Back Home in Florida

My brief blog during our trip to Washington state last week was – brief
Today, I'd like to catch up a bit and provide a couple of photos from our trip.
We returned home on Thursday, 9 September. Cross-country travel by airplane was everything I remembered it to be: crowded, tiring, expensive, and boring. Fortunately we had no travel “problems” - the plane(s) left on time, arrived on time (or early), and air-turbulence was minor.
We had a wonderful time visiting our friends in Sequim and Olympia. The weather was typical Pacific Northwest – several days of sunshine and cool; several days of rain / clouds and cool. But a great break from the 90+ degree days of north Florida this summer.
While in the Sequim, WA area, we were fortunate to travel up the Sol-Duc river into the Olympics. Todays photos are from that day-trip. The Sol-Duc River is approx 78miles long and flows from the Olympic Mtns, joins with other rivers and then into the Pacific. We would like to spend more time exploring this river and of course, in the Pacific Northwest.
I will probably post another photo or two while it's fresh in my mind.
For now, we're enjoying another Univ of Florida football victory. Next week we travel north to Knoxville to watch the Gators play Univ of Tennessee. I'm not a football prognosticator, but from what I saw today, the Gators will have to play better to leave Knoxville with a victory!
Michael Spicer had a photo showing in our home last week and is having another next week (while we're out of town). If you haven't seen Michael's work, you're missing a true talent. I will post a photo or two next week of his work.
For now, we're enjoying being home. Travel is great, but home is always welcome.
Wayne

Back in Sequim

No photos today. Although I have several hundred residing in my camera, I have no computer with me and no way to download.
But I thought I'd post our current situation for anyone following or trying to follow our adventures.
We are in Sequim, WA, visiting our friends, the McGuires. It has been two+ years since we've been here. And yes, it is as beautiful as we remember. The weather has been great - blue skies, lows in the 50's, and highs in the 60's. A far cry from the 51 straight days of 90+ in Fernandin Beach, FL!
We are going to visit Connie and Harold tomorrow in Olympia; then back to Florida on Thursday.
Our lives have been VERY interesting since I last wrote. We converted our downstairs to a gallery and had our first show on August 28th. I say ours, our guest artist was Michael Spicer. His work is wonderful and will be available for viewing throughout September (by appointment). I will pass along some photos when we get back.
I was going to show some of my recent work in October, but we're thinking we'll wait until November. I'll keep you informed.
In case you haven't had a chance, I invite you to see my new website and my newest photography adventure at www.WayneHowardPhotography.com
Thanks for checking in.
Wayne

New post? - After all this time?

I had no idea it had been over a year since my last post. I know I made a conscious effort NOT to post because we haven't been traveling - at least not to any degree - and traveling was why we started the blog.
But the times they are a'changing (to paraphrase Dylan) and I suddenly realized that I wanted to report what was going on in our lives. That and some very positive feedback from "strangers". I say strangers because the positive comments were / are coming from folks I don't really know very well. So besides the ego-stroke, I realized I did in fact have things to say that folks might find interesting / worth-while.
So, how to summarize 12-months of life in a few postings?
In no particular order of importance:
We have been trying to sell our house since November 2009. Everyone who sees it loves it, but with the economy in the "pits", no one is getting out their checkbook. So...
The house comes off the market later this summer (assuming no one buys). Then...
We are going to start a private gallery - showing my photography and good friends photography / art over the next "years(?)"
Then there's my new photographic venture - one I'm very, very excited about. I have discovered a way to transform an "ordinary" photo into a "work of art". I am hesitant to call it a work of art because that implies more than I want. But my concept is to take an "ordinary" photo and transform it into a unique piece of art that is reminiscent of Monet and other impressionists painters. Everyone who has seen samples can't believe it's NOT a painting. Plus since I plan to transform customer's (best-loved?) photos into a painting-like object-de-arts that they can hang in their home / office, they will truly have an original piece of art that they can can take credit for. Plus it will have a unique meaning to them and their families.
I will report more on this as we go along. Plus I am starting a new web-site to host this venture with more details on how to create your own work-of-art. It can be found (eventually!) at www.waynehowardphotography.com But for the moment one can get a glimpse of what I'm about by visiting www.aMUSEingJourneys.com and clicking on Galleries / Transformations.
At the moment we are hosting our daughter / grandson for a 2+week stay. Great fun - very time-consuming.
But it is my intention to begin posting new thoughts / information here without such long gaps.
Thanks for your patience.

Fernandina Beach - Monday a.m.

Before leaving the subject of last week’s travels, I thought I’d post one more with some of the other “interesting” sights.

On our return to Everglade City, we drove some of the back roads and found two vehicles being used shall we say, creatively? Many people use ceramic and plastic pots for their plants. The innovative folks at this home used a pickup truck. The Jeep didn’t have any plants growing in it (that we could see), but it was certainly handy to the back door in case of a quick evacuation. Of course they’ll need to do something about that right front tire, but maybe they have a spare.

A local restaurant also found an alternative use for their old VW Beetle – Dine here! Maybe there will be life for our Ruby Bug after its days are over?

Finally, one of the many wild life art forms – this one on Marco Island – in front of a local Italian Restaurant. A dolphin serving up some adult beverages. I didn’t get photos of all the clever animal forms / use. A lot of mail boxes in front yards used manatees (in costume), dolphins, and gators. Fun to see.

Marco Island trip - last days

Thursday / Friday / Saturday – May 28 / 29 / 30

Wrapping up the Marco Island visit:
One never realizes how short a week can be until one is tied to a scheduled / planned one-week reservation – such as we’ve had on Marco Island. And the irony is that we talked briefly about cutting things short and leaving on Friday a.m. But, realizing we would be returning to a house without air-conditioning and hot water, we decided we would tough it out! Actually not a difficult decision but one we did consider briefly.

Thursday – we putted around briefly – culminated with a fine dinner at one of our favorites: Carrabba’s Restaurant (in Naples).

The first photo is of a Pandora Tree. One of the other guest said it is called a monkey tree in Hawaii – because of the root system. Not sure if he was pulling our leg or not. But the fruit – shown here – is quite unusual. The inn-keeper said she was told it was edible, but bitter. We didn’t try it.

Friday we drove back down to Everglade City. Thought we might have missed something (we didn’t); but we did take an alternate route and toured the “back-roads” of town. The red flowering trees (photo above) are called Royal Poinciana’s. There are also purple flowering trees (shrubs?) called Jacaranda’s.

We detoured into an area labeled Harmon Lake. It appeared to be a limestone sinkhole (common in much of Florida). The thing that surprised us was the large number of turkey vultures in the area. These two must have been building a nest in the palm / palmetto. But there were many more in the area – probably 50 or more just sitting around on the rocks or soaring overhead. Must be good pickings?

Saturday we headed home – back to the warm house (no A/C) but home. We noticed that the perceived temperatures in Fernandina Beach are much cooler. The reported day-time temps per Weather channel.com were actually similar to Marco Island (85 – 88 degrees). But the cooler water of the Atlantic compared to the Gulf of Mexico means the sea breezes make it feel a lot cooler in FB, FL. That, and I think the humidity is lower here, makes it feel much cooler.

Nevertheless, we spent last night (and the next 3 – 7 nights) next door in our newest neighbor’s apartment. They returned to the mountains of North Carolina last Wednesday and graciously allowed us to use their apartment until we get our A/C installed.

Saturday we drove north. I haven’t seen so much dangerous driving in years. People changing lanes when it was completely unnecessary and completely unsafe. We survived – although we did pass a car upside down (only the wheels showing) about a 100 yards off I-75 in the swamp. One police car and one wrecker were on the scene so we guessed they had already carted off the auto’s occupants. Didn’t look good, but it must have happened an hour or more before we passed.

The last photo of the day is one of the figures seen on Marco Island – this one in front of a local Italian Restaurant.

I didn’t expect to restart the blog, but when you’re out and about, there are things to talk about. (Things other than personal illness and loss of friends – things that occur with advancing age!).

Wayne

Tuesday / Wednesday - day 3 and 4

Blog for Tuesday / Wednesday – May 26 / 27

Today I’ll cover two days to speed things along.
Tuesday we took it easy. Drove back to Naples to visit a book-store and replenish reading material. It had been a while since we were in a book-store – I’ve been using the library as my primary source (cheaper that way). We walked out with more than we planned and headed back to Marco.

On the way back we stopped and made reservations for a boating adventure on Wednesday – a 3-hour trip in the bay, among the mangrove islands, and a stop on the barrier island for sand / shells / and a chance for Margaret to wade in the Gulf. All of today’s photos are from this boating trip.

The boat had 22 folks aboard plus the captain and a naturalist / photographer. The naturalist was a great source of information about the dolphin habits (we saw a lot of them) and the birds spotted along the way. The naturalist works for an organization keeping track of dolphins. The dolphins are identified by the markings and shapes of their dorsal fin. We were shown a book of photographs of the dolphins they’ve seen and named! There were over 130 photos of different dolphins in the book. We were supposed to watch to see if we could find any new, un-named dolphins. Usually they were some distance away, but by the end of trip some dolphins were playing next to the boat. The most fun was when they were “chasing” the boat and body surfing in the boat’s wake.

I had the “wrong” camera for dolphin photography. By the time I saw it and pushed the button, he (she?) had already jumped / whatever and was back in the water. It was only towards the end of the trip that we found some in shallow water. These were on the surface more than they were under water. We also saw a couple rolling and playing – foreplay?

I’ve included a couple of shots of birds around the mangrove islands plus the beach where Margaret waded in.

A great outing.

Naples FL - day 2

Monday, May 25th

We drove into Naples, FL, today – about 16 miles north. Even though it was Memorial Day the place was hopping with folks enjoying the holiday. After wandering around for a while on our own, we decided to take the local trolley tour. A tour is a good way to learn one’s way around an unfamiliar town while someone else drives (and tells you what you’re seeing).

Other than some very expensive looking homes and hotels, there isn’t a lot to see. The photo above of the house is one of many situated directly on the Gulf front beach. There are also many multi-story high-rise apartments / condos / hotels along the beach. Our tour guide told us as we passed one particular “exclusive” development that the minimum home size to build was 10,000 sq feet – and this wasn’t even on the Gulf!

One of the fun features we have seen in both Naples and on Marco Island are the animal figures – this gator was in front of the trolley tour depot. There are many mail box posts adorned as manatees or dolphins. More photos of these as the week progresses.

After a disappointing lunch at one of the local tourist seafood places we headed back. Our days are probably going to be a lot like the RV days we had. See stuff in the a.m. and tuck in by mid-afternoon for a nap, read, and an adult beverage. There is another reason to come in early: it is very, very hot here – intense sunlight – and high humidity. If you’re not in air conditioning, you melt pretty quickly. (It is an unpleasant thought that we still have no air conditioning at home.)

More later.

Marco Island FL - day one

Sunday, May 24th

I realized this morning that the blog posting date is not the subject material date. So for now, ignore the posting date. Not the first time this has occurred but I’m definitely out of practice.

We arrived at Marco Island, FL, Saturday the 23rd for a one-week stay. We are using a week of our time-share since it was due to expire next month. Marco Island is small – even by Amelia Island standards; only 5 miles by 2.5 miles end to end. And 40% of that is water – mostly canals for boats (yachts?) tied up behind folks’ homes. Looking at a map of the area, it is obvious that except for the main beach itself a barrier island, most of the island is man-made.

Sunday morning we headed south along US 41 – also known as the Tamiami Trail. We learned that the Tamiami Trail is NOT an Indian name; but rather a nickname for the first road to connect Tampa to Miami. Makes sense but if I knew that (growing up in Florida I should have), I’d forgotten. My memorable moment on the Tamiami Trail was back in my senior year in college. The band was playing for a football game in Miami and I decided to drive down. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the night and I ran out of gas in the middle of the Everglades. Might not have been so bad if I’d have been alone, then no one would have known. But unfortunately, I had a car full of band members! Oh, well.

We drove as far as the Big Cypress National Park. Our goal was to visit the working studio of photographer Clyde Butcher. Mr. Butcher is famous for large (really large) format black and white photos of the Everglades. I had seen an interview with him and was really impressed with his methodology, i.e., he wades into the swamp and puts his view camera / tripod down in the muck. His business card shows him almost waist deep in the water with camera! Given the various kind of wild-life in the Everglades, it’s not something I’d want to do. But he’s been very successful and appears to still have all appendages.

On the way down, we stopped at the Big Cypress National Park visitor center. Had a nice chat with one of the rangers. The rainy season is June through October (coinciding with the Hurricane season) so the water table in the swamp is low. But we did get to see some of the local alligators in the canal next to the visitor center. The boardwalk looked to be several hundred yards long and about eight feet above the water. Today’s photos show a couple of the local residents. Except for reptile zoos and the ilk, this was the most alligators I’ve ever seen at one time. Some were on the bank others were floating (or swimming). I have to believe the rangers must feed them otherwise the gators would seek better environs – other than an occasional clumsy tourist, there wasn’t much in the way of wildlife / food for the gators to eat.

Lot’s of clouds build in the Eastern sky every afternoon, but so far it hasn’t rained along the coast where we are. The cloud photo above is from our time-share balcony.

Returning to blog posting!

During my last post, I observed that I would not be doing more posting since we were no longer traveling. And reporting about “normal” doings around the home-stead couldn’t possibly be very interesting. I didn’t mean it as a complaint or that normal life was dull. However, the UNIVERSE and GOD(DESS?) must have misunderstood ‘cause things got interesting very quickly.

That and the fact we’ve been away from home now for almost a week (yes, traveling, but not in an RV), has prompted me to take up the keyboard. Maybe not as much to let folks know what’s happening, but more almost as a dear-diary for myself – something to look back on in my dotage and wonder “did-that-all-really-happen?”.

To bring everyone up to date: The contractor finally finished the east wall of the house. I intended to show photos show the work being done (with scaffolding) and after it was finished (without scaffolding). But since I am using Margaret’s computer, I find I don’t have the photos with us. We are pleased with the work outside – it looks like brand-new (which it should since it is!) The work inside is also pretty much done. Work remains on the south wall (some miscellaneous bad planks) and the front (repainting the trim and deck).

But the UNIVERSE must have smiled and said, “Not so fast, humans.” Sunday afternoon (May 17th) while Margaret and I were sitting on the front porch watching a severe thunderstorm approach, there was a flash / bang – yes, the house took a lightening hit! Although it wasn’t a direct hit in the true sense of the word (no fire and house was / is still standing), it did blow all the circuit breakers. The surge took out: two air-conditioners (heat pumps); two tank-less hot-water heaters (one exploded, dumping water until I managed to get the water turned off); two televisions; one computer; one printer; and a variety of “little” electronic things. There may be more damage, but until we get some of these things up and running, we won’t know about other things (things like DVD player, external hard disk drives, etc.)

At least the weather for the next few days was mild enough we were able to survive without air-conditioning. Our neighbors were generous enough to let us shower in their home.

So after getting various contractors and repair crews busy estimating repair costs for the insurance company, we left town! Our departure had actually been planned for several weeks before the lightening event – we used a week of our time-share to travel to Marco Island, Florida – just south of Naples – the southwest coast of Florida.

As I stated at the start, being on the road again prompted the blog-bug to bite. So I will be reporting on our activities and some of the things we’ve seen on the trip.

The photo of the day is from a local Fernandina Beach cemetery – named Bosque Bello. There are numerous photo ops there and best of all, you can return again and again and find it pretty much the same as before! Guess no lone is leaving?