All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Creatures from Other Places (Florida and the Caribbean)
These photos are from a month long trip to Florida and a two-week Caribbean cruise most of May of 2012 as a graduation and farewell gift for my German friend Annea as she prepared to return home to Stuttgart, Germany to begin working on her Doctorate. She had never seen the ocean and tropics before. In November, she would return to the area on her honeymoon. I will try to stay with the nature theme along with adding a few general photos of interest. Sunrise and sunset photos from the trip are posted at the end of the discussion "The Glory of Scenery touched by our God".
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Permalink Reply by Ricprimus on
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Rhino walking as if it hadn't a thing to worry about. (Her label comparing me to the rhino not proper to use).
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Florida West Coast
Backing up a bit, when we first arrived in Florida I gave Annea a whirlwind tour of the Florida West Coast area, about halfway down the state. I had lived there 1986-2000 while studying art at Ringling College of Fine Art along with establishing myself in the art festival scene. North to south, this area is dotted with various sized communities: along US 19: New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor (with Crystal Beach tucked in its middle by the Gulf), Dunedin, Clearwater, south east inland St. Petersburg, more east inland Tampa & Ybor City, and farther south Venice. The entire area was a prime tourist attraction with magnificient beaches, restaurants of every ethnicity, and shops everywhere. For those in the know, the area also had a wonderful cultural scene including concerts of many genre, 3 or 4 art shows at any given time and dozens of museums. And, sigh, old world coffee shops, many that opened in the evening and continued to dawn. Coupled with near tropical temperatures (Christmas dinner at the beach!), a near continual cool breeze coming from the Gulf, it was an artist's dream. -
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New Port Richey (Crystal River)
Just north of NPR right in the bay where the Crystal River entered, was the main electric power plant for the region: the cooling water system emptied in the bay which kept the water warmer than anywhere else on the coast. Crystal River was nearly clear as glass which allowed aquatic vegetation to grow rampant and provide an idea environment for Florida Manatees. The area had such a large population the county built a large network of walkways for people coming to watch. Here is a herd of Crystal River Manatees grazing. -
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Florida Manatees have been known to live up to 60 years, and they can move freely between different salinity extremes They breath every few minutes when active or swimming, and every 10 to 15 minutes Manatees are mainly herbivores, spending most of their time grazing in shallow waters and at depths of 1-2 meters (3-7 ft). They have a mean mass of 400-550 kg (900-1200 lb), and mean length of 2.8-3.0 m (9-10 ft), with maximums of 3.6 meters and 1,775 kg seen (the females tend to be larger and heavier). When born, baby manatees have an average mass of 30 kg. This is a closer photo of two of them.
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Tarpon Springs
Tarpon springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the United States: many signs are bilingual in Greek and English. The Greeks immigrated here to practice their traditional crafts of fishing and sponge diving (they use the old round steel helmet type of diving gear). Tarpon Springs has many ethnic restaurants and traditional Greek coffee shops. Much of the seafood in the area originates here and you could buy it right off the boats, I lived on shrimp and scallops, still moving or in the shell from the boats at $1.50 a pound. Photo of the sponge docks, raw sponges being unloaded. -
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A major tourist attraction is the Greek Orthodox church here. It is a scaled replica of St. Sophia (aka Aya Sophia, Hagia Sofia, Church of Holy Wisdom) in Istanbul (Constantinople before it fell to Islam); this church is an excellent example of New Byzantine architecture sculptured Grecian marble, gold leaf, elaborate icons and stained glass. Photo is of the ornate cathedral altar area with icons and various gold leaf insignia.
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Tarpon Springs has a mile or 2 long small causeway that goes out into the Gulf that becomes Fred Howard Park/Sunset Beach. The park and beach isn't on many maps so it's mostly used by locals, I rarely saw more than 2 dozen there so that was my #1 beach for the first 5 years before I bought my cottage on crystal beach. There were several roofed shelters on the beach and a fresh water spigot and a retired Greek from New York has a small concession trailer also with New York style hotdogs cheap (onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, chili sauce)..yum. Photo is of my favorite drawing spot under the Palm Trees looking west into the Gulf showing several islands. A wonderful spot for watching dolphins playing.
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Walking back to the SUV, this gentleman was leaving with one o the most prized fishes of the Gulf, a flounder, and a trophy sized one. The have both eyes on one side since they lay in sandy mud largely covered up waiting to ambush a smaller prey fish. One of the few flounders I have ever seen that wasn't broiled in butter and stuffed with a cheese or rice mixed with shredded crab meat. One local Greek restaurant ran by a small family one evening made me a flounder stuffed with feta (goat milk) cheese and shredded spinach as a gift for being a regular: it was superb and I've never come across it again anywhere.
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