Manatee Park: Kayaking with Sea Cows

Manatees are extremely peaceful beautiful creatures. They are sea mammals and they are a relative of the elephant. Looking at them closely you can see the resemblance. At my Mother-In-Laws home in Florida Manatees are regular visitors to the dock and in the river. Her place is on the Orange River in Lee County Florida. Near her is a place called Manatee Park. At this park you can rent a Kayak and take it out on the Orange River and get up close and personal with the Manatee.



Manatee are a protected species. They love the brackish water, it is where they spawn and it is considerably warmer than the sea. Manatees do spend a lot of time in the sea as well. They are very calm animals and spend a lot of their time eating and resting. Their diets consist mainly of algae and seaweed, basically the ones here in Florida are vegans.  When the weather is cold they like to "hang out" in the river even more, because it's warmer. The State of Florida is a Manatee safe haven.  The state has many laws protecting wild life, in fact Dwight explained to us yesterday on our Dolphin tour that Florida has more laws protecting wild life than any other state.







Never feed wild life. They get to comfortable with people and they have a tendency to get a false sense of security from people. Manatees are already running into issues with motor boats and people feeding and watering them creates more issues. They are mammals and they do like to drink fresh water, so running a hose or other source of fresh water does attract them. This is also against the law in Florida and can incur a large fine if you are caught.  I think our kayaks must have had algae built up on them because they attracted some of the manatees and several of them appeared to be licking the boat. I was afraid for a minute that they would tip us, they probably could have because they weigh about 1000 pounds at least, but then they were so calm and friendly. They seemed to like it when we talked to them. Also, I got to see one of them turn and dive and I could see it's belly button.

When they die they have to be towed out of the river by the DNR or police. They are extremely large and their bodies become a source for predators in the river. They also ship their bodies off for autopsies to determine the cause of death. The only reason I know this is because we saw one being towed. It's a huge research opportunity for marine life. In fact some of them have transmitters placed on them and you can see them on the manatee when they swim.  

The Manatee Park also has many lovely little walking trails and a river walk where you can see the manatees by land. We walked the paths after our Kayaking and discovered uses of indigenous plants and saw many small animals wandering around.  It was a great adventure taking the kayak out and the only complaint we had was too much sun shine. (I think back home in Michigan, where it is currently negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit,  I hear people saying, "Boo-Hoo" sarcastically. Seriously though, I did get sunburned. lol)

Here's where we went:

http://www.leeparks.org/facility-info/facility-details.cfm?Project_Num=0088

And of course a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJVC5HN2BGM

Chubby's Tropical Adventure: Dolphin Tours in South Florida

Nervous Nellie's

Today I was lucky enough to go on a dolphin tour. It was pretty exciting. Our faithful tour guide, Dwight, once again took us on an exciting tour, this time on a boat through part of the Gulf of Mexico, to see Dolphins.  We started the day with shopping on Fort Myers beach and a delicious lunch at Nervous Nellie's.  There are so many things to see on Ft. Myers beach and it was such a beautiful day to walk around. The performance artists were out and they were painted gold and silver, and the fisherman on the pier were feeding the pelicans. After walking and shopping it was time to go see dolphins!

Dwight 

Dwight's tours are always informational and he understands more about Florida's natural history than any person I've ever met. Dwight was our tour guide in the Everglades a year ago and he was just as wonderful as our Captain on our Dolphin Tour.  He told us about the many laws in Florida that prohibit people from touching or swimming with dolphins. He also explained that they travel in really large pods and they are serious carnivores. In fact they bite people more than sharks do, so these happy laughing dolphin image isn't 100% accurate, but they are still delightful to watch them jump out of the water and play in the boat's wake.

Mangroves

Dolphin next to the boat 

As we took the boat out Dwight showed us the Mangroves. He explained to us the importance of Mangroves and how they protect the land against hurricanes. Mangroves look like islands but they are not, all they are is a lot of little trees and root systems. Many animals are housed by these ecosystems, especially birds.  There was a lot of birds on our tour. We saw Cormorants, gulls, pelicans, and Sandpipers. They were everywhere.  Diving for fish and landing like bombs on the water near our boat. How they can see those little tiny fish from so high up in the air is truly amazing.

We not only saw Mangroves but he explained the importance of the estuary and the brackish water. Estuaries are a mixture of saltwater and fresh water and they are breeding grounds for many types of animals. Brackish water is what is called when saltwater and fresh water mix.  Dolphins, sharks, and all sorts of baby sea animals are born in the estuaries each year. The salt concentration in the water is less and it's warmer because it's more shallow, this make ideal conditions for breeding.

Pelicans on the sand bar

On our way back the tide had gone out and there were many exposed sand bars. This is what happens in the evening and many birds, like pelicans like to stand on them.

Dwight mentioned on many of his tours he has seen tortoises and sharks. There are a lot of things to see on the sea I suppose, I truly enjoyed my time watching those dolphins. I hope you can enjoy some pictures of them as well.

This is where we went: 

They look menacing like sharks, but these are dolphins... 

http://www.chubbystropicaladventures.com/

http://nervousnellies.net/

They love to jump in the waves 

And the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CHbeAsgkaY&feature=youtu.be

They jump very high out of the water 

The nest of a Cormorant 

Ugly Sweater Run

So, my second ever 5k was another fun run. This one was interesting. You have to get the ugliest Christmas sweater you can find, then you run 3.2 miles in it. Even though it's Michigan and it's cold in the winter, it's still extremely hot running in the sweater. The temperature was about 30-40 degrees, but it didn't feel like it at the end.













The run was fun, there were a lot of different ugly sweaters, there were people dressed like Christmas Trees, as Ralphie from a Christmas Story, and of course, Buddy the Elf.

Part of the race packet included a knit cap, and a fake mustache (they were temporary tattoos). When the run was done all the runners, over the age of 21,  got two free beers. Of course after drinking our beers and taking numerous pictures with the Sam Adams Cardboard cut out, we had to take our new friend Sam with us to lunch. The waiter was great, he let us take his picture with it....

The best part was the beer drinking at the end and celebrating our run together. I made new friends and had a lot of fun! Can't wait for another race soon! I am going to start working towards a 10k next!

Ice emergency! Riding the Bus

This adventure is close to home. Sometimes adventure can be, especially if the circumstance is correct.

When I was at work the other day, (I work 3rd shift in a retail) my husband called. He was having an "ice emergency". (This is what I call it when he needs to be somewhere for a delivery.) It wasn't the ice sculpture that was having the emergency this time, it was my husband's PT Cruiser. It  had broken down on the side of the road way outside of town.  He had already arranged to have that driver picked up, but that left them one car short. The deliver they were making was near Detroit and it was a two day job, and Randy needed my car. It worried me a little to be stranded, but at the same time I was excited by the prospect of taking the bus.

Immediately I began looking up bus routes on my cell phone. I discovered the bus route was almost a mile from my store. I suddenly understood that, 1- the people working in my store would probably benefit having a bus route nearby and 2-my store would get better sales with a better placed bus route.  The bus did have a drop off at my gym, if I could figure out how to get there I could take it from there.

A co worker offered to drive me home. Which I told him I really did want to ride the bus. So I asked him instead to drop me off at the gym I work out at. I usually go there in the morning after work so it worked out and I would just take the bus home.

I worked out. I walked to the bus stop. I waited. I waited some more. I looked at my phone. Suddenly I realized, it was Sunday. This bus route doesn't run on Sunday. I laughed out loud, hysterically like a crazy person. I couldn't believe how silly it was.  My house is about 4 miles away and I thought about walking, but it was raining and a little chilly, so I gave in and called a taxi.

*sigh*

That night my friend Susan gave me a ride to work and I asked my friendly co-worker for another drop off at the gym. I worked out again for about an hour, walked to the bus stop and waited. The bus sign, did not match the internet times. I had to wait 20 minutes. I realized how terrible I am at using public transportation, because I was on the Westbound side, times online were for the Eastbound side.

When the bus arrived there was a man talking about winning the lottery. How his girlfriend was so close, how he wanted to move back to Allendale, and I thought at first he was on the phone, because he was the only other person on the bus. Then I realized he was talking to the driver. He went on and on about winning the lottery and how nice his girlfriend's dad is and how he saw someone win 40,000 dollars once. He kept talking about taking her to the casino on New Year's Eve because she's so lucky.

We got near my neighborhood and I realized that I didn't know exactly where my stop was, or when to pull the cord, or if the driver was interested in this man's conversation. She was a very nice driver and listened intently to everything he was saying, but she could see that I was a little nervous and asked me where I wanted to stop. I told her. I made it to my stop and was relieved. Only a couple of blocks of walking and I would be home.

It was kind of exhilarating to try it out and it's super nice to know it's that close to my house and goes directly to the gym I use. I think I may take it from now on and save the gas.  The bus was clean, the driver was nice, and the route was convenient for me to take home from the gym.

http://www.ridetherapid.org/

Remodeling: Part two

We wanted to give the cabin major updates after we finished the roof and retaining walls. We decided to further protect it by adding vinyl siding to the outside and putting in new windows. The area surrounding the house needs trees cut down, but we are going to wait until next year to do any of that, although it does make us nervous that branches, large ones, could fall on the house.

We also wanted to change the interior to knotty pine and put down new flooring as well.  The interior was going to become completely different. The only room that is drywalled is the kitchen and one living room wall. We wanted it to have a cabin feeling, but not be too overwhelming with the wood walls. We had to drive 4 hours to a place in Northern Michigan, Comins, to pick up the wood for the inside.

After the Siding, we have to wash it up now. 

My dad with one of our cats in the 80's

 The vinyl siding on the outside took a couple of weeks. As Sam installed the siding he also replaced all the windows. There were 7 total. It was strange to watch the windows being replaced, there was only one window that had never been replaced since the place was built and when I spoke to the neighbor, who has lived next to our summer cabin for over 50 years, she said the window has always looked like that and as far as I can remember it had.  Randy was almost seriously injured removing it, I don't think it wanted to give up until the very end.

Before clean up. 

After the vinyl was finished on the house and outhouse, (remember, our summer cabin has no plumbing)  we went inside to re-do the walls. Most of the superficial work we did was not completely necessary, but we figured as long as we were doing the work, we should do it in style.  The wood is  tongue and groove and after it was installed one little part of it began leaking  sap.  We got the wood at the WoodWorkers Shoppe in Comins, Michigan. It is excellent quality and is absolutely beautiful.


The floors were probably the hardest part. I only say that because we did them ourselves. My mother and father in law had to come and help us. They are phenomenal and I am so glad they were able to help us.

We still have a lot of work to do with moving all the furniture back in, but it's starting to look like a really cool place. It was a lot of work, but it is become a really cool place with a lot of memories. Randy and I want to make sure that it stays a very special place to my family.

The paintings we began re-hanging on the walls have been in the cabin for almost 50 years. They were made by my Great Grandmother Lulu Pearl Zellers,  so it meant a lot to me to put them back up in the cabin.  We also reinstalled the deer antlers. I still have a lot to do. I have to repaint the toy chest my Grandfather made for us as children, I have to buy some sort of hutch to hold the dishes and we have to get the fridge moved back in, it's like the summer got away from me because we did so much work. It's totally worth it. There are a lot of memories in our cabin and now we can make a lot more.

ArtPrize: 2013

Grand Rapids has this wonderful thing. ArtPrize. It's an open air art contest that is spread out throughout the city. The public is able to wander the streets and view different genres of art and vote on it for the artist to win a grand prize of 200,000 USD. Not to shabby. The contest lasts about two weeks and also has juried selections from art critics and those win cash prizes as well.

This is the fifth year of ArtPrize and it continues to grow and our city receives visitors from all around the world with their art.  My favorite part about ArtPrize is the diversity in the art. There are so many different genres, done in many different mediums, here are a few of my personal favorites.

Disclaimer: I am not any kind of art critic, I have no real understanding of art, these are my personal favorites for various reasons.



Some of my favorite choices this year include, a finger painting from DeVos center. This man paints as therapy for his epilepsy.  It is impossible to tell it was done with his fingers and it's an amazing piece of art with all the colors.  The title is "The Dance" and the artist is William LaGronde Jr.

Another favorite is "The Dog Show" by Michelle Anscombe. She painted it with Acrylics. It has a ton of show dogs in the painting and it's amazing 18.5 Feet of dogs.  Sadly this was in a place where few people saw it, on the Boardwalk Condominiums, they have 47 exhibits and it's in a far off place.








My personal favorite is "Griffin" by Robin Protz. She has entered ArtPrize 3 times. Last year when she entered she was disqualified because of a rule that the entry must be made within the last three years. She made a Dragon and the Dragon was actually made several years before, anyway the rule is now abolished, but the rules say artists can not enter an entry twice. This year is completely new. The last two years her pieces were made of metal, this year she used bamboo.




Next up there is Ann Loveless, she did a sewn piece of sleeping bear sand dunes. It is at the Gerald R. Ford Museum. It looks like a painting until you walk up close to it. I was mesmerized. I was told by several people that the stitching was not that impressive because it kind of like appliqué instead of stitching, but personally I was really impressed. It looks just like a painting until you get up close. I loved the little leaves sewn on for the trees and I loved the fact that it's a truly Michigan landmark.

"Mother Nature Dancing" is another piece that I love. It appears to be drift wood. The artist of this piece has been in the top ten art prize before. He created a work called "Ocean Exodus".  I really didn't care much for it, but now that I see the detail in this piece, I wonder if I didn't look hard enough at the other one, I wonder about all the things I might have missed.  This piece is amazing. As far as I could tell, (This is my interpretation, not the artist's) it looks as if there are two dancing Nymphs and several animals all over the piece. Even the back of it has animals, some of them are tucked away, half hidden, camouflaged by the wood. Every time I look at it I see something different.










There are so many pieces to see I couldn't possibly list them all. There are too many venues to visit. The best venues are usually the ones with less people on the outside of town. It's important to have some quiet. The examine the pieces, to communicate with it and really absorb the meaning. If it makes you cry, or unexplainably happy, or just plain confused. Sometimes when I don't understand the piece and I use the artists statement as a translator, but typically it isn't necessary. Art is interpretation,  the artist has placed it in front of you for a reason. Those reasons vary, but the bottom line is anything in the competition is for the public to look upon and make decisions. Art is to inspire.

Another disclaimer: I began writing this blog before the top ten was announced. I'm really conflicted as I've never liked so many pieces and actually had them make it in the top ten. I'm not sure what to do now. I guess I have to think about it.

Jauntaroo- Best job ever

So, I'm writing a quick little blog, on trying to get a job traveling and writing blogs!!! What could be more wonderful!!!??? I don't know, for me it would be a dream come true, that is why, in this blog I implore you to follow the link, watch my video, and click like on my profile. Why me above the others??? Maybe you should read some of my other blogs and decided you want more? Maybe I'm a lot of fun and a little adventurous? Maybe you have nothing else going on today and you'd like to help me out by clicking like on my profile and sharing??? Either way you do it, help me out!! It's a $100,000 job and traveling to 30-50 vacation spots in 52 weeks, and volunteering for organizations along the way!!!! So, support my candidacy for this job!

I'm not going to say please again, I'm just going to give you the link to the video!!! You can vote every 24 hours, so more than once if you'd like, also, feel free to share this blog, it's not monetized, so I'm not making any money off of it, I promise!!!! 

XOXO Thank you so much for even viewing this!!! Have a great day!!!

http://www.bestjobaroundtheworld.com/submissions/view/14294#.UjDE1m65bTE.facebook