Across the street, there is a patch of Florida wilderness. Many think of groomed lawns, palm trees and bougainvilleas when they think of Florida. I think of brushy overgrowth, mangroves, and scrub. Below are some favorite pictures from an outing to wild Florida.
Above: the coastline at low tide. 
I went to a museum of American Muscle Cars in Punta Gorda, Florida. I am not a particular car enthusiast. I find the engineering intriguing as well as the design, but I just can’t keep track of all the models and companies and statistics. However, I found it a pleasure to wander through the rows and rows of beautiful cars. Even if I didn’t know their horsepower or what was special about them, I could appreciate the art in them. Check out the beautiful colors, hood ornaments, and details. Each photo below links to Flickr, or check out the whole set here.
(Picture 1: Chevrolet and vintage signs, picture 2: row of corvettes, picture 3: 1935 Cadillac hood ornament, picture 4: Chevrolet Impala convertible interior, picture 5: 1960 Chevrolet Impala convertible tail light.)
And I got a fun toy for myself too!
This week I visited Moab, Utah. I stand-up (and fall-down) paddled on the Colorado River during a thunderstorm, I hiked in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and I stargazed. Most of all, I ravenously took pictures.
Delicate Arch from across a gorge in Arches National Park
Landscape Arch in Arches National Park
Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park
Green River overlook in Canyonlands National Park
Milky Way over the red rocks in the Colorado River valley
The Colorado River valley
Park Avenue in Arches National Park
Arches National Park
Last week I was at the beach. Whenever I go on vacation, I get hundreds of souvenirs: all my photos. Below are a few of my favorites from the trip. Our final day, we endured 35 mph sustained winds from Tropical Storm Andrea. In a house on stilts, that’s more fun than usual; the house rocked with every gust. I’m getting back around to my normal schedule, so you’ll be seeing more regular posts from me.
Kite surfing championship
Cape Hatteras Light House.
Climbing the Cape Hatteras Light House.
Wild grasses on the sound side. Very good of absorbing high tides from tropical storms.
Did you know there are actually two Smithsonian Air and Space museum locations? There is one on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and a second in Virginia near Dulles Airport, called the Udvar-Házy Center. The Udvar-Házy location is an enormous hangar filled with historically significant aircrafts, aircraft parts, and spaceflight artifacts, including such highlights as the Enola Gay, an SR-71 Blackbird, and a space shuttle. If you are ever stuck at Dulles Airport and have some time to kill, there is a very cheap ($0.50 each way per person) shuttle between the airport and the museum.
For those unfamiliar with American aircrafts (as I mostly am), the Enola Gay is the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The SR-71 blackbird is the fastest plane ever built, even though it was built in the 70s. It flies so fast that at rest, its joints aren’t perfectly sealed, and it can leak fuel. This is because the metal expands significantly due to heat at high speeds. The museum also hold various antique aircrafts, aircraft oddities, engines and engine cross sections. Another area holds retired military planes, and a third area holds NASA artifacts. I went there a couple of years ago. My creative commons folder of images is here, and I include a few pictures below.
The SR-71 blackbird:
The Enola Gay:
I’ve been slogging away still at the novel draft. Today I crossed 40,000 words, which is definitely the farthest I’ve ever gotten in any attempt. So, big milestone.
But because news of word counts is decidedly dull, I’ll also append some photos of yellow flowers from over the years. It’s only appropriate because my office where I write is make-your-eyes-bleed bright yellow. I have even more yellow flower pics over in my flickr set (as always, fair-use). Have a bright day!
Alas no, I am not swimming at the shore for some time. But I like to pretend that I might be soon, and so I wistfully mull through my photos. I love to swim, and anytime I visit non-lethal water, I want in. The next best option is photographing. The two mix poorly, but I try. Below are some lovely tropical beaches, and some gloomy beaches and some extremity-numbing fjord beaches.
As a point of pride, I did get in the fjord and swim to a dock about 30 feet out, but I was going numb. Because children are insane, several children also did and wondered why I minded. This summer I’m visiting the Outer Banks of NC, and hoping to try a little surfing.
Happy Friday!
Playa del amor in Cabo San Lucas.
Dungeness Spit on Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
Sunrise in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The dunes of North Carolina at sunrise.
Swimmin in fjord water in Solvorn, Norway.
Shore birds of the gulf coast of Florida.
There are three manmade UNESCO world heritage sites in the United States: The Liberty Bell, The Statue of Liberty, and The University of Virginia Lawn with Monticello. The UNESCO designation basically means there is something noteworthy of distinctive about the site. I happen to live near to the University of Virginia, so I get to take a lot of photos. (As of this post, I just discovered that all the modern photos on the lawn Wikipedia page are mine. I love to see where the creative commons take my works. Side note: check out my very large Flickr collection of mostly creative commons images.)
Many years ago, Benoit Mandelbrot, the creator of fractal geometry, visited the university to give a talk. He said it was like walking into the lion’s den of Euclidean geometry. I always liked this description; everything about the university is columns and arches and perspective points. Monticello and the University were laid out by Thomas Jefferson, who one gets the feeling never actually died living around here. He was the ambassador to France for a while, and greatly admired the architecture. He came back to the states with those architectural inspirations.
The UVA lawn, shown below, has the rotunda at one end (the second one… the first one burned down and blew up when a professor tried to save it with TNT) and is lined by ten pavilions. Between the pavilions are dorm rooms that distinguished fourth year students still live in. Each of the ten pavilions is architecturally different, and behind each is a garden in a different style which no doubt will be the topic of a future post. Pavilion 2 is pictured below. Professors still live in the pavilions. The pavilions were built in a strange order, to ensure that diminished funds would not diminish the scope of the project.
It’s very easy to find plenty of reading material on Jefferson and the University if you are interested, so I won’t try to write a tome here. However I’ll include a few of my pictures that may hopefully spark your interest.
pavilion 2
Monticello, i.e. the back of a nickel
This weekend the art department at the university put on a creature parade. Alum Stan Winston made creatures for Jurassic Park, Avatar, and others. So the art school made some creatures and some sound tracks for those creatures and paraded them around grounds. It made for a nice photo outing. The students were very proud of their creations and seemed to have fun with it. Little kids didn’t know quite what to make of the beasts, but gave them a healthy space for safety.
At last the weather is warming! I went wandering in the gardens today on a photo expedition. And here are some results! Soon the dogwoods and tulips will be out. Happy spring!
Vironevaeh 