Florida Everglades National Park - Wildlife Pictures

This was quite a while ago - but here are a few shots of some of the wildlife we encountered down at the Everglades National Park.


Here's my best tip about the Florida Everglades National Park ...


DON'T GO in the summer! Dang near 100 degrees outside. Pure sweat, and a nasty sticky feeling. AND ... Mosquitoes every where you turn.


In fact ... I suggest staying out of Florida entirely all summer long.

Unless, and only on this one condition, that you are going to a beach somewhere. That is the only reason any human should be in this state during the summer. To play in the glorious waters that completely surround this place.

That's my honest, but humble opinion.




Take a look at this turtle ... Not one of the prettiest animals we've seen here in Florida. But I guess I should really like this one, because it looks funny - just like me.

El Castillo Canon Fire Re-enactment

Here was another cool video. On the weekends, the Castillo puts on portrayals of the canon fire as it would have occurred in historical times.

We were lucky enough to be there to video this one.

I wasn't willing to video the actual shot - because I covered my ears - sorry about that. However, I think you get the idea from the video. The last 30 seconds has the firing of the canon.

Video clips from our Tennessee Trip - Part 2

Here's a few more video shots from our trip to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

These shots are taken in the Cade's Cove driving and bicycle loop. It's got some pretty cool scenery throughout. Very worthwhile views after being in the flatlands of Florida for a year and a half. One portion of the video gives a brief glimpse into a sugar press. That is a very cool piece of equipment, and I'm sure a lot of those babies existed down in these parts of Florida, because apparently they still have massive amounts of sugar fields down here.

Also included, are some clips from our summit visit, and a few moments from our hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Unfortunately, I'm no cinematographer, so these are just plain old scenes. Nothing framed beautifully, or perfectly.




I hope you enjoy anyhow.

Al

Video clips from our Tennessee Trip - Part 1

Hi ya'll!

It's funny to type that. Sometimes it seems as if I'm picking up parts of a new language back here. I say ... 'Yes Sir' WAY more than I ever thought I would. It's strange at times.

Anyhow ...

I am finally having the time to put up a little of the stuff from our trip up north to Tennessee.

This first video is part 1 of our journey into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These are clips from a couple of hikes we took.

I hope you like them.

Amazingly, the Park isn't really that high (in elevation), but we were extremely blessed to be hit with a rare snow storm in the area that left us with lovely powder while we were there.

The cold in Tennessee, and in the National Park, were just sweet reminders of days when you could cuddle up together ... and not be afraid of sweating instantaneously.




Thanks for watching!

Another video of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park coming soon ... Part 2 ... the Scenic Loop.


Al

National Park Gems... Get them while you can

I'm pretty sure we grabbed pictures of this gorgeous National Park Monument, but I can't find them right now.

If I do - I'll put them up.


Here's another reason to visit your National Parks NOW - and not to wait until you're older and have 'more time' to do it.


They're falling apart, literally. Every moment, every hour, every day, every storm drives them closer and closer to extinction.

And if you don't go there now, you could miss some of it.

Check out this National Park arch catastrophe.
From USA Today, and the Associated Press.


Al

Florida Parks

This last week we have done a few things to enjoy the warm winter weather here in Florida. Yesterday we visited the Hillsbough River State park. They actually have several trails to hike that are a bit more like what we are used to hiking minus the hills. But some of them were by the river so there was a view. And man you sure can see some different wildlife here in the rivers than you see in Oregon or out west. The crazy thing is that while we were hiking I was thinking I can not believe this is February. If we had been in Oregon instead of enjoying the warm day we would have been snowshoeing! Still very enjoyable for our family but so very different than what we are doing now. Anyhow, check it out!

The thing that I find kinda funny is that the people that have lived here all their lives and see this kind of thing all the time. Still say, " Oh my, look there is an alligator!" Like they are seeing it for the first time. We see them all the time even living here in town. alligators are just as at home in the waters of the city as they are in the waters of the country. There really seems to be no difference to them. I would think that they have had to have seen hundreds if not thousands through out their time here. They are all just crazy!! Any way it is still cool to see them out like this. An I love to see all the turtles too.

Here is some wildlife of a different kind! But cute none the less!
They also have a fort there that is a reconstruction on the same spot as it was back in the first Seminole wars. They have redone it as close to what they think it was at the time it was used according to the records and journals that they have from then. It was cool. In a couple of weeks they are supposed to have an actually living history thin there. I thin that we will be going back to see that. It was cool and it would be neat to see it with more people in there running it like it used to be done.



A couple of days before this trip, on Thursday actually, we headed out to a bike trail that starts not to far from our place here and goes to the next city south, Bartow. We ended up just riding out bikes to the trail and then all the way down then to the south end of Bartow to a cool city park there to let the girls play for a whilr on the playground. Unfortunately we did not take the camera with us on that trip but maybe next time. All together we rode between 20-25 miles that day and the girls did Great! I am super proud of them! It looks like Al will be getting his dream soon after all, A cross country tour on bikes! He has been planting seeds with the girls and they are starting to look forward to it as well! Crazy thing is I am sure that they could do it too!

Last but not least a couple of weekends ago we went to the Fort De Soto National Monument. It is south of Tampa and ended up being very cool!


There was all kinds of fun stuff here! We found a body of a horse shoe crab. That is what Al is holding and Keeley is checking it out. And tons of cool shells. That we ended up leaving there. Cause Kaitlyn is a very good junior Ranger and reminded us that we should never take anything from a park so that all can enjoy it that may come find it! so here are a few more of our found treasures from the park!



The last photo is of another Horseshoe crab and the one before that is Beauty Berries.
This park also had a living history thing going and we all got a chance to try our hand at shooting the bow.

And Al and the girls even tried on some of the armor!




Thanks for sticking with this super long post and I hope that you have all enjoyed the update and seeing what we have been up to these last few weeks.

Merritt Island Florida

Hi again,

It's been awhile again, but I wanted to send something out.

While Dad and Mom Miller were here a few weeks ago, we were able to make it over the Atlantic Coast.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel we could spend the money to treat them to the Canaveral Space Center. However... we did get to go check out a place called Merritt Island. It's right by the Cape Canaveral Space Center.

It was pretty cool - and definitely worth going back and site-seeing. There's a TON of pictures here, so I hope you like them.

Here, we start off with some vegetation - simple, not too dangerous. These were actually from the place we stayed at over there near Cocoa Beach

Here's a great shot of a coconut tree.

This is a funky one - I guess it's a star fruit tree?


This one looks a little more vicious... I call it the 'Don't Mess With Me, Or I'll Saw Your Hand Off' tree. I'm sure it has a different name, but that is what I think of. You know, it's a guy thing!

This one is of a drunken bird. He had some kind of a balance problem, so he had to stick his wing out there to keep himself standing up - there's some really potent water in these here parts.

Here's a wild pig. These things are TOTALLY COOL! And you can see a bird in the top, right keeping his eyes on these feisty little devils. He didn't want to get too close, I can guarantee that.
Real quick... I don't know if you've heard this story - but the first time we came here we were driving down the Beeline highway at about 60 miles an hour, and over on the right side of the highway is this gigantic, wild pig. After picking ourselves up off the floor boards of the car, Christy and I both had to ask if we had just seen what we thought. Definitely NOT a sight you get to enjoy every day. And not an animal I've come across in my Oregon travels. I hear these things are pretty radical you don't ever want to get in their way.

This one just happened to be crossing the road right in front of us. We barely had time to snap this shot before it disappeared into the grass.

Here's a gator that's even bigger than the one here at our apartment complex. This one was just lying there waiting for some tasty morsel to get out their car, so he could have some lunch. YUMMEE!!!!!

The three blobs you see there are manatees. It's hard to get a good picture of them, because they don't really come out of the water to sunbathe, but I think you get the idea. Seeing these animals is truly an amazing life experience. You must do it. I mean... it's not like getting married or having a baby, but it is a very, very cool thing to see something that big and that beautiful just cruising around in the water. Sometime soon, we'll update you on what it's like to be up close and a little too personal with a manatee. Until then just know this... they weigh about 2000 pounds. That's something the size of a car just sitting there - and even if they don't want to hurt you - they still can.

Here's a little better shot of a manatee tail.

And we'll end it here...
The perfectly timed appearance of two dolphin swimming by as we were gawking at the manatees. Truly an amazing site - I don't know that I could possibly ever get tired of looking at the animals God created!


Talk soon...

Al

Santa Fe's Treasure Trove of History

We decided to stay an extra day in Santa Fe, which turned out to be a great central hub for some historical site seeing.

Unfortunately, the girls aren't as 'into' history as we adults are. So they could only take so much of the historical sites.

Never-the-less, we did visit several of them, including...

Pecos National Monument - an old centrallized, key location for an Indian pueblo, which was later re-built as a Catholic church.

Here, you're looking at an old Native American pueblo ruin. The raised sides on the left and right of the picture used to be Indian homes that were about 2 to 3 stories high.

And this... is the catholic church, or what remains of it. This was built by the Spanish settlers to help the Indians transition into their new religious background. The catholics usually recognized an important religious and social location and then built their churches there so they could solidify their dominant position.


Ft. Union National Monument - A huge central supply hub for the Union forces during the Civil War. The confederates (Southerners) - tried to move up from the south and take over this Fort, in order to better supply their western advances and fund their further fighting in the east. Honestly, I studied history in college, and I NEVER knew the civil war was fought this far to the west.



Bandelier National Park - More SWEET cliff dwellings, with a short 3/4 mile hike allowing you to see most of the important spots quickly and easily.


Here's a shot of what used to be the cliff dwellings. The small round spots are the holes where they used to have floor poles for their second, third, and fourth floor rooms. Pretty neat place!

Oh, this is an original, native rock wall carving of a 'parrot', or at least that is what they tell you it must have been. Obviously the natives carved a parrot into the rock. The fact that it doesn't have wings is apparently not that important. To all of us it looked a lot like a dinosaur. But that's not possible... RIGHT?

The Great Sand Dunes and Beyond!

SO I am going to try my best to get got up on this blog thing.
THe photo above is of a beautiful sunset in Cortez as we were headed out of the national park one night.
After Cortez and Mesa Verda, Colorado we headed over to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. It is really a thing to see. You are at the foot of the Rocky Mountians and there is this huge section of sand dunes. They are masive. Looking at them from afar they look big but not all that big. But then you get up to them and start walking up them and they go on forever and are HUGE!! Just masive! It is great soft sand perfect for running and playing in. We all had a blast walking up on hill then having a race to the bottom. Keeley really enjoyed rolling down them. When we got there we knew that the camp ground in the park was probably going to be full. So there is a state park that is about 15 miles from the national park that we decided to stop and get a place at. When we pulled in to that camp ground the ranger said he has about 6 sites left. He gave us the numbers and we deove around and picked one. By the time that we had un hooked and set up the trailer the others were all taken. I am glad that we got there when we did. The bad thing about it was it was completly bug infested. not the dunes thankfully but the campground that we stayed at. We did not spend much time there, thankfully. Or we would not have had much blood left. We went to the dunes as fast as we could but unfortunally by the time that we got there a big thunder storm had rolled in. We went to the visitor center for a while to see if it would roll by. It took a while but we decided to venture out. It was still raining but it was warm and we had fun! Not many people were out on the dunes. But it was not long and the lightning started again so we had to head back to the trailer for the night.
Also because the place was all about sand, I did not take the camera out. So I do not have any great photos of Keeley rolling or Al anf Kait running down the huge mountians of sand. But I do have this. Sadly we only took about 5 photos of this place.

We headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a few days of resting and sight seeing. Since we ended our Grand Canyon stop a day early we stayed an extra day in Santa Fe. Several months ago I had seen some travel magazine with photos of Santa Fe and these beautifull colorful houses I so wanted to go there to photograph them for myself. We were unable to find places that were as colorfull as the photos I has seen but I did have fun taking photos around town anyway! We took a whole day and walked around old town Santa Fe so that I could take photos! It was a ton of fun for me and tolorable for everybody els. We did stop to have lunch at a cool little place called Blue Corn Cafe. It was good mexican food! Here are a few of my favorite photos from that day!
This is the girls standing by the oldest house in the U.S. It was built in 1625. It is right behind that oldest church in the U.S., the San Miguel Mission, built in 1619.

Of corse I like the detail shots better than the others but I guess it is good to be able to see it all too.
Heres some more.




I have to give props to Al, He took the last photo.
Let me know what you think about the photos.
I will have to continue tomorrow.
So until then...