH??? What does the border Patrol do? And, isn’t that what we sent two fine U.S. Border Patrol agents to prison for, their “more prominent enforcement” of the rule of law and their unfortunate shooting of a criminal (a Mexican drug smuggler, who in the early afternoon on February 17, 2005 escaped after eluding several Border Patrol agents and in the process of abandoning on a dirt road his van containing 743 pounds of marijuana was shot in the ass by the agents - he sadly survived both their poor judgment and marksmanship).
Today’s article ends with two long paragraphs about the evils of guns, and how the Clinton era Assault Weapons ban needs to be re-implemented so the U.S. can “shut down these weapons and the bulk cash that is providing the drug syndicates in Mexico the where-with-all to corrupt, bride and kill.”

Wow – all that is happening because of the Assault Weapons Ban??? Come on, U.S. gun laws, all 20,000 of them (state and federal) are not the reasons for the Mexican cartels, drug barons, drug problems or drug related murders.


Now, to Lewis and Clark…

The GHWP ran a short blurb about how the Library of Congress (protected by federally trained gun-toting police officers…what, are they afraid that someone is going to walk off with the entire “one-hit wonders” CD collection???) is planning to display a newly located supply list from the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806. Prominent on the list is the following:

1. 15 Prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54-caliber rifles "Kentucky Rifles"
**************OMG THEY HAD GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!************************
2. 15 Gun slings
**************OMG THEY HAD GUN SLINGS!!!!!********************
3. 24 Large knives
**************AND KNIVES!!!!!!!!!!!*************
4. Powder horns
5. 500 Rifle flints
6. 420 Pounds (191 kilograms) of sheet lead for bullets
7. 176 Pounds (80 kilograms) of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
8. One Long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by flint, spark, and powder
*******THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!***********

Hmmm, that’s a lot of firepower and ammunition…I wonder if the prototype muzzle-loading weapons and the special long-barreled rifle that used compressed air were considered the “assault weapons” of the time, let’s just for the sake of argument, say yes.
Some questions to ponder…

1) Did Lewis and Clark stop and think about the fact that they were taking assault weapons into another nation (the Native American Indians, into whose territories the expedition was to travel already had nations, governments and trade routes…); maybe the Indians didn’t want the intruders with weapons in their lands…

2) Did Lewis and Clark have permits for those guns?

3) If they wanted to have a gun at their side, did they have a concealed carry permit that allowed them to “conceal” the firearm from sight?

4) Would their expedition members be under surveillance by DHS agents?

In 1803, we were a boisterous and expansive nation, not the evil purveyor of death as we are described the GHWP today. We had just completed the Louisiana Territory purchase (in which I was born…many years later) and were setting about to study and colonize our newly acquired property, so I guess the boys (L&C) felt it necessary to be protected, so they brought an arsenal of weapons on their little expedition.

I feel a little like Lewis and Clark when I get into my car and head out to the wilderness of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc. to explore, so, much to the consternation of the GHWP (oh, what they don’t know…), I pack heat…legally of course, so that I don’t end up crosswise to federal, state or local laws about guns.

Lewis and Clark – if you lived today, perhaps your expedition would be described as a “radical extremist” group by the Department of Homeland Security, and you’d most likely be in prison – or maybe Bloomberg would be doing press conferences in your states of residence talking about how you were possibly importing weapons to the Indians and how a better regulatory climate would make it impossible for you to continue feeding the violence in the Indian nations, and make it impossible for you to possess those weapons of mass destruction.

But, perhaps L&C would be busy clinging tenaciously to their religion and their guns...

Kauai resident's have it right...

Won't post the entire story, here is the URL...http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html

which details how some regualr people did something for themselves...GOSH!!!! WHAT A FREAKING GREAT IDEA - hope it doesn't get them thrown in jail, cause we all know that the government does not want us doing anything for ourselves...dammit, they want to do it ALL for us, right???

Ok, daddy's better now...but really, this is a cool story, enjoy it...

and don't try this at home (uncle sam will be pretty pissed).

:-)

The Gun Issue

The headline is "At least a dozen people are dead after a shooting rampage in Binghamton, N.Y." and in these simple words are the roots of what's to come.

In the last week many have died, including seven of my police brothers killed in the line of duty, three yesterday in Pittsburgh, and four in Oakland, CA.

Sad that shootings have become a "usual" thing but, they are. As far as I can glean from a pretty thorough search of news databases, here is a list of the "worst" of the worst for multiple shootings...

The Bush Years:

October 2002. A series of sniper-style shootings, some carried out from the trunk of a car, claims 10 lives, mostly in the Washington area. Many of the attacks were carried out with a semi-automatic assault rifle. (I was a part of the team responding to these attacks, and still think of what occur ed during the sniper attacks every time I drive here in DC)

August 2003. A worker who was laid off shoots and kills six of his former co-workers with a semi-automatic pistol. The shooter had a lengthy arrest record, including for weapons offenses.

November 2004. A hunter opens fire with an SKS assault rifle, killing six other hunters and wounding two after an argument.

March 2005. A man fires 22 rounds during a church service, killing seven people.

October 2006. A truck driver armed with two rifles, a semi-automatic handgun and 600 rounds of ammunition kills five schoolgirls execution-style in an Amish schoolhouse, and seriously wounds six others before shooting himself.

April 2007. A student shoots 47 people at Virginia Tech, killing 32 before he commits suicide, in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States.

December 2007. Nine people are killed and five others injured after a 20-year-old shooter armed with a military-style assault rifle attacks shoppers in a mall.

December 2007. A woman and her boyfriend shoot dead six members of her family, including two children, ages three and six, on Christmas Eve, using large-caliber pistols.

February 2008. Six women are tied-up and shot at a suburban clothing store. Five of the women die. The gunman has not been found.

February 2008. A man opens fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing five students and wounding 16 before turning his weapon on himself.

September 2008. A mentally ill man who had been released from jail a month earlier shoots eight people, killing six.


December 2008. A man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opens fire at a family Christmas party at his ex-wife's home and then sets fire to the house. Nine people are killed in the home. The gunman later kills himself.

The Obama 3-Months:

April 3, 2009: Five children were found shot to death in a home near Tacoma, Washington, their father committed suicide off-site from where he shot and killed his children.

April 3, 2009: Three Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officers became the first department fatalities since 1995 to fall to a crazed gunman with an AK-47, a long rifle and a handgun.

April 3, 2009: The death toll from the shooting in Binghamton, New York is 14, with one of the dead believed to be the shooter. The chief said the gunman used a car to block a back exit at an immigration services center before opening fire inside, so he had thought this through pretty thoroughly.

March 29, 2009: A man shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, N.C. before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.

March 29, 2009: A man shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Clara, Calif. Kalathat's wife was critically injured.

March 11,2009. In a shooting spree that moves through several towns, a 28-year-old out-of-work man kills 10 people, including his mother and a toddler.


March 10, 2009: A distraught man killed 10 people, including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy, across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

Feb. 14, 2008: A former student opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, fatally shooting five students and wounding 18 others before committing suicide.


OK - Some things I think of when I read of these incidents:

1- LEGAL gun owners like myself should be prepared, for these incidents to spark increased calls for new and more stricter Gun Control Measures. It's a fact of life, that these shootings bring gun issues to the forefront of the news and news makers and politicians love to screw with anything that gets them attention.

2 - We should be careful when talking about how much ammunition or how many firearms we own. Especially know that if a reporter is in a gun store doing a story, it's certainly not going to read like this: "I'm speaking today with a wonderful, thoughtful and intelligent personal friend who is purchasing a weapon. He (she) has a glorious concealed carry permit and plans to teach his (her) children about safety and responsibility as well as its use while plinking at a well-loved shooting range with friends and family..." It more likely will read thusly..."scary god-loving cooters in gun-crazy burbs are buying assault weapons and ammo in preparation for the pock-a-lipse at an alarming and possibly illegal pace - they say that Obama scares the hell out of them and they'll be ready when his gubment comes to git their AK-47's."

3- Stay informed about gun rights news, and about what the anti-gun crowd is saying...do what I did, go to the anti-gun web sites and sign up for their update newsletters...then, be prepared to smartly speak about the issues when the opportunity presents itself. Remember, the foundation of our governing principles is the Rule of Law not the Rule of Men...which means that the application of governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that we call "due process." The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian leader or by mob rule. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy, but it puts the burden onto us, the citizens who participate in the process.


I felt compelled to put this to "cyber paper" today, watching the news, and feeling that the killers in our society are wresting control of the gun rights issue away from us - the legitimate, law-abiding gun owners - and when that happens, well, it won't be a pleasant day.

We should remember that even though in the DC v Heller case, the Supremo's affirmed the 2nd amendment right to own firearms for private use, it's just a ruling on legal-regulated-registered gun and ammunition possession in a home for personal defense...it doesn't speak to the polling which says that 50% of Americans favor owning a gun as well as a similar percent saying that we need stricter gun control laws...

JAD

BSG Finale

Well, I looked on the "internets" (thanks GWB for so mannny weird new phrases) and discovered that I, along with others, were somewhat unhappy with how the last season of BSG evolved, and how the finale dealt with many of the unanswered questions.

On reading the comments people posted to other blogs about the show, I see that I am not alone.

Recall the temple of Athena, back on Kobol, where the survivors were looking for a map to earth, using an Arrow that Starbuck goes back to Caprica to secure? In the temple, when the arrow is put on the statue, the entire temple interior changed into a grassy field where the 12 constellations were easily visible. One burning question, where was that holographic kind of technology on Galactica or anywhere in the fleet??? And, if that kind of technology, after thousands of years, was still on the planet and functioning, why not start knocking down some walls and see what else is there? I sure would have, trust me, started making little rocks out of those big ones in an attempt to uncover the technology and use it somehow, to maybe fool the cylons into seeing something other than was really in front of them...just a thought

Maybe what Hera brought to the "human" gene pool was a genetic trait obviously missing from the "humans" of the 12 colonies - the ability to be curious about life.

PS - the finale fight scenes were great, the flashbacks with Laura in a nighty, Adama taking a polygraph, etc., were useless. Give me Asimov any day. Oh, and after 150,000 years, where is Adama's gold ring he put on Laura - since gold does not rust or degrade? He was on a mountaintop in the southern latitude of western Africa, it wasn't covered by glaciers in the Little Ice Age...Or their bullets, or axes, or any glass they brought down? It would have been much more interesting if the paper headline had read "African settlement had glass beakers 150,000 years ago" or maybe "Unknown metals found in girl's African grave site, bones appear to be made of an unknown metal" or something equally dramatic...

She missed the Mark...

OK, so Nadya Suleman's 8 babies join her other 6, which means she will be the "mother" of an entire team, and she isn't limited to one sport anymore either, she has her pick...

If she were smarter, she'd have done this at a time when we were all fat, when we had money, when we might have not have thought "what a selfish, foolish, stupid bitch" and not immediately retracted the thought and called ourselves bad people. She is, of course, all three of those words, and more. And, who is going to be paying for her team as they grow up? why, we will of course. She has so many of the little monkeys that we'll be paying for them for a very long time, unless, of course, it truly is the "end of days," and then, well, we'll only be paying for them for between 4 months or three years, your guess is as good as mine...

Anyway, it's not the kids fault, it's their mothers fault, so we can't fault the kids. But, I'm sure at some point soon, we'll see a line item in the congressional quarterly, authorizing a non-year appropriation to support her and her brood, which, in retrospect, might be one of the only legitimate line item additions to the budget actually tied to a living, real and measurable expense...

But, who's watching?

Oh well -

Guess it was predestined anyway. More later.

this is the election to define our future.

OK - sorry to usurp this usually tranquil and photogenic space for some crass political comments. Please click on the following link...http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=302137342405551

for an interesting and informative Op/Ed from Investors Daily about the future under Barak Obama's white house. Sorry Ann, but everyone who isn't fooled by his calm and pleasant demeanor needs to work to make sure he does not win the presidential race.

Perhaps at some point I will return with nice photos and comments, but for now, I'm using this space to promote AnyOne But Obama.

Love of Nature - Virginia Style

Been a long time since my last post. I have provided the link to my webshots page for anyone interested in seeing the other photos that I cannot post here (it'd just take too long).

We've been busy, been to Florida to deal with some house issues, been hiking the Shenandoah National Park too. To look at the photos, please go to my webshots page.

Thanks for looking, and enjoy the summer!


http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysbprepared?vhost=community

Hiking the Shenandoah

Greetings from Northern VA. So, almost summer. To compensate for our lack of ocean kayaking, we have decided to become hikers, bikers and fishers...will update with bike and fishing photos when we do them. But, this past weekend, we hiked up to Cedar Run falls in the Shenandoah National Forest (http://www.nps.gov/shen/). The area is beautiful and the water was very cold. I have added a link to my webshots page, where I have loaded a few of the better photos (http://community.webshots.com/user/alwaysbprepared).

But, here are a few as well...

Ann, looking like a seasoned hiker...

Cedar Run Falls and Whiteoak Canyon Falls are two of several multi-mile trails that connect Skyline Drive (http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/60646/) with the outside world. We didn't actually drive onto Skyline, we took a few country backroads to a trail entry point that is in the valley and hiked up the mountains to the falls...which means, we hiked DOWN the mountain on the way back - which I highly recommend!! Here is a map of the hike area:


Once hiking, we came across many beautiful locations. Here is my favorite...


It was clear that the water can be much higher, as seen in all the huge trees acorss the stream in some places...like this...

And this...

As we were climbing up to have a look at another falls area, we happened to come across some local wildlife...needless to say, we gave this critter some space...

So, here is where it was "rocking out"...

And, one last little pool awaited us before we had a snack and started back to the car.

I will post more photos as we have the adventures. Thanks for looking, and let me know what you think, ok?

JD

Great Falls and Miami

Hey Everybody! So, sorry it's been along time since last posting, but it's been busy up here in Yankee Land...

For more recent photos, you can go to my webshots page at webshots.com and put into the search function "alwaysbprepared." If you do that, you'll see the photos I have uploaded.

Now, to recent activity.

Went to Great Falls National Park yesterday afternoon, we've had a ton of rain and the river is just huge. Judge for yourself...
On to other news. Recently, I turned a glorious 48 years young...yes, hard to believe, I know...but, where else to celebrate that accomplishment but working on the "house that apparently freaking cannot be sold," to make it more appealing to someone down there in cuba-north??? So, the main problem, as stated to our real estate professional by people looking at the house was that the dining room was too dark...so, to combat that, I took a few minutes and decided to repaint. Here are the before and after shots...

Before - with the original blue paint scheme...you can see where I have put a little yellow paint to see what it would look like.

And after, with the yellow that I painted in the living room...does seem a bit brighter, huh? (that's blue painters tape on the crown lolding.)


The next issue was that the Bougainvillea on the back covered patio has been allowed to go TOTALLY out of control...so, I thought I would just cut it back a bit, not knowing that the plant would fight back to completely that I'd have to eventually just cut it all down...



Before the Battle of the Bougainvillea - view from the back of the property...

And from the covered patio - once again, much cleaner...

So, with that battle behind me, I then took on the easier task of cutting back the banana trees. Last year, these four banana trees produced about 500 banana's...I had people driving by and stop, knocking on the front door asking if they could cut a few banana's off the tree...The trees had grown substantially, and were about to sprout the buds to produce fruit, so it was a good time to cut them back...

Here is a shot of the front of the house, with the trees...

Cutting them down was pretty easy, here is what the front of the house looks like now...


Cutting them also made the living room and dining room brighter as well...Ihope someone likes it, cause it was a long couple of days for the birthday boy...er, man...

So, on to the fun in the birthday trip...went to Fairchild, Bill Baggs, Long Key and Bahia Honda.

Here are a few fun shots from the weekend...this is the walkway at Bill Baggs State Park - headed out to the beach and the ocean.

It was almost sunset, and on the back side of the island I found a couple of nice photo opportunities. Here is a palm with the sunset.


And this is a rare sight, we don't really have too many sea oats on the Atlantic/Miami side...so, it was fun to find these...

Next day, went down to Bahia Honda and Long Key...Here is my favorite view from the island that is offshore of the park...

And, what trip to the Keys is complete without a stop at Long Key, to enjoy the beauty and lack of crowds? Here is a shot of the Jeep, with my Yak on top, at Long Key beach.


At dusk, after eating our fill at Wahoo's on the Ocean in Islamorada, saw this beautiful site and had to shoot it. The ocean was so calm and the colors were just very calming...


Well, that was the excellent adventure to Miami for my birthday. I hope that the freaking house is sold by the time my next one rolls around...if not, well, I guess you will find me there again, to cut back the banana trees, repaint, etc. etc. you get the picture...

Enjoy your summer, and write sometime, ok everyone? PS - Cathy - post more photos to your blog...HEY - that goes for you to Jessica!!!!

JD

Cherry Blossom Time!

Here are a few photos from my recent walk through the cherry blossoms on the tidal basin here in Washington, DC...

A nice view of the Washington Monument

Looking up the Cherry Tree

Love these tiny buds...

The Jefferson Monument, surrounded by the blossoms.

A brief rain shower made these blossoms very moisture laden.

Macro of a small clump just trying to grow up to be bigger...

Nice.

Very crisp and cherry blossom like.

Another view during the cloudy part of the day.

One More Thing

So,. I took this personality quiz: http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/closed-quiz.aspx?quiz=21

and found out that I am Admiral Adama...interesting...

Battlestar Galactica Theory

OK - so, I will post photos later of the Cherry Blossoms (they are very pretty) but for now, I will post my thoughts about only the BEST TV show playing right now...Battlestar Galactica.

First, since my Miami Vice days (I watched the episodes as they ran on NBC and of course, we lived in Maimi and we own all five seasons on DVD...) I have always liked Edward James Olmos. He is an awesome actor, and his turn as Commander (now Admiral) Adama is just stunningly great.

My BSG theories:

1) The Fifth Cylon is Captain Agathon - it just makes sense, if you go back and actually study the episodes in seasons 1 - 3, the clues are there...

2) The Five "unknown and unseen" (at least until last season when the final 4, with one holdout, were revealed) Cylon's are immortal and have existed since they were created by an ancient race of mankind and somehow outlived the conflict that destroyed that ancient race of humanity...they did not start it, but they survived, and perhaps, they resurrected the human race through genetic means to try and get it right this time. They have done this kind of manipulation many times in the past, always hoping to "get it right," thus Leoben constantly saying that "this has all happened before and will happen again..."

3) Perhaps they actually created mankind originally, hoping for some company...hey you christians, sound eeriely familiar???

4) Sharon wasn't killed by the "virus" from the probe that killed the Cylons in the Basestar at the Lion's Head Nebula because Agathon's "bodily fluids" that created their "hybrid" child made her immune somehow.

5) They will get to Earth and find that it is the present day or perhaps 100 - 500 years in the future, and discover that the Earth they find has been destroyed by the children of the humans of the 13th tribe, because they forgot who they were and couldn't stop their internal conflicts (which will be somewhat disappointing, because then the actions during their whole 4 seasons becomes nothing more than a really long nightly news segment about the mortgage crisis or Iraq). It will be something like 2 - 3,000 years ago that the 13th tribe arrived at Earth.

6) The "rag-tag" fleet of ships will be destroyed in a final, climactic battle over the Earth between the Cylon Fleet and the humans and Adama will ultimately self-destruct the Galactica, with Lee and Roslin at his side, before allowing all to be taken hostage or destroyed by the Cylon fleet. The "final five" god-like cylons will say "well FRAK us!!!" and start all over with their little experiment.

7) Agathon's and Sharon's (Athena's) child is the result of two Cylons mating, which is exactly what the final 5 have been trying for, and they hope it is the start of something perfect...


There, my thoughts about the show. I will be watching, every night possible.

So Say We All.

No time to talk - Just photos

A wind turbine we found near Seven Springs, PA. The mountains are literally covered with these things, guess the answer to global warming (if it exists...) is to harness the sun and wind for power. War Correspondents...where would we be without them (says one of them...)? This monument is found in the rural near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, across the Potomac River on the Maryland side.

This rose was given to Ann in Seven Springs at Helens, the fine dining restaurant on the hill. It was a great meal the last night of snowboard season.

It snowed most of the weekend, here is a shot outside our condo at one of the ski lifts...

Here is a shot of my feet looking down the face of the mountain at the hotel lodging. Seven Springs is an awesome place, with tons of natural snow and a nice trail system. For those interested, their URL is: http://www.7springs.com/

Here is a look at the groomed run on the front side...

And this is a photo of yours' truly, in my gear, ready to shred the nar...

This is Ann in the Mountains last weekend as well, it was 29 degrees with forcast snow...

And, one last photo, the Cherry Blossoms are blooming in DC. Though it's been raining most the day, I got out to shoot a couple of photos. More later - Peace Out!

Below is Ann at 7 Springs, looks cold, huh??

Hey - so, no more snowboarding, the season here in the mid-atlantic is over. But, we shredded our butts off every chance we got. Almost Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BSG returns soon...

Here is a cool site I found that has tons of BSG stuff on it. The best might be the Letterman Top Ten List with the BSG cast giving the 10 reasons to watch the 4th and last season of the show. Here is the link:

<http://www.movieweb.com/video/V08C19alquxAEN

More later.

JD

Almost Spring

So, from my recent travels, I can see the land shaking off the evidence of winter. The snow is going quickly and the flowers are opening up as well. The cold has been a real shock to my system, but it's also been like saying hello to a loved friend not seen in a long time. It is a very welcome feeling. Cold air, snow, cool rain, all elements I didn't really have growing up in Louisiana had quickly become second nature to me, and I missed them.

But, soon the snowboard will be put away, and the hiking/mountaineering/kayaking (though I don't really know where that will be taking place...) will begin. Look for some interesting photos in the coming months as we rediscover the mountians, fields and ocean beaches of the middle atlantic states together.

Have a great Spring everyone,

JD

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Wow - March 17th already. Seems like just yesterday we were sitting on a beach somewhere south of latitide 25 casually talking about going back to DC...and, here we are. We went snowboarding this weekend up to Wisp, which has become our new weekend home, much like Bahia Honda in the Keys was when we lived down there in Cuba...er, Miami.

It was VERY cold, windy and snowy, here is a shot of Ann bundled up in front of the Parrothead Audi...

Here is a look at one of the trails on the top of the mountain. That is both fog and snow clouding the trail...

And, you all know that when we finally freaking sell our house in Miami, we will be looking for a new place to call home, well, we found the perfect place up there in the mountains of Garrett County, MD...It's even got the latest in outdoor plumbing and barn technology...

Alright, just kidding around with ya. This is the oldest structure in the county, dating from the 1700's. I thought it would look cool in B&W so I utilized the monochromatic button on my D80.

We took a few side roads this time and found a couple of nice streams, one was near a trout hatchery, which means there must be fish in the streams, but, it was pretty cold, so I just jumped out and shot the pictures.

One last shot, enjoy, will be back later. Oh, and go visit our blog; Naturetainment.net, which we have been producing since early last summer (2007) for cool tips on how to bring nature into your home for enteraining. I'd like to find a way to bring the following photo into the house...

Some Random Thoughts

Hello People! I don't have any new photos to share (forgot the camera this weekend). But, it did snow quite a bit up at Wisp Resort and we had a very good time playing in the snow.

OK - here is a fabulous site for those of you who are LOST fans...http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=nickname

This is the site where you input some information about yourself and it spits out the nickname that the character Sawyer would call you...hint - put in George Bush's name and the physical characteristics that he has...and the nickname TOTALLY fits...

Sawyer would call me sugarpop!!!

Another thing, why is it that there are no fat people on the Sandals/Cruise Ship/Jamacian vacation TV commercials??? I mean, if those people were really that beautiful, they'd be doing something else...I've seen the people lining up for those cruises, and it's not a pretty sight...

And, it's obvious that our country is going downhill, just look at the advertising during prime time and the indicators are impossible to miss.

Well, more later.
JD

Hey everybody!

Yes, that is Ann standing out on the frozen Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. We went there for some R&R last week. With the air temperatures about 15, and tons of ice fishermen out on the lake, we figured we'd go for alittle ice hike out on the lake...

Where she (and I) are standing in summer is about 25 feet deep. This is what the section of the lake in front of our condo looks like...

And, when I turned to look back at shore, here is a photo where we were staying. The condo is on the top floor, with a great overlook of the lake. This place is called Will-o-Wisp resort, and Wisp Ski resort, where we spent one day boarding, is about 5 miles up the road. It is in Garrett County in Maryland, and they average about 200 inches of snow a season.

The sky was nice and blue and I could see the moon so I did this shot to get perspective on ground and sky.

As I looked down the shore, I saw this...don't guess it will be out for while.

If you look closely at the large lake photo, off in the distance you will see ice fishermen out on the ice, they were there all day and night. When one vacated a spot, all that was left was this...

So, of course I took off my glove and stuck my hand down into the water to feel how thick the ice was. This hole had ice about 6 inches thick, and the water was very cold...

On the drive home one day, we stopped at this lovely covered bridge in Pennsylvania.

I'm sure the Audi, if capable, would be saying..."what have you guys done to me...here is how I used to look every weekend...

and here is how I look today!!!! Someone rescue me from these crazy people!!!

Faulkner Book Update: sales are going good I guess. Scot, Vicki and I went to CPAC a few weeks ago where Scot was one of the featured guests in a book signing room. I've been helping as much as possible, but, all of you out in the blogosphere need to go purchase the book "The Naked Emperors: the Failure of the Republican Revolution" if you haven't already.

Well, I'll be in Shreveport soon, seeing family and friends. But, I will post again as soon as possible with interesting stuff. Until then, be safe out there.

I forgot what winter looks like...

A wide view from the weekend...

Well, went up to Pennsylvania and Maryland this past weekend. Living in South Florida, it was easy to forget what winter felt and looked like, but, it's been a cold reality check the past 22 days. It was 0 (zero) degrees this weekend in the allegeny and laurel mountain highlands, with snow showers. Here are a few pictures...

While driving, I spied in the distance something I'd not thought about since leaving FPL...these wind turbines, they were on top of a line of mountains spinning...


Came across an interesting lake wilderness area with a frozen lake...

And a sign with directions that I would probably follow for the time being...


Just to be clear - this is from this past weekend, somewhere outside Breezewood, PA on the hill near the wind turbines...
and this is from exactly one month ago, at Bahia Honda...

Hmmmm....oh well, it will get warm again soon, right? See ya...play nice out there, ok?

PS - go to amazon.com and buy the book: The Naked Emperors by Scot M. Faulkner please!!!

Hello from the Frozen North

So, guess it's pretty warm down Coral Gables, or at Robbies in the Keys (check the link to the right...) but, it's not warm up here...we got about 4 inches of snow yesterday and it's going to snow again tomorrow too. I took a snow day yesterday, got up early and drove out to Whitetail to hit the slopes. That is Whitetail in the photo, a total whiteout with heavy snow for hours. It's been a bad snow season so far, with little snow and temperatures too high...I blame Al Gore for not telling us about global warming sooner...

The snow was really nice looking on the evergreens and fence line.

I stopped at a place called Turkey Run Park on the GW Parkway. It was still snowing pretty well, and the trees looked really nice.

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Good Day Everyone! Ann and I are reconnecting with old friends as we get "borged" (i.e. assimilated) back into DC. Not much snow lately, been too warm, so instead of hitting the slopes we have been hitting the roads for local trips. One trip we took yesterday was up to Harpers Ferry in West Virginia to see my friend and former boss Scot Faulkner and his wife Vicki. Scot has written a book about our tenure in the House of Representatives, called "The Naked Emperors." You can find it at the following link, and then you should order one, or two...http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Emperors-Failure-Republican-Revolution/dp/0742558819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200234992&sr=8-1

We had a great time, as Scot knows everything about the area. After a strategy session on how to promote his book, he was kind enough to take me and Ann on a tour of a few battlefields, some vistas and then fed us a terrific italian dinner. Here are a few pictures...

This is a cannon on the crest of a hill, about a mile away, that is pointed directly at Scot and Vicki's kitchen window...

This "worm fence" is found at all the battlefields, so named for its similarity (in looks only) to a worm...it is made out of Locust tree wood and is expected to survive the elements for up to 40 years...

This is the view of sunset from one of the battlefield vistas. It is really beautiful up there, and it feels so very good in my bones to see hills, mountains, flowing streams and to be able to smell the woodburning fireplaces again.

As we stepped away from the vista overlook and began to walk back to the car, I noticed that along the road grew blue and red berries. I maneuvered myself behind the berries and looked directly back into the sun, this is what I came up with in the viewfinder of my D80...

And, I close this posting with something not able to be pictured in Florida, Alpenglow on trees, mountains and river...See you all later, and go buy Scot's book...I'm in it!!!

New Title - Same Crazy People

Well - Happy New Year Everybody!!!!

No, this is NOT Northern Virginia. It is Bahia Honda Beach, one of the most beautiful places on earth. And, a place we went to on our last weekend in Miami...but, I am getting ahead of myself...

To explain the new title - since my old blog was MM156 to denote our distance from mile marker Zero - Key West; here in Pentagon City, VA, if you used the same Zero Approximation for Key West we are at mile marker 1066...thus Mile Marker 1066.

The day after Christmas we packed up the Audi and headed north. We stopped at Paul's house in St. Augustine for a great dinner and to drop off the two kayaks we sold to him. I kept my 16-footer, but we sold the two 12 footers to Paul. We got to see Melissa's baby, and then were off to Charleston, SC. We stayed there one night, had some great seafood and then went to the outer banks of NC. At Emeald Isle, we stayed the night with Ann's ex-boss, Bill Garber. He and his wife were excellent hosts and fed and housed us in their stunning ocean-front beach house. This was our last sand-time for a while, so we spent a few minutes just walking on the beach taking it all in. Then, the next day, off to Virginia to be newly minted Virginia residents.

So - on to the photos!!

I want to make sure I mention this place as we spent a considerable amount of time there in the last almost 3 years. Gloria Teague, who used to own Lady Cyana Divers in Islamorada, quit the dive business and opened a bakery/restaurant with her dive boat captain, Bob Spencer, who in addition to holding a 100 ton captains' license, is also a classically trained baker. Here is their place, it is AWESOME and if you are ever down that direction, you should stop for the muffin tops, or a great breakfast...this is a shot of the restaurant. If you go, go early, as the line is frequently wayyy out the front door. BTW - it's called "Bob's Buns...

When we got back to the Gables, we decided to take in one last Miami sunset. So, we drove the few miles to the Rickenbacker Causeway and arrived just a few minutes before this glorious site. It was very hard to think that this was one of the last for a while, but, it was truly beautiful to see.



Next day, we packed and soon were on the road to St.Augustine. Once there, Paul's fiance, Laurie fixed us a great Christmas dinner and Ann got to hold Melissa's new baby with the great middle name...hint - it is James...


During the drive up here, there was really only one shot I was thinking about getting...and, here it is...



Not wanting to just sit in the apartment, our first trip to a pretty location here was to Great Falls National Park. Here are a few photos. These are the falls just before the huge drop-off.

And, here are the Great Falls. They are truly spectacular to see and feel.

I will post new pictures of our other travels here as soon as possible. We hope to get in some snowboarding this coming weekend.

Until then, have a great new year, and talk with you all soon.

Farewell SoFla

This is it...I have a few pictures to load of our last trips to Marco Island and down to Bahia Honda. But, as of tonight, this blog will not be called MM156. I plan to come up with an interesting name, so check this space again soon.

Until then, Merry Christmas. I'll have no link on the road, so don't expect to see anything new until we land on the shores of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Peace.
JAD

Playing Catch-Up

With no computer to throw obsenities at, I was pretty much powerless to access the blog. Now that Gateway has graciously sent mine back to me with YET another FREAKING motherboard, I have free reign to have at it again...so...I missed several visitors in the last 2 months, and am going to make up for that now.

Jessica and my brother Don and his wife Susie visited us this Fall. Here are some photos and descriptions of what they did on their fall vacations...

At Robbies in the Keys (look at the links on the right-hand side and you will see it) Ann got a bowl of fish food and fed the tarpon and jacks while Jessica watched and exclaimed "ugh...that fish food stinks and those fish are crazy big!!"

Here is a view of the swirling Jacks and Tarpon.

Then, we went to Bahia Honda for some sun-n-fun.

"Hey baby, you, uh, need any help applying that sunscreen...???"

We didn't even have to book a room, as this little palm-frond hut looked like the perfect place just to "hang."

At the top of the old bridge at Bahia Honda - a beautiful venue for two pretty ladies to pose for the nice camerman...work it girls!!!

We stopped at the Island Fish Company in Marathon (for those interested - the food is pretty good, the location is fantastic) - ...http://www.islandfishco.com/.

The sunset that night was picture-perfect, so we took advantage of it for a little photo-op.



Don and Susie were our next visitors. Ann was out of town for a couple of days, so I took them to the Everglades and down to you guessed it, Bahia Honda State Park, http://www.floridastateparks.org/bahiahonda/. That state park is the one I will miss the most when we move back to VA/DC.

Here are Don and Susie at the Anhinga Trail Boardwalk in the Galdes saying "you promised gators, where are they...??"

Since D&S are Yakkers back home in Shreve'sburg, I brought the yaks with us so they could get a sense of ocean yakking. They took right off, into the surf and had a great time!!

This point at Matheson Hammock Park, http://www.miamidade.gov/parks/parks/matheson_beach.asp, is one of my favorite places here in Coral Gables. It is right on the ocean, there is a nice walk around a man-made atoll, and the tables are right on the ocean for a nice photo.

Thanks to Don and Susie and to Jessica for coming down for a little vacation. I hope you all will consider coming back to DC/VA when we get back there as well.


On a recent weekend, we were able to get out for a little yak time in the Biscayne Bay. Here are the yaks at anchor on a sandbar out in the middle of the bay, with the Miami skyline in the background...



Until later, we are your hosts, Ann and Jim. See you again soon. And, as Warren Miller says, "what are you waiting for, if you don't do it now, you'll just be one year older when you do it next year."

T-minus 2 weeks and counting...

I titled this blog with a NASA phrase to honor Peggy and Jack, our friends from NOVA, who visited last weekend.

P&J were in FL to see the shuttle launch at the Cape and drove down when the launch was scrubbed. We had a really great time with them, as the photos will attest. So, lets get started...

Now that the wildlife is back from the summer holiday (ever wonder what kind of luggage Alligators use on their summer vacations...?), the "warning" signs are back as well.

Here are Peggy and Jack at the beginning of the Anhinga trail in the glades.

We saw lots of great wildlife, like this very sleepy gator (there were tons).

And a nice Louisiana Heron squatting down under the boardwalk, waiting for fish to swim by...

After the walk, we drove down to Islamorada for lunch at Wahoo's (it has the best view of the ocean from the balcony, plus you can see the fishing fleet coming and going) and went through the History of Diving Museum, http://www.divingmuseum.com/ which was pretty cool. We then drove down to Long Key for a brief beach walk. Since the Keys are very thin at this point, Peggy was able to accomplish one of her goals - to be bi-oceanic in one day. She put her feet in the water at Long Key, and then we drove about 2 miles up the road to Layton, where she was able to put her feet in the Gulf of Mexico. Two oceans within 15 minutes of each other...who needs coast to coast driving (or flying) to get that kind of action????

I call this photo "Atlantic Foot."

And this one is "Gulf Foot."

We all had a great time and Ann and I appreciate the time Peggy and Jack took to drive down to see us.

As I write this, it is sort of bittersweet for me. Like Ann, I love the Keys, and have thoroughly enjoyed every weekend we've spent down there. We have literally exhausted the opportunities available here to have vacation time start at 6 pm on Friday and end at 9 am on Monday, for every Friday and Monday we have lived here...

We both wanted to live in South Florida, and now, we have. We will be leaving soon to live once again in Northern VA and work in DC, and I know that with each drive we take down the 18 mile stretch of US 1 into Key Largo, it is one of the last for a long time. Funny, when we were about to leave DC for FL in 2004, we would joke around when we'd drive on US 1 in VA, and talk about driving US 1 in Miami to the ocean breezes. Well, guess we will be joking around about that again soon, while we wear winter clothing and swear about why the roads are not salted enough to prevent slippage...

Memories of our time here in FL are forever a part of our lives; places we've been, things we've seen; like water with thousands of variations of green and blue, fish of every imaginiable kind and that constant salty, ocean smell. Perhaps we'll never get that smell out of the car and our other stuff, which, when I think about it, might be a good thing. But, honestly, as the time to depart approaches, I realize with each sunny, 80 degree tank top day, that I will miss living here.

I will continue to post, as we have one or two adventures left to do here in SoFla, and then, we will leave. We will spend some quality time here for Christmas, and then begin the big move. I would look for a posting soon after our move to show us all geared up in our snowboarding stuff at Whitetail, http://www.skiwhitetail.com/. But, until then, look for a few more critter and ocean pictures.

So, don't be like this little guy and sit in your shell all day, get out and enjoy life, ok?

Anyway, have a great day, and come back soon, the clock is ticking...

Jim

hello

sorry it's been a long time. Lots has happened, and if I can, I will post pictures later. Jessica came for a visit, my brother Don and his wife Susie also came a week later. I went to Tally to take care of Ann's mom, she went to Brussels, we went to the beach a few times and Ann accepted a promotion, which will take us back to the DC area. Oh yeah, we put our house on the market in what has to be the WORST real estate market in recent history...so, not much going on, right???

My computer also broke...no big freaking surprise there, so, I am on Ann's, which she is home sick with strep throat.

More updates as they come in..

play nice out there, ok?

Nice summer stroll

We took a little stroll through Fairchild Tropical Gardens this Sunday morning, it had rained all night and thought the plants would be nice to see and photograph. They were, and here is the proof...

This is a Ginger plant, with the sunlight hitting it at just the right time...

This was just too weird looking to pass up.

This beauty was just what I was looking for, a nice big drop of rain sitting on a flower as if ready to drop.

I have always liked these plants, but have been unable to produce a photo that I thought worthy of the blog. Well, I think I have finally been able to reproduce the unique nature of this plant in a photo.

Like the previous photo, I have always thought this one looked good too, and was able to take this natural light photo, which showed off its cool yellow color.

These crabs were all over the place in a sunken garden pool. When we approached, they scurried into their holes. I stood very still and you can see one really large one in the corner and another one looking at me from its home.

This lizard was thinking "if I stay really still, this big thing will just think I am a flower and leave..."

We finished the day at Matheson Park, watching as a huge thunderstorm swept in from the ocean. It rained most of the rest of the day, but we needed it.


That's it for now, have a great week everyone - and tell Dad Happy Birthday, 85 is a huge milestone.

-JD

Baby Shower for Melissa

Good day all - so we traveled to St. Augustine, FL so that Ann could help host a baby shower for our neice Melissa. She is due November 11. We had a great time, the drive wasn't too bad (not counting the time we only traveled 9.2 miles in approximately 65 minutes Friday...). Well, lets get right to the picutres, I don't have actual shower photos (guys weren't allowed) but here are a couple about shower prep.

But before we get started, at the end of Paul's street is a wetlands area that is just beautiful. As we pulled up to the side of the road, it seemed like the sand was moving. On closer inspection, it was, with about 5 gazillion little crabs. Here is what it looked like, all those black dots are crabs.

I stepped out onto the sand gingerly and cornered one of the little guys, here is a close up of what all these things look like.

Pretty cool!!

Ok, on to the shower. Ann will have more on this at http://www.naturetainment.blogspot.com/, but for now, here are some of the things we put together for the shower. I carved this watermelon into a little baby buggy...it looked actually pretty cool when finished, plus - I got to eat much of it as I was hollowing out the interior of the buggy.

And, this is a diaper cake. All those things are diapers, with a bottle as a candle. Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, we had a real cake too...

Ann and Melissa made goodie bags for the girls, with mints, jelly beans and pacifiers made out of lifesavers. Here are the bags as they hung on the fridge door.

Well, after all preps were compete, Paul and I went out to the highway to place these signs he had made. It was POURING but we managed to get them up.

That's it, so maybe Melissa's myspace page, which I will post the URL later (when I can find it...) will have more pictures of the shower.

Peace out - love you all (except for those of you I don't, and you pretty much know who you are...).

;-P

Wow - where does Summer go?

Pretty soon, I'll be bugging Ann about the snow, and about how easy it is to fly to DC, rent a car and head up to Seven Springs or Whitetail or Snowshoe. So, any of you readers who want to assist in this operation, feel free to, with the possible exception of my sister Cathy, who would on the other hand lobby for a more tropical vacation...

So, here we are, at the peak of hurricane season and the end of what is typically called summer (though, we all know it actually ends September 23 with the first day of Autumn. We went to a new place last weekend, I have been wanting to go further down the keys than we normally do, so we decided to get up early and head way south, to a place called No Name Key. This is the Key Deer refuge and is a few miles south of one of our normal haunts, Bahia Honda Key. Once we pulled into the refuge, we actually saw a Key Deer!!! I've been very skeptical about their actual existance, but, we saw two (probably animatronics to appease the tourists...)hehehe, oops, sorry... Anyway, we got down there, found a hole in the mangroves and pushed off for what was to be a almost six mile paddle, through sandy and mucky bottom, with tons of fish life.

Here is Ann looking like the yakker that she is...

There wasn't really much in the way of pretty stuff to see, so after 6 miles, we called it quits and decided to head up the road to Bahia Honda to catch a little beach time. It was low tide, changing over to high, which put a nice sandbar about 50 feet offshore. We headed out to it and set up shop for a little rest... Some guy with his girlfriend and rented kayaks came by and said "dude, you're like a corona commercial, man - just living the moment." It was pretty funny.

It was a good day. I've always loved this old building in Islamorada, so on one trip we stopped so I could get a shot. Here it is...

Thought I would post a couple of new photos of the house. Here is the front, where our 8 bananna trees are clearly getting bigger, I expect to see the fruit flower soon on several of them...don't be surprised if you get a box labled "AUTHENTIC TROPICAL BANANNAS" for christmas...When I planted those two coconut palms in the center of the picture, they were only 2 feet tall. Everything grows in crazy spurts here, depending on how much rain we are getting.

Here is the side of the house, and yes, those are our new Lexan hurricane shutters. I expect they will stay up until we are safely on the other side of hurricane season...

As you can see, the boganvilla has really taken over the archway to the patio...I've been cutting it back and will go at it some more...later.

Well, that's it for now, we're off to St. Augustine for Melissa's baby shower in a few hours, will post more news as events happen.

JD

Bahia Honda in August

So, we went to Bahia Honda for a nice Sunday paddle, decided to do the entire island circuit,about 7 miles. It was a nice day, and we had a really great time, and saw some really neat stuff. Rays, a huge turtle and some sharks. Oh, and the natural beauty of the Keys was also out in force...as you can see by the picture above.

Below are the yaks at anchor on the ocean side, during low tide. All the yucky sea grass that we found there two weeks ago has almost disappeared, so the water was pretty clean.

When we left at the end of the day, we stopped at Long Key, willing the rainbow we'd been watching for the last 10 or so miles to stay, so we could get a nice ocean shot of it...well, it did, and here it is, with our favorite picnic tables at Long Key...

And, in what has become my new signature shot, we stopped at sunset behind the Florida Bay Outfitter's shop for a little sunset/rain/kayaker bouy action.

Oh, lest I forget, I will be traveling to Shreveport this week, so, no more entries on the blog until the blogger returns to SoFlo. Be nice to each other out there... JD

August Already - where does the time go??

Hey, sorry to be away for a while. Lots been going on...traveled to DC, am traveling home to S'port next week, we had to have our septic tank dug up (which totally screwed up the side yard) and also managed to squeeze in a little beach time. Well, enough talking, off to the pictures...Oh Yes, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ann, who celebrated with me, at the Mandarin Oriental here in Miami on August 3. Here are two shots from the balcony of our 15th floor room. One, a day and one a night shot. It's pretty dramatic. I forget that, after living all those years in DC with its stupid rule about nothing (other than some congress-people and administration types) can be higher than the US Capitol Dome that Miami is a real city...Here is the day shot. and, here is the night shot...When we checked out of the hotel, we went right home, changed clothes, loaded up the car with our snorkle gear and headed to the Keys. We rented a boat in Islamorada and motored out to Alligator Reef. Conditions were less than perfect, with a huge swell coming in off the ocean. But, we still jumped in and had a good time. Here's Ann..

A few nice pics of the fish we encountered under the Reef Lighthouse structure ...see the big one on the left with his (or her) mouth open? I bet he was just about to say something when one of his (her) buddies (can fish BE buddies???) alerted him (her) to our presence...tricky little fishie...

And another ... Ann's favorite fish, she loves these things and I was chasing them all over the ocean to try and get a shot, that didn't include their fish butts...but, that was pretty impossible.

Still more...these sergeant major's were so unhappy with me for invading their territory, see the dorsal fin up on the one in the middle of the photo? He's saying "come on, I can take you, just get a little closer..."

And, last couple of pix...here is a Porkfish searching the bottom for some food...

and here is Captain Ann as she pilots her vessel in the Atlantic...she'd have made a great pirate, right???!!!

Well, got errands to run, see you all later! JD

Nice Tropical Weekend

Hey everybody! Hope you all had a great weekend, now, get back to work!!!!! hehehe So, we put the yaks on the car saturday and drove down to indian key. Low tide was going out and the current was pretty crazy, but, we got in a 6+ mile paddle, around indian key, where we put up the umbrella and chairs and had lunch, then we paddled around a bit just having a good time. Here's the proof...

This is Ann, just floating in the current about one mile offshore in a beautiful sandy patch surrounded by turtle grass. I turned my back and then shot this picture...That's indian key in the background. As we paddled out a little further, we found these anhihga's perching on a piece of washed up concrete.

Here's a nice shot of the boats at anchor just off the ironshore on the north end of Indian Key.

And, what has become my new signature shot, a beautiful sunset over Florida Bay behind the Florida Bay Outfitters shop (if you look closely, you can even make out the little kayaker on the bouy...). Till next time - JD

Nicky's Excellent Adventure

Our friend Nicky and a friend from DC spent the july 4th week with us, we had a great time. Here are a few pictures of our adventures...

We went out down to the Everglades National Park, to the Anhinga trail, which if you want to see it with animals, just scroll down to the posting with my folks from November 2006...cause, there were NO animals out on this trip.. Granted, it was as hot as the surface of the sun, with no wind it was just very hot. Did I mention it was hot??? We didn't see a single bird and only two lonely looking gators. As we walked to the car a lonely and very hungry looking racoon sat at the lightpost begging. All the rest of the critters have split for the interior glades' in hopes of seeking shade. This picture is the clear glades water showing the underlying coral formations. I guess without the animals to murk it up, all the water was the clearest I have ever seen it.

The next day, we went out to Islamorada and rented from our favorite boat rental place near the Day's Inn...for those of you planning a trip, here is their URL..http://www.keyswatersports.com/

Once in the boat, we motored out to Alligator Reef Lighthouse and then to Cheeca Rocks. On the ride out, and most of the day we were on the water, we saw lots of turtles, more than usual, that's for sure...here is one that came up right beside the boat when I had my camera already in my hands shooting an interesting cloud.

Here is a shot of what it looked like at the Lighthouse, it was crowded with tons of snorkel boats...
We all jumped in and had a great time. Here's Ann with Nicky as they swam out to do a little snorkling.

After we got back on dry land, we drove down to our favorite Beach, Bahia Honda in Marathon. It was full of seaweed! We couldn't even get to the water, there was about 20 feet of thick seaweed blocking access to the water. We'd had a lot of storms during the week, and I guess this stuff washed up in the tides. Weird. So, we hiked up to the old bridge.

We finished the day with a spectacular sunset and rain shower at the Florida Bayside launch site near Florida Bay Outfitters. In the foreground, you can see the reflective tape of the "kayaks only" bouy just offshore from their launch ramp...

It was truly amazing, and the perfect way to end the day. More updates as news happens!

JD

BACK TO THE TROPICAL LIFESTYLE

So, welcome dear friends. Not exactly snowing here in South Florida right now, but, I guess we had to come back home, right? So, we went off to Bahia Honda this weekend, for the day, it was a glorious blue sky, a great beach and our kayaks. Here are a few shots...

The View from our yaks as we cruised the shallows just off the State Park. At low tide, all this was above water.

We went somewhere we've never gone before on this trip. This bridge crosses over a little canal that is totally dry when it's low tide, as it was almost high tide when we got to the bridge, we went into the canal. Tons of fish were in the canal, as well as some birds. We hit a deadend about 500 feet into it - the path was too thick with Red Mangrove trees to continue, and had to turn back. As I crossed under the bridge, I snapped a quick photo.

The yaks sitting at anchor. The vignetting on the edges is the 77mm ND4 (neutral density factor 4 filter) on the 17-55mm new nikkor 2.8 lens. It's stacked with a 77mm polarizer and at 17 mm, it doesn't like the filters too much...

Here's a picture of Ann taking it easy in the shallows.

The beach at the park was loaded with turtle nests, all had been roped off to prevent interference with their hatching and eventual efforts to beat the pelicans, sea gulls and raptors (bald eagles, osprey and hawks - we've seen all these in the park) to the water...

Here is the sign placed in the middle of the enclosure, and I'm pretty sure that, like virtually everything else down here in North Cuba, the sign should not even be in English. There have actually been cuban's landing on this beach, so, imagine their happiness to land, get their feet on dry freedom, and up pop those little turtles. just hatching from their eggs!! A nice little "welcome to america" snack perhaps...

As we left the park, a huge thunderstorm was taking place off to the left (as you drive north up US 1) over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was really beautiful, with a big double rainbow out over the water on the other (Altantic) side of the road...

The double rainbow, shot by Ann from the passenger side of the car. The next posts will have Nicky and her boyfriend from DC in them, as they are staying with us this week. Big party on July 4th, so stay tuned!!

Till Next Time - CYA.

Alaskan Goodbye

Here is a shot of us on "chairlift 3" at Alyeska the last evening of our Alaskan tourista adventure. Just behind us is where the black bear usually rambled around...and, yes, that is snow behind us, at sea level.

In all my years and travels, only a couple of places stand out: Hawaii, Russia, Vietnam/Thailand and Alaska. If you are looking for something truly spectacular and awe inspiring, pick Alaska.

To sum up our recent tourist incursion into the state, here are a few pictures, with minimal narritives, for your enjoyment.

This is Ann waving hello (or was it goodbye) to me as I start across a raging river about 70 feet below the hand tram on the Iditarod trail near Alyeska Resort in Girdwood Alaska.

This is the vew beneath my feet on the hand tram.

Next is a view of Portage Glacier. We hiked up to the glacier in the middle of this picture, following are some pictures.

Pure Glacier melt water, it was clear and very very cold. It was coming down the mountain from Portage Glacier.

A view inside one of the glacier tunnels, rivers of water had carved huge tunnels in the bottom of the glacier. I slowly inched into a couple, knowing that false moves on my part could bring down some pretty heavy ice. It was all good though.

A really good perspective view of the lower and smallest part of Portage glacier. That is Ann in the background, hiking up the side of the glacier. Just past where she is standing is about a 40 foot drop into glacier mud and rocks. Needless to say, we were very careful up there.

Below is just one of the amazing glaciers we saw on a glacier cruise aboard a high-speed catamaran out of a town called Whittier.

A close up of some of the calved ice from a glacier.

A couple of last ones. This is low tide on the Kenai coast. Low tide is extremely low...in this picture, the sea has receeded from its normal shoreline to about 600 feet away. That glistening surface is usually the bottom of the ocean.

The tides are so low, that many of the marinas find themselves hundreds of feet from the water. We found one that had solved the problem by employing good old john deere. They hooked the boats up to the back of the tractor, and off they went into the surf...

Well, though I didn't do any fishing, it looks like I got the catch of the day in Seward...

That's all for now, see you later!

JD

Denali is DeNada'

Well, what a wonderful, 600 mile two days it has been. We started the day yesterday waking up in this beautiful paradise called Alyeska. This is the main lodge, surrounded by the 3000+ foot mountains still covered in snow, it is about 50 degrees... Here is a photo...

We checked out, headed for Denali, the "big Woo" (movie buffs - where is that phrase from...???) The drive was, as I have already posted, hideous.

When we woke up this morning...this is the vew I had...

It's called "Denali Crow's Nest, and, with no elevator, no way to drive to the five (5) levels of cottages perched precariously on the edge of the mountian and no TV, it was an interesting 9 hours. I say that because as we sit here blogging tonight, we sit in the comfortable wireless cafe' upper lobby of the facility you see pictured first...yes, we woke up, packed up and split. Back to Alyeska, back to the snow, back to squeek at least 48 hours more fun out of Alaska before we have to call the vacation over and get back to work.

Here is a bit of advice for you, dear reader, and for anyone else who stumbles across this blog...Do Not Waste your time driving to "Denali National Forest" or "Denali National Park." Once at that park, you will not see the mountain, or any part of the mountain range it belongs to. Instead, stop at the Denali South View point found on the Park Highway, the only way to drive between Anchorage and Fairbanks and the only way to get to Denali, get out of your car, walk the 100 feet to the viewpoint, shoot a few pictures if it happens to be a blue sky day and call it good. Get back in your car and drive the 200+ miles back to anchorage or Aleska, or anywhere else but Denali...

If you do stop, here is the vew you might have on a nice day.

Today, on the drive back, it was puring rain and about 45 degrees, we stopped for a break at the South Viewpont and the mountains were completely obscured by clouds and rain.

When we arrived back at Alyeska, we took a quick hike and discovered this beautiful stream.
Someone just stopped by, as we blog here in the loft looking out at the mountain (it's still bright day outside) and asked if we were out at the tram a few minutes ago and saw the big black bear. We were, and we didn't. But, if it's there, that means it is still there. Maybe tomorrow.

We walked across the big avalanche area from 1981, commemorated with this sign. In the photo, the trees that are snapped off like twigs are remnants of the big slide.

Well, that's it for tonight. We're taking a 5 hour glacier cruise tomorrow, should be fun. Later.

JD

Alaska as a tourist

Well, since you went past that point, might as well continue reading...this sign was on the road to Exit Glacier...I never was much on signs, so, of course I kept driving...

Please excuse the rant, as it is just a bit of truth telling...

Alaska is a fabulous place. WE've experienced rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow and today, this bright orb-like thing in the sky that some people here are calling "the sun." NO, really, it's not been that bad.

Around every turn of the Kenai Penninsula was a new vista that required a stop and a photo. It was like there was this never ending string of beauty. Then, we left the Kenai area for Denali. A 300+ mile drive, along a horribly maintained 2 lane road, with 100,000,000,000,000 redneck ted kazensk-want-to-be's in their motorhomes or rusted out banged up pickup's. It was a messy 6 hour drive, with literally nothing to make me want to continue other than the hope of a nice "cabin the woods overlooking Denali" as the web site described. OK, here is the BIG LIE, in that, Denali, otherwise known as Mt.McKinley, the tallest mountain in the US, is many things, but IT ISN"T ANYWHERE near anyplace that you can get to, by road...With two fleeting glimpses at Denali South and Denali North Viewpoints (officially manned by those annoyingly perky national park people) we NEVER SEE that damn mountain...

ok, I feel better now, but, really, after a full week of beauty around every bend in the road, this is a huge letdown. At least, I know that at some point I will be getting lost in the snow, which is a good thing.

Ok, on to the trip report with photos. We stopped at Alyeska resort last night, it was a coolplace that I mentioned in a previous post. We left Seward the night before. Visited Exit Glacier, Whittier, Portage glacier (where the glacier calved right in front of us and there were icebergs all over the place) and did a cruise during which the wind blew 70 mph, we had horizontal rain/frain/snow and 9 foot (yes, NINE feet) seas...

Here are some pictures.

This is the Exit Glacier as seen from the road. It is part of the Harding Icefield. Was lightly snowing when we were there.

This is an upclose time exposure of the glacier with the "outtail" water rushing, which forms a huge river as the ice melts.

We took a boat ride (which I aptly described previously) and actually did see some cool things (through the wind-driven snow and haze). They include, humpback whale, puffin, orca and sea lions. We have also seen so many eagles we stopped counting. When we see one now, it's like "oh, there goes another eagle." Here is one of the eagles.

Here's a shot of a sea otter just chilling. Literally.

And, a photo of some of the Orca we saw...

Then came the rock full of sea lions...

We left Seward and drove to Whittier, which meant we had to drive through a 3 mile long, one-way tunnel, shared by cars, trucks, motorhomes and the Alaskan Railway system, changing directions and formats every 30 minutes. Here is a shot from inside the tunnel...

When we got through the tunnel, we stopped at Portage Glacier. It was so beautiful, and very interesting. The boat traveled right up to the Glacier, and we watched as sections of it broke off and went into the water. There were also a couple of other glaciers in that area and we stopped for pictures. I will post those pictures soon, as it is getting rather late here, and I'd like to get a little rest before trying to find this "so called Mt. McKinley" tomorrow...

Peace-
JD

Seward Bound

Hello from Seward, Alaska. We drove from Homer today, stopping for every photo op along the way. Yesterday, we drove around Homer and the surrounding area. This is a photo from the skyline drive which is above the town of Homer, and of Homer Spit, which when you look at this photo, is the little sliver of land in the center of the picture. It was built in the early 1940's by Standard Oil Company, as a deep water port for offloading oil and gas from their Alaska fields. It still is a deep water port, but it is also the jumping off point for salmon and halibut fishing. It was a depressing place in many ways, there were people just camped along the road, fishing with poles in the surf, and they live there. Kind of like West Virginia without the coal mines...

This is the photo...

We stopped at Chugach National Park's Resurrection Pass trailhead. It is a five day hike of 38 miles. We hiked for about 45 minutes each way (no way we could do the 38 miles...). Came across pretty flowers, some nice views and a couple of waterfalls from melting snow. Oh yeah, it also snowed at the high elevations, and, as I look outside right now at 9:37 pm, it's snowing lightly with a little spit of freezing rain inbetween and it is bright cloud cover...how do these people sleep with daylight still around at midnight???

Here is a waterfall...



Here is Ann standing in front of the sigh at the trailhead...




We didn't see any bear...but did see tracks for them, moose and wolf. On the drive to Seward, it snowed quite a bit above our heads, and the flowers were really starting to bloom...



Here are the last couple, the internet connection here is powered by something other than the broadband direct pipeline I usually have at home...This is the Exit Glacier, part of the Harding Icefield on Kenai Penninsula, just up the road from where we are staying, the Seward Windsong Lodge. Enjoy, more coming soon, whale trip tomorrow and then Denali next week.

See ya later.
ME

Alaska!!!

well, here, it is only 10 pm, and about 2 hours till "sunset" occurs. Here is the view from our hotel at midnight...

We left Anchorage early this morning, headed to Homer Spit, the little spit of land still connected to America. It snowed most of the drive, lightly snowing in the mountains, and we stopped at Alyeska Ski Resort, and, yes, that is snow, and yes they were still open...

As we left town, we instantly came across these two adult and one juvenile moose walking casually in a little river. Next, looking to the left at "turnagain arm" or "Cook Inlet" was a double rainbow...

A view of the snow storm we drove into. It was truly beautiful.

Yes, this is snow at the ski resort. There was a "summer camp" going on at the time, young kids with ski's and snowboards just riding down the mountain. It was just an awesome sight to be at a huge ski resort like that, in June...

Here is Ann, just one step backwards and she'd have been down at the other end of the ski resort...

one last picture, of an old alaskan boat, living out it's last days as a dry land lawn ornament...we have seen about 50 Eagles, a couple are building a nest right in front of our hotel room, will post photos of that later and photos of our coming days, with the highlight being Denali in a week.

Peace.

JD

I won!!!

So, many of you commented to me or sent email about my photo submissions for the fairchild garden's calendar contest, and, after seeing the other photos on the voting website, I really thought I didn't have much of a chance. Well, apparently, I did...as I was one of the photographers selected to have a month on the 2008 fairchild garden calendar. I don't have the photo handy, but go to www.fairchildgarden.org and open the photo contest link. You will see my chosen photo is a night time exposure of one of the chihuilly galss sculptures with the moon in the background. It's really just a photo I threw in at the last moment so that I would have a submission in all the categories...and people who visited the site voted...(so, cathy, dear sister, if you designed a special program of some kind that went to the website and voted numerous times, I DON"t want to know, but am appreciative...)hehehehe

well, it has been a very long few weeks. Ann's mom had knee replacement surgery, and we've been dealing with that. I've been wrestling with a leak in our roof (which just freaking got fixed from the hurricane wilma damage) and have finally gotten that taken care of, as tropical storm barry (yes, the 2nd named storm of this season on the 1st day of hurricane season...) has been dumping 5 inches of rain on south florida, and no leaks, so I guess I fixed it...

In addition, we're headed off to the northern country for some R&R and a little work. it was 42 degrees where we'll be going when I checked the website for denali this morning, and, hopefully it will continue to be like that for the next 3 weeks.

will post if possible from the road, but will certainly load some pictures if I am able to take any.

to all my friends, and especially my family and Rick, stay healthy, stay safe and I'll be in touch again real soon.

JD

Photo Contest Pictures

Hey everybody! Thanks again to my sister Cathy for helping me get this back. Below are a few pictures I entered in the Fairchild Tropical Garden's first annual calendar photo competition. Even if I don't win, it was fun to spend about 5 days walking the gardens (and one night).

Hope you enjoy them, talk with you later.

AND - Hey Jessica - congratulations!!

Love you all,

me

MY SISTER CATHY ROCKS!!!!!!!

So, Happy Birthday to me...47 years. whoa! And, my sister Cathy (the brainianc of the family) helped me reset my password on this freaking thing, and PooF!!!! here is my blog...It missed me, right?

So much to talk about, so many photos to load, but for now, I will sign off, with a smile, knowing that I can at least access this infernal thing again...

much love!
JAD

Whew - already April

Hello family and friends. Yes, already, it is almost May and then, summer. the good parts of that are the touristas leave south florida and go back to canada. the bad news in that is that the hurricane prediction center just told us that the season will be harder than normal. but, they said that last year too, and were as wrong a nancy pelosi...oops, sorry for the crass political comment...

anyway, it's been pretty windy here, which means no kayaking in a very long time. perhaps this weekend will be good. Here are a few photos taken recently...we've had such a drought here that the trees all think it's fall, the leaves are turning colors, and falling off. i actually had to rake the yard yesterday of oak leaves. this is a nice red sea grape...

Next, on a really cold and snowy day back up in the "north" or as the Amish farmer in Witness described it to Harrison Ford's character Jon Book "them English," I took this photo...hehehehehehe

and, the last time I was kayaking, here is the nice view from our private little beach, very secluded and very quiet. thinking of it makes my whole body relax.

That's it for this update. I'll post more pictures later today. love - JD

March is almost here

Been a very busy few weeks. Ann has been in tallahassee for her mom's knee surgery, I quit my job at Florida Power and Light, and have decided to open my own Media Conglomerate, mm156productions. already had one client, and have another about to sign on. Should be interesting.

Well, to relieve the stress (which has been in high octane mode recently), and because we miss it so (ok, only I really miss it perhaps...) ann and I traveled to DC Saturday morning, spending two nights in Hagerstown, MD and one in DC, returning last tuesday morning. During the day, we went snowboarding. It actually snowed a couple of times while we were there, it was a blast. If I can figure out how to load video's to this site, I'll load a couple I took on the hill of ann snowboarding.

Here are a few of the pictures. this first one is looking up whitetail resort's main "mountain" and gives a good view of the high speed quad.

Next is Ann riding the lift, gives me a peace sign...

Here is the vew from the top, it's not exactly the rockie mountains, but, it was nice to get back on the snow.

And, last, here is a good picture that show's Ann actually knows how to ride, and she's pretty good at it too. In fact, I think the 2 year lay off we had really made her better!!!

The weekend before, we put the yaks in the water at the rickerbacker causeway and paddled about 7 miles of mangroves. Found this cute little island, inhabited by these lizards, huge 6 - 7 foot long lizards. It was cool.

And one liast, beautiful coral encrusted island, just sitting there in the ocean. It really is a pretty place down here. Till next time.

February 2007

February is here. The winds of january have finally died down, and it is safe to get back on the water. Went down to Key Largo yesterday, for a little brain/kayak time. Saw the noted marine artist Wyland painting his last "whaling wall in the US" there on the overland highway just outside Key Largo. Here are a couple of shots, Wyland is the guy in the blue baseball cap...the building is about 7500 feet of canvas for him to paint. It's pretty cool looking...

This is the side of the building. It's a very nice rendering of the underwater world.

This is Wyland putting the finishing touches on the outline of a large dolphin.

After looking at him painting for a while, went up the road a few miles to Pennencamp State park and put in. After a harrowing paddle, through the main channel where I almost got swamped by some drunk rednecks in their monster boat, finally hit the ocean. Saw a beautiful island, made up entirely of broken coral. Then, left and went back into the mangroves, had to turn aound a few times, but finally made it back to civilization...trust me, there were a few times there when I wasn't entirely sure of setting foot on real land again...

While sitting at the island having a snack. a pelican landed right in front of me, and started flapping its wings stirring up the water. Here is my parting shot, one very wet and splashy pelican. see you later. JD

So, it's January

January 14, Miami, FL - well, it's cloudy today, and about 80 degrees. The wind has been ripping the last several weeks, today it's blowing at about 24, with gusts to 35, rip current warnings are posted for all the beaches here, and the porteguese man-o-war warning flags are out too. Went to thebeach for a few minutes last weekend, and theose darn things are virtually everywhere, I don't see how anyone could get in the water and not be stung.

Speaking of being stung, these little critters have been eating our palm trees. Look at them, they are like an eating army. The tree leaves were covered in them, and frankly, I bet they'd have eaten every leafy branch if I hadn't seen them...lets just say that they're no longer an issue...

Anyway, the bananas in front of the house are doing well, we have cut one stalk down and are letting them cure, the others come down soon too. Here is a good shot of them and the front of the house as well...

OK, so, gonna get out of here for now. And, anyone watch that saints game last night???My saints did alright!

See ya.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas - to all my family and friends out there. I've been traveling quite a lot for work, been in and out of town. Ann has been traveling alot too, so we are of course, traveling for the christmas holiday. We'll be with family, and probably eating wayyyy too much. I'll post a few pictures when I return.

Though we wish for peace on earth, we should probably wish for peace in ourselves first. So, peace to all.

JAD

OK, so, I know it's been a while. Sorry for the delay. Here are a few more pictures from the family trip down to see us in Miami. For more, you can go to Cathy's Camping-and-kayaking-jaunts.blogspot.com cause Cathy took some truly awesome pix.

This is a big Blue that was in the everglades during our tour. We saw hundreds of these birds. The vacation went something like this: they all arrived, we went to the beach, we went to a tropical gardens, then we went to the everglades on our way down to Islamorada. All of these pictures will be from the everglades and Islamorada.

The spot in the glades where we went is a mile and a half boardwalk called the Anhinga trail, with lots of life; fish, gators, birds, etc.

The whole trip, I was telling mom to stop squinting and to wear some sunglasses. She and dad are from the days when people didn't wear UV A/B blocking polarized sunglasses. So, it's not in their nature, but, I don't even shower without the things (just kidding)...so, we made sure that they wore sunglasses whenever we were out in the sun. It was pretty humourous to have mom squinting to see something cool, I'd say, "mom, where are your sunglasses?" and she'd point to her purse...she'd take them out, put them on, and go "wow, I can see it now..."
and here's the whole group on the boardwalk. Ann, mom and dad. On this part, to the left of the frame, is a huge expanse of the glades, on the right, is water, and gators just waiting for us to trip and fall into the water...

Here is a Blue in repose, kind of looking all regal.

Next stop: Islamorada and some of the most beautiful water in the world.
First, we all had to complete the "you won't sue us if you cut off an arm or leg" paperwork, which we all did...

and then we headed out to alligator reef, where, I've never seen the wind so calm, the fish so abundant and the water so clear. It was like gin (which my mom would hate the reference, so don't tell her I described it thusly...please...) We saw a ton of great sea life., and in between snorkling, it was calm enough that we could snack on the boat, throwing peanuts to the fish...
Once there, we rented a large motor boat, and went out for some sightseeing and some fun. It was great to see mom and dad on a boat again. I have such good memories of all the times we spent on our boats in texas, louisiana and arkansas. Growing up on the water was truly awesome, and seeing them having fun surrounded by the water again was a great thing for me.

At the end of the day, Cathy still wanted to take a few more pictures...

In the evening, after a good meal, ann and dad went fishing. Ann, a pretty good fisher-woman (is that even right?) caught two fish! As she fished, she had company...Here is the parting shot for today, ann and dad with one of the huge one's that didn't get away...

Love.


JAD

Family Vacation - Part One

Hey everyone! so, mom, dad and one of my sisters, Cathy, came to visit for a week. It was a blast! I have a ton of pix to load, but will only load a few for this posting. I will load more later. Here is the first one...This is dad, looking out at the ocean, from their 4th floor balcony at the hotel in Islamorada. The balcony was literally 20 feet from the ocean, and it is just a spectacular place. I also have the Louisiana flag, that I carry with me on all my trips (it's been a lot of places...) that I hung on the balcony.

Here is a photo of how we spent a majority of the time Ann was out fishing on the little spit of land at the hotel. Cathy and I were trying to get this bird to pose just right, it was like we were the paparazzi for the bird kingdom...

One morning, we were all out taking pictures and absorbing the location, the salt air and the sunshine, I looked up at the clouds and saw this...I have sent the picture off to a buddy at the Weather Channel, for their opinion, but, frankly, it looks like a big hole in the sky to me.

And, here are mom and dad walking on the dock at the hotel. In the background, you will see a few boats, which is the rental fleet at A1A Watersports in Islamorada. we rented the largest boat they had, a 25 footer, and motored out for some snorkling fun (I'll be loading those pictures later). For now, here are mom and dad...

The last day in the keys, we drove down to Bahia Honda state park, which has been voted the most beautiful beach in Florida in the past, and, it is easy to see why. Here are a few pictures of the family having fun...this is cathy standing in the water, mom is behind her starting her "chillin' at the beach" mode...

Next, is a photo of dad as he wades out into the water. It was just so beautiful, and peaceful. I was very pleased that the beach wasn't crowded at all. This picture is kind of "man in the sea" but I like it, cause it's my dad in his element.

Here is how it all looked from mom's vantage point...
Yes, she was living large in the shade, and she even went wading a bit too... these next two photos are of Cathy in one of our yaks...
and, here is dad in my yak...

Well, the last day they were here, we went to a local beach, Virginia Key, and just sat around, played in the water a little, and cathy and ann got in the kayaks. As they did that, mom and dad walked the shoreline. There were a great many portegueze men-of-war out that morning, and lots had washed up on the beach. The first one I stepped on popped very loudly, and it made mom jump!!! That's why she is looking so intently at the ground in this shot...

that's it for now. More coming later.

To the left is the view at low tide just around the bend on Long Key. We are about 1.5 miles offshore. At true low tide, the water is only 1 ft, and it's really very nice.

Here on the right is a shot of the beach at long key, just so clear! Can't wait to show it off to the folks!!!

When we kayak through these huge schools of shiners, at times they get into the yak through the scupper holes. This little guy came in and flipped around a bit, then I put him(her) back into the water...

So I told you earlier about the bananas we have growing in front of our house...well, here is what the tree looked like when this weird looking thing started growing out of the top center...i thought it might be aliens.

Here is a shot of what the house looks like, that huge tree on the right is the banana tree. I planted it about 6 months ago, and it was only 3 feet tall...



Here are the banana's today...pretty cool, huh?

Hey Everybody!!!

Whew - well, it's hot here in SoFla, and we are sooo almost through with hurricane season. It is pretty amazing that we have had no real damaging hurricanes (ernestita does NOT count, i mean, that was such a wusss of a cane'). Pretty cool. The computer, of course, broke again, and comp USA had to give us one more new hard drive...i think i emit some kind of radiation (no comments from the peanut or Arizona gallery...) that kills computers, so I'm gonna limit my exposure to this new hard drive.

we're headed to the keys tomorrow, for some R&R, went to the beach at bill baggs state park this morning for some really nice beach time - the water was cool at first, but so very clear, we saw dolphins too, which isn't something we normally see at baggs...

so, will post pictures at some point from the lat couple of weeks, especially of our banana tree in the front yard...!! yep, we have about 120 banana's on the tree, it's pretty cool.

talk later!
JAD

Just another day in paradise

Good morning everyone! Well, Ann's been gone to Tallahassee, helping her mom, and I've been working so hard lately that it's time for a break...and, one's coming very soon. Can you imagine, it's Fall, October, and, well, that's just pretty amazing. Time really does march across our lives, doesn't it?

Below is the view from our little place at Bahia Honda. We decided to go down there last weekend, and ended up just saying "we're this far, why not go ahead and drive the next 28 miles and hit Key West?" So we did, and got a nice room at the Pier House, which is right on the ocean. It was great, we went and had some good seafood, got a good nights' sleep, and got up late Sunday for the drive back. Amazing how something so, different that most of the rest of America is just right in our front yard. We saw no migrating cuban's, no drug runners or other stereo-typical images of Key West...though, we did see our fare share of drunken tourists.

A view from our kayaks. We put in at Bahia Honda and headed out to the island. We had it to ourselves for a while, then a couple of those #@#$% jet skis showed up with some guys wanting to fish on the island. Oh well. Those things make so much noise, and they stink. Oh man, I'm becoming some kind of crazy nature lover...oh no, what will the republicans say...???:-)



We first went to our little island, and set up shop to eat our yummy subway sandwiches. The people at subway in Islamorada know us by now, and when they see the audi with the yaks on top, they say when we walk through the doors "so, going out today huh??" I think they suspect we are a couple of conch-heads...they may be right...


As we sat there on the island, it was apparent that storms had been there since we last visited. there is an old lobster trap, that last visit was in pretty good shape. Now, it is completely trashed. It's also kind of cool that this little spit of island has some awesome sandy broken minature coral pieces on it. In this photo, we aren't on sand alone, beneath our feet was also tiny little coral pieces, washed up I guess during storms. It has been bleached as white as you can imagine in the sun.

The yaks at anchor as we snorkled in the shallow water off the island. The island is in the background. This was at the changeover between high and low tides, and the current was pretty harsh. It was hard to stand up.











As I was walking on the island after eating, I disturbed a huge flock of birds. They just circled back around after I left and resumed their bird lives...
















Sunday, after leaving Key West with full bellies, courtesy of IHOP (no cracker barrel so sad...) we went to lignumvitae key, in Islamorada. We had intented to take mom and dad there...it's about a mile offshore, on the Florida Bay side of the world, and is a state park. We yakked there, it's a nice little paddle, over shallow grass, we saw a few rays, and some other fish life. There actually is a Kayak landing/launching area just off the main dock where the state park boat docks (you can only get on the state park boat at Robbies Marina - where the famous Tarpon Feeding station is located - you ever get a chance, you have to go see it, it's pretty cool!!). As we pulled the yaks up on the beach, we walked over to the main house. About that time, I realized that my feet were no longer in firm possession of the ground...I looked at Ann, and I didn't recognize her any longer, she looked like a huge walking MOSQUITO farm...OH MY GOD!!!! we're being attached by B-52 size skeeters. They are Freaking everywhere!!!!! we ran! As we dashed by the dock, here is a picture I took...




We hit the yaks at a full trot, and did the most efficient water entry I've ever seen us do...as we paddled away, we joked that perhaps the "kayak landing" area had actually been constructed by the skeeters, to lure unsuspecting kayakers. I would not put it past them...Perhaps when its not skeeter season we'll go back. So cathy, we decided to just rent a real motor boat at robbies or the days inn and take mom and dad out to indian key, where we've never had to fend for ourselves against killer mosquitos...





So, another sunset, another day here in the Florida Keys. Looking forward to next weekend, as it brings my family closer to coming down here. Best - JAD

The End of Summer 2006.

Hey Everybody! Been a couple of weeks, and of course, the computer is dead again. Though, did you know that pushing the F11 button makes it reboot? Things you can learn from a computer geek. Which by the way, Cathy, why didn't you tell me I could do that with the F11 button???

Anyway, been pretty busy, you can trip on over to www.cyclehardpaul.com to see what Paul Hardison, Ann's brother is up to lately, and, it will show you what we did last weekend. We traveled up to Stuart, Fl, about a 3 hour trip, to watch him race this past weekend. The photos on his website are ones I took during the race for the most part. It was fun, don't get much opportunity to do "people" pictures, as some of you family members have commented on in the past...and, I jumped at the chance to shoot the race. We'll be following Paul as he races here in south Florida, so look there for updates.

As soon as we got back, I got deployed over to the Tampa Bay area for a oil spill. It was interesting, you can read coverage of the spill at www.heraldtribune.com, - which by the way is a paper not too associated with the truth on this story..., www.heraldtoday.com, which, is a better place to glean factoids about the spill, and at www.americanshipper.com. I now know more about oil spillage and clean up than I ever wanted to. Ask me sometime about the two boats that sank while stringing absorbant booms across the harbor (they got caught in a terrific thunderstorm and couldn't to shore fast enough- no injuries).

I got back late last night, and am really looking forward to the weekend. Planning to go down to the Keys for some Kayak time, and to celebrate the beginning of Fall. If we were still in VA, we'd be taking out our snowboards and giving them a "soon you will be on the snow" hug, but, instead we will be out on the ocean, at low tide, playing on that spit of land we think of as our private beach as it appears magically out of the ocean.

Hope all is well, and love you all very much. Can't wait to see you in November and then again in December.

JD

And, as an added bonus, here's a little photo from two weeks ago...



This is from the sand bar at low tide on Marco Island. Frigate birds and seagulls are just hanging out.

The Storm that is in my previous post has just passed by.

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Labor Day 2006

Well, here is the picture of the approaching storm at Marco Island.





We actually had to seek cover under a couple of small sea grape trees from the storm. It was crazy!!!!









This is a nice flower we found...












At Tigertail Beach, we found this great barrier fringe beach, with a cool ocean front area. This is a place we will return to at some point...














This is from one of the boardwalks in the everglades. The place is very cool, in the rainy season, it gets about 2 feet deep, in the dry season, it is totally dry.





This is one of the approaching storms.









Ann walking on the beach looking for shells. We hit the mother load of shells and of sand dollars.


After the storms, there was this spectacular sunset, which was repeated the next day as well.

Hey! Well, we went to Marco Island for Labor day,which was a lot of fun. In short, we went across the everglades to marco island, about a 2 hour drive from our home in Coral Gables. we went to the beach, collected shells and got caught in a huge thunderstorm Sunday and had to take refuge under a tree for a couple of hours. You'll see the pictures by scrolling down.

And, all of us who are naturalists and love the outdoors, will miss Steve Irwin. I've been diving and snorkling with stingrays, sharks and other dangerous aquatic animals for more than 20 years, and it's just tragic that Irwin would die with a stingray barb through the heart. My prayers to out to his family, and it will be noted by me, that when Ann and I go out into the ocean, we will be more careful than ever.

Ok, so, I've been trying for an hour to post pictures to my blog, and have had it crash for the third time. So, sorry, no nice pictures today.

JD

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Ernesto is coming...

Indian Key, as seen from the water. A map is below...













This picnic table is at the end of the world...



Well, here comes Ernesto...clouds down in the keys were very pretty today, we went kayaking at Indian Key, we actually went down on saturday morning, and thought we'd just get a room at our favorite place - the Days Inn of Islamorada.






















The map here is of Indian
Key, just south of Islamorada.








So, in the sand on the beach, I found these little things looking up at me...











here is what popped out of the sand...

















Here is Ann getting the stuff ready to hit the water...

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Happy Sunday!

This is something that Ann will be very surprised to see, while she is in Charlotte with her sister Carol, I was able to go pick up her birthday present, a local artist's rendetion of Van Gogh's Bedroom. It's a beautiful piece, and it's Ann's favorite painting in the whole world...guess I better hope that the two of them don't surf over to this blog for some entertainment and see the painting...

This can really ruin a morning kayak trip... as I was going over the causeway, headed for a little kayak time, it started to cloud up and pour down rain, with huge lightening strikes on the water, it was just awesome to watch...here are a few photos.

The guy in this photo was in the water, lightening all around, with his grill going full blast. "what man, you got to cook mon, de rain be coming no matta what mon, de steak be cookin' mon..."

The Miami skyline is a pretty sight, and it looked a bit apocalyptic this morning, so I stopped to shoot a picture.

HERE'S A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY PALS PEGGY AND JACK, AND HANK AND CELINE, Wish I could have been there for the dinner. Next time, For Sure!

and, Hank, happy to help with advice on a kayak at any time.

Love all, serve all, right? Or so says hugo chavez and hard rock cafe...hey, did you know that an anagram for HRC is read of chark - which as we all know is slang for charcoal, or cinder. Chark is also a fine county in grand olde mid-cornwall, in the country what that spawned us...HEY, FOR MY dc BOUND FRIENDS, it also says "crackhead fro..."

peace out you people.

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Sooo, it's now August, and even my niece Jessica has a blog!!!

We drove down to the keys today, I've been having trouble with my kayak, and we went to a kayak outfitters store in Key Largo and I bought a new kayak! It's the 15" Ocean Kayak Prowler, it's very very cool. Here is a picture of Ann playing in it...



While it doesn't have a name, this is one of our lizards, that lives in our back yard. Some are 3 feet long, some are about a foot long, like this one. It's very fast, and just loves to sit around.






This is Indian Key, in Islamorada, FL. At ome point back in the old days, like in the 1800's, this was the capital of Florida. There are still old homesites and water cisterns on the iland. It is very pretty, and the water around the island is shallow and full of life.













This last picture is of a cloud we saw while at dinner, hey Cathy, listen up, this is outside one of the restaurant's we will be taking you, mom and dad to, it's called redfish, and is one of the most awesome eating experiences you can ever imagine, because, the tables are oceanside, palm tree lined viewing is just so relaxing, and the food is really very good. I'll post a few pictures of the restaurant later.



JD

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A look at our slice of the world

A small lean-to we discovered on a deserted stretch of beach.










This is a stretch of beach on long key, about 87 miles from our front door. It's a really great kayak place, as you can drive right up to the beach and launch.

The photo was taken at low tide, we've not really gotten the knack of low and high tide, and during this low tide, we had to drag the yaks through muck and moss and turtle grass about 500 feet from the water to the car.

Alligator reef lighthouse, is about 2 miles off the Islamorada, FL coast. The water here is just beautiful, it's a bit rough, as just past where this photo was taken the depth plunges to 60 then to 80 feet. However, where this lighthouse is located it's about 12 feet, and the bottom is for the most part a mixture of coral heads surrounded by the softest and most beautiful white sand.

This is Ann as she rests. We pack quite a lot of gear in our kayaks, but it's worth it when we find sandy patches in the ocean at low tide, or compeletly secret beaches that no one else can get to...

Like this one. We are the lone inhabitants of this awesome beach whenever we go, never seen any other people. An ospry does a few fly bys, and of course the pelicans, egrets, cormorants and ibis's (what is the plural of ibis, would it be Ibi???)...

A great place to end a day...our own private ocean.

August 4 2006

so, august 3 is Ann's birthday, we had a good time, went to the Biltmore for dinner. got her this painting for her birthday...not the Van Gogh one, this one was painted by a local artist that I had commissioned...

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Hey Everybody!!!

Well, I will be posting material here very shortly. Trips, fun photos, stuff like that...

MM156 means our home, where this blogger will be populating this blog, can be considered Mile Marker 156, if Key west is MM0 (which it is, or so the bumper sticker on my Jeep says...). Hence, my web and blog addresses are MM156.

Stay tuned, we'll be right back...

August 1, 2006.

It LIVES!!!! Sorry for the absence, but, I killed the first, well, it really is our second computer, and this is our third computer...

I'll be posting more soon. Here are a couple of photos from our recent outing to a place called Long Key in the middle keys, and from a place close to our home, Matheson Hammock park...




This is Ann walking on the canal after a nice dinner out.










At Long Key, there is always this sailboat sitting at anchor, and it's a pretty sight.