Traveling: Dolphin Watching Near Key West, Florida

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are continuing our vacation in Florida. We are staying now in Key West, the most southern point of continental USA (without Hawaii). Yesterday we took a four hours boat tour to Marquesas Key north-west of the island.

The water there is very shallow, just some feet deep, and filled with fish. This attracts lots of dolphins, the main attraction of this tour. We were lucky to observe some of these mammalia. They usually dive, of course, to devour on the rich diet of fish. 

 

We were lucky to see some of them jumping and at least one of them seemed to follow our boat for a minute or so.

The tour also contained some minutes snorkeling. This part was a bit disappointing because the water was very shallow, maybe just 6 or 7 feet deep. The sandy ground looked spooky, like a swamp covered with ugly white plants. There were plenty of fish, but most were grey or black. But watching the dolphins compensated and made the tour a nice experience.

 

Traveling: Miami In Times Of Covid-19 Pandemic

 (Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are traveling again, Covid-19 or not. Fortunately we both got the amazing Moderna mRNA vaccine, one got both doses, the other the first. Traveling without incubation would be like playing Russian Roulette, there are too many risks.

We are staying in Miami, the second time since December 2017. Life in the metropolis looks almost normal but people wear masks in public places, including supermarkets, apparently enforced by he operators. Some also wear masks on the streets and other open spaces. This is surprising because plenty of UV light and high temperatures (high 80s F/30 C) reduce the risk of an outdoor infection significantly. Anyway Florida has more contemporary positive cases than New York State, in spite of the favorable weather (worldometers cnn). I seems that the lax Florida rules (by governor Ron De Santis) - especially for indoor gatherings - support the spread. I noticed  (through big windows) that the gyms are crowded with people without face covering. 

Fortunately the hotel in the Financial District, where we stayed first, and the condominium in the Design District, where we had an Airbnb flat,  required face covering. Unfortunately many tourists behave idiotic and ignore social distancing. I noticed crowds squeezing into the hotel lifts and it was difficult and not always successful to stop covidiots to jump into the lift we took. No surprise, pandemics need idiots, without them they would end in months (like in China).

We continued to dine outdoor, which we had done weekly in New York City since July 2020. We even visited pubs with outdoor serving, the first time since March 2020. Outdoor dining is normal in Miami, every restaurant, cafe & bar has at least a patio, thanks to the almost tropical climate (they grow coconut palms here).  Miami`s restaurant didn`t need to create makeshift outdoor places to protect from winterly conditions. which are blocking streets & pedestrian ways in New York City. Fortunately we got an outdoor table at Komodo, a fancy Asian place, which attracted a huge crowd who preferred to sit inside. 

I really enjoyed the city. Miami looks modern, fresh and clean, the city is much newer than good old New York City, which looks run down on many place. Someday, when the pandemic is over, we might come back.

Traveling: Visiting The Everglades, Florida

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife are staying in Miami, the first travel since March 2020. Yesterday we drove to the Everglades, a national park one hour drive east of Miami. The park covers a protected area of swamp land. The rich shallow waters are home to ubiquitous life forms which benefit from the almost tropical climate. The ponds and natural water ways are home for many plants and wildlife - turning them into a nutritious soup for many residents of the Everglades. Sheer countless turtles, frogs, snakes and other little animals provide involuntary a rich diet for legion of birds and alligators.

 

We booked a tour with the Shark Valley Tram Tour company and could observe the wildlife comfortably from the wagon. Later we had a short hike along some of the gator pools, unbothered by the reptiles who seemed not to notice us.

 

 

 

Florida´s alligators (American alligators) alone are worth the drive to the park. The reptiles usually laid dormant in the water, pretending to sleep, waiting for their food to come. But we were lucky and could observe a kind of turf war (images above). We spotted a gator which pretended to sleep and was partly covered by water. Then another gator approached, a big male. The approacher accelerated his speed and swam, or paddled, towards his fellow. The attacked gator did not even try to defend himself and rather took flight. We watched both speeding away and they disappeared on the horizon.

 

 

   

The park has really big gators. There is a lookout tower, which can be approached by a spiraling bridge. Below this bridge we saw this impressive reptile.

 

 

Above more gator images. Fortunately the reptiles were all minding their business.

 

 

There are lots of bird who -like the gators - are preying on the rich swamp life, including frogs and turtles.

 

The mentioned tower gave us a nice overview.

The park has an amazing combination. Lush vegetation mixes ...... 

 

 

 

with ponds & swamp land.

 

To be continued

Traveling: A Visit @ Key Biscayne, Miami

 (Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are traveling again, Covid-19 or not. We are visiting Miami, the second time since December 2017. We stayed first in a hotel in the Financial District, then we moved to an Airbnb place in the Design District. We have a rental car and my wife drives to variant destinations.

 

 

Yesterday we drove to Key Biscayne, an island south-west of Miami. There is a little settlement sandwiched between 2 parks. We drove to the Bill Bags Cape Florida State Park, at the south end of the little island, and hiked there. 

 

 

The park has a tropical vegetation. It was humid there, much more than  in the city, and the air felt thick and smelled a bit like aniseed.

 

 

 And there is also a lighthouse.

 

To be continued 

Books: Best Of Elizabeth Bear

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Speculative fiction knows no rules and has no limits. Anything is possible. Elizabeth Bear belongs to the finest authors of the genre. I just finished the anthology "Best of Elizabeth Bear" ( amazon). The collections spreads over around 700 pages and contains about 30 short stories.

I have 2 favorites:

"Dolly" - a billionaire was found murdered in his home. Cops interrogate a female robot, called "Dolly", the only witness. This artificial intelligence has an almost human like brain but was used as an extremely expensive high-tech sex toy. The tale again touches a lot of questions. Does an AI have a self-interest and if, is it (she?) accountable for its (her) on doing, and more. The story is a glance into a possible near future.

"Okay, Glory" follows another billionaire, also set in a near term future. The man is trapped in his secluded high-tech mansion in the mountains. Some rogues had hacked the controlling house AI and demand ransom. 

 

There are more gems:

"In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns"  is another detective story (a "whodunit")  set in an alternate world near-future India and deals with some weird results of genetic engineering. 

"The Body of the Nation" is an alternate history story set in New Amsterdam in the year 1897 (the real New Amsterdam turned into Manhattan and became New York City in ). The "Body" is another whodunit story. A murdered woman was found on a steamboat on the Hudson River at the coast of New Amsterdam. Detective Crown Investigator Abigail Irene Garrett (a repesant of the English Crown) is inquiring the complicated case which includes diplomatic complication with the kingdoms of Bavaria & Prussia (today federal states of Germany)

"Boojum" follows  the crew of a space ship, called "Bojum", a huge semi-intelligent organic which can  live and travel in the vacuum of space.  

"The Bone War" focuses on Bijou, an artificer (a very skilled craftsperson) with some magical powers who is assigned by a museum to reconstruct a giant dinosaur. 

"The Depth of the Sky" follows an intelligent being who lives in the tropopause (the  layer of the atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere) of a gas planet.

"The faster Gun" is another alternate history, set around the year 1880 in the American West.  Western legend Doc Holliday is hired by a group of people to guide them to a alien spaceship which is stranded in the desert.

"Convenant" focuses on a former serial killer who gets into dangerous situations because now he is restrained by pharmacies as a result of his resocialization.

The collection is a nice mixture of science fiction (based on plausible ideas and sciences) and modern fairy tales.

 

Photography: April ´21 In Manhattan

(Drivebycuriosity) - It`s April again in Manhattan. Rising temperatures, more sunshine and the rapid progress of the vaccination campaign are lifting my mood. It´s fun again to be outside.

 

It seems that the nature is also celebrating. I took the occasion and shot some pictures. On top of this post you can see the One World Trade Center, which is partly obscured by clouds. In Germany we call these skyscrapers "Wolkenkratzer" (Cloud Scratcher), which seems to be more to the point. Anyway the following images are taken in the blossoming City Hall Park, not far from the One World Trade Center.   

 

 

Above more shots from the park. Isn`t it beautiful?

 

I spotted these lovely trees at the East River along the Lower East Side.

Above the Williamsburg Bridge surrounded by wonderful trees.

Enjoy!