Lately I've been poring over train schedules, flights, and things to do in Europe for a month. I keep thinking to myself - what would I tell people to do if they had only one month in the U.S.??
I thought it would be easy to write a blog post with an "itinerary" for what to see, and I just got up to number 15 and got so overwhelmed that I erased it all. There are just too many choices!! Too many amazing things to do and see, which I know is true of Europe as well. And pretty much anywhere around the globe.
Travel is definitely "addictive" in the sense that once you have disconnected from the familiar long enough to know another place, or even just to know what it feels like to be on the road and 100% reliant on whatever you find or whatever finds you, there is always this desire to do it again, to seek another challenge, to go someplace you haven't gone before. At least that's how it feels to me!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Trimans do Florida Day 2: Everglades
Dan and I woke up on Thursday morning to the sight of palm trees above us and a completely gorgeous day ahead of us.
We began by exploring our campground, and one of the first things we discovered was this spanish moss:
We wandered towards the shore of the Florida Bay at the edge of the campground, and had some really cool early-morning experiences watching the birds in and near the water:
Then we checked out the (very pink) visitor's center, saw a manatee (which was Dan's mission for the trip), and enjoyed some time relaxing under some of the amazing trees in the park:
That afternoon, we took a few short hikes and saw our first gator:
And some scenery that reminded me so much of the muddy flats near Anchorage:
Pardon the shaky videography, but our final exciting find of the day was this Roseate Spoonbill feeding in a pond on the way back to our campground:
We began by exploring our campground, and one of the first things we discovered was this spanish moss:
We wandered towards the shore of the Florida Bay at the edge of the campground, and had some really cool early-morning experiences watching the birds in and near the water:
Then we checked out the (very pink) visitor's center, saw a manatee (which was Dan's mission for the trip), and enjoyed some time relaxing under some of the amazing trees in the park:
That afternoon, we took a few short hikes and saw our first gator:
And some scenery that reminded me so much of the muddy flats near Anchorage:
Pardon the shaky videography, but our final exciting find of the day was this Roseate Spoonbill feeding in a pond on the way back to our campground:
Sunday, January 30, 2011
The Trimans do Florida Day 1: Miami
Dan and I decided to mix things up this holiday season and take a spontaneous trip to Florida. Our goals: enjoy some warmer (shorts-wearing) weather and see some gators. Not our goals: having an epic struggle at the rental car place and vultures eating the rubber on said rental car. To our joy (and chagrin), both our goals (and non-goals) were met.
We woke early on Wednesday, December 22, but still somehow managed to be racing to get to the airport and board our flight on time. We made it into our seats about 10 minutes before they shut the cabin doors, and we were off on our quick journey from BWI to Miami International.
I wish I had had my camera out as we approached the city, because the view of Miami Beach from our window as we coasted in for the landing was jaw-droppingly gorgeous: BLUE water and white sand and the city sparkling in the mid-afternoon sunlight. Miami wowed me from the very first glimpse!
When we disembarked, the first thing we saw (other than glaringly dazzling airport Christmas decorations) was these crazy people dressed in green and black wrapping everyone's luggage in this green saran-wrap stuff:
We could NOT figure it out until later, after we came back, when Rebecca told us about how people boarding flights to South America want their stuff wrapped so that their luggage won't be susceptible to the wandering hands of customs agents along the way.
We made our way out of the baggage claim area (checked bag full of our double sleeping bag in tow), and headed over to buy our tickets to the Miami-Dade bus. Riding the bus was a neat experience; we always enjoy riding the public transit in different cities because the people you see and the things going on are interesting. We were the only ones on our bus with luggage, which turned out to be a problem because as the bus traveled further and further south, it became PACKED with locals, mostly Spanish-speaking folks and the septua- and octo-generian crowd.
I'll spare you the details of the struggle we endured at Enterprise in Coral Gables, but suffice it to say that 1) they have TERRIBLE customer service and 2) require you to have a credit card that isn't linked to your checking account in order to rent their cars. Dan and I don't use credit cards, and didn't have any on us, so we came pretty close to being out on the curb (or back on the bus) with our bags, but luckily our persistence (and the fact that we were making a scene in the waiting area) paid off.
After that experience, we went to check out the Front Porch Cafe in South Beach at Jackie's recommendation. We had oatmeal pancakes and some amazing omelette dish and thoroughly enjoyed that experience.
Then we went walking on the beach...the only thing better than the aerial view of Miami Beach was getting our toes into the water and experiencing it for ourselves:
After a few moments of awesome beach-walking, we headed to the Fresh Market in Coconut Grove to stock up on some groceries for our camping trip. The market had some of the most amazing fresh fruits and vegetables (although not as amazing as some that were to come later on our trip), and we had a great time shopping for our groceries among the last-minute holiday food shoppers. It's always neat to go to local grocery stores and co-ops and see what types of things are popular (fruits and juices) and what the people are like (laid back and un-rushed).
Once we had our vittles, we figured it would be smooth sailing out of town and down Route 1 towards Everglades National Park...not so. Apparently Miami has a pretty nasty rush hour (or maybe it was just holiday shoppers), and we got stuck in it for an extra hour of driving. We made a requisite stop at Walmart for camp fuel, a tarp, and some other vitals, which unfortunately added yet another hour onto our trek to the Everglades...we thought it was just because of holiday shoppers, but as I made this comment to Dan, the lady in front of us turned around and informed us that it is like that ALL the time there in Homestead, FL. Apparently that particular Walmart is the only game in town - and in the surrounding few towns - and people shopping there always have to add an extra hour for the incredibly long wait for check-out.
We finally burst through the exit doors with our loot in tow, and forged the last hour or so to the park. Driving along the park road in the dark was a really neat experience - we came face to face with a huge heron, who looked at us like - um..this is my turf...who are you?? When we made it to the campground, it was pretty dark, but the moon was bright, so we didn't even need our headlamps to set up the tent. There was a nice cool breeze and it smelled good, balmy and salty, and we settled down for a nice rest before the rest of our adventure began...
We woke early on Wednesday, December 22, but still somehow managed to be racing to get to the airport and board our flight on time. We made it into our seats about 10 minutes before they shut the cabin doors, and we were off on our quick journey from BWI to Miami International.
I wish I had had my camera out as we approached the city, because the view of Miami Beach from our window as we coasted in for the landing was jaw-droppingly gorgeous: BLUE water and white sand and the city sparkling in the mid-afternoon sunlight. Miami wowed me from the very first glimpse!
When we disembarked, the first thing we saw (other than glaringly dazzling airport Christmas decorations) was these crazy people dressed in green and black wrapping everyone's luggage in this green saran-wrap stuff:
We could NOT figure it out until later, after we came back, when Rebecca told us about how people boarding flights to South America want their stuff wrapped so that their luggage won't be susceptible to the wandering hands of customs agents along the way.
We made our way out of the baggage claim area (checked bag full of our double sleeping bag in tow), and headed over to buy our tickets to the Miami-Dade bus. Riding the bus was a neat experience; we always enjoy riding the public transit in different cities because the people you see and the things going on are interesting. We were the only ones on our bus with luggage, which turned out to be a problem because as the bus traveled further and further south, it became PACKED with locals, mostly Spanish-speaking folks and the septua- and octo-generian crowd.
I'll spare you the details of the struggle we endured at Enterprise in Coral Gables, but suffice it to say that 1) they have TERRIBLE customer service and 2) require you to have a credit card that isn't linked to your checking account in order to rent their cars. Dan and I don't use credit cards, and didn't have any on us, so we came pretty close to being out on the curb (or back on the bus) with our bags, but luckily our persistence (and the fact that we were making a scene in the waiting area) paid off.
After that experience, we went to check out the Front Porch Cafe in South Beach at Jackie's recommendation. We had oatmeal pancakes and some amazing omelette dish and thoroughly enjoyed that experience.
Then we went walking on the beach...the only thing better than the aerial view of Miami Beach was getting our toes into the water and experiencing it for ourselves:
After a few moments of awesome beach-walking, we headed to the Fresh Market in Coconut Grove to stock up on some groceries for our camping trip. The market had some of the most amazing fresh fruits and vegetables (although not as amazing as some that were to come later on our trip), and we had a great time shopping for our groceries among the last-minute holiday food shoppers. It's always neat to go to local grocery stores and co-ops and see what types of things are popular (fruits and juices) and what the people are like (laid back and un-rushed).
Once we had our vittles, we figured it would be smooth sailing out of town and down Route 1 towards Everglades National Park...not so. Apparently Miami has a pretty nasty rush hour (or maybe it was just holiday shoppers), and we got stuck in it for an extra hour of driving. We made a requisite stop at Walmart for camp fuel, a tarp, and some other vitals, which unfortunately added yet another hour onto our trek to the Everglades...we thought it was just because of holiday shoppers, but as I made this comment to Dan, the lady in front of us turned around and informed us that it is like that ALL the time there in Homestead, FL. Apparently that particular Walmart is the only game in town - and in the surrounding few towns - and people shopping there always have to add an extra hour for the incredibly long wait for check-out.
We finally burst through the exit doors with our loot in tow, and forged the last hour or so to the park. Driving along the park road in the dark was a really neat experience - we came face to face with a huge heron, who looked at us like - um..this is my turf...who are you?? When we made it to the campground, it was pretty dark, but the moon was bright, so we didn't even need our headlamps to set up the tent. There was a nice cool breeze and it smelled good, balmy and salty, and we settled down for a nice rest before the rest of our adventure began...
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