The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick: Walk

Showing posts with label Walk. Show all posts

13 August 2018

Sea Turtles & Other Creatures At The Florida Oceanographic Society

There are a lot of fun aspects to being a writer.

There are some not so fun ones as well. Learning how to format books and marketing come to mind.

But let's get back to the fun ones, because that's more. . .fun.

And let's talk about a super-duper fun one that involves sea turtles and other creatures, because turtles are the ultimate in fun.

A friend and I visited the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, Florida as part of my research for my next cozy mystery, Bodies in the Boatyard. One of the characters is a marine biologist specializing in {drum roll, please} sea turtles!

We had a blast and we learned stuff too. We also sweated a lot because it's freaking hot in Florida in the summer, but it was worth it.

Here, let me show you how awesome it was.

First off, we fed stingrays. I have to confess that I made a little yelping sound when the ray swam over my hand and ate the piece of fish I was holding between my fingers.

I love how the girl on the left is wearing a top with sharks on it. Perfect fashion choice for this place.

We got to see baby sea horses. So adorable!

We went for a walk out to the beach. Because I'm not too bothered by snakes (which may surprise some of you), I was in charge of keeping an eye out for any slithering across the path.

While looking at the water is pretty, being out in the Florida sun is torture in the summer.

Did you know that oysters can help purify polluted waters? Volunteers collect shells from local restaurants, put them in bags, and place them back in the water in strategic locations to create artificial reefs and clean the bad stuff out of the water.

And of course there were sea turtles - four of them, in fact. Turtwig, Lily, Hank, and Anna Belle, all swimming around in a large salt water lagoon along with sharks and big game fish. These turtles can't be relocated to the wild and are happily living out their lives at the oceanographic society.

Do you like sea turtles? What's your favorite marine wildlife?

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29 June 2018

Flashback Friday | Going For A Walk: Wynyard Quarter, Auckland, New Zealand

Flashback Friday takes place on the last Friday of the month. The idea is to give a little more love to a blog post you've published before that maybe didn't get enough attention, or is something you think is still relevant or even a something that you really love and want to share again.

Many thanks to Michael d’Agostino for starting Flashback Friday and inspiring me to go back and revisit some of our earlier blog posts.

* * *

This is a flashback to when we lived in Auckland, New Zealand. We didn't have a car, so we walked everywhere. We lived in city centre (downtown) Auckland, so everything was convenient and we were a hop, skip, and a jump away from the waterfront.

When I looked back at this post, I noticed that I only used metric. Hard to believe that once upon a time, I functioned in kilometers, kilograms, and hectares.

This was originally published in December 2013 - you can see the original post here.

* * *

Wynyard Quarter is one of the new hot spots in the Auckland waterfront area and is undergoing a 25-year urban transformation plan, the first part of which was completed in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup (which of course the All Blacks won).

It sits on reclaimed land in the Waitemata Harbour and encompasses around 37 hectares of land and three kms of coastal frontage. There are all sorts of amenities for visitors to enjoy including a playground, public artwork, old siloes which have been jazzed up, a fish market and all sorts of cafes, restaurants and bars.

You can see all types of vessels in Wynyard Quarter including fishing boats, the Great Barrier Island ferry, classic Kiwi yachts and mega yachts. Positioned between the Viaduct and Westhaven, it is nice area to have a stroll, visit and explore.

The drawbridge from Te Wero Island in the Viaduct which you cross over to get to Wynyard Quarter.

View from under the pohutukawa trees back to the Viaduct and the drawbridge..

There is a lot of interesting street art scattered throughout Wynyard Quarter.

There's a fish market in Wynyard Quarter which is fun to explore. They sell good fish and chips there, but be warned if you want ketchup for your chips, it will cost you extra.

Yummy fish for sale. Although, I much prefer the ones that Skipper Scott catches for us.

One of the many fishing boats in the Wynyard Quarter.

They've repurposed old shipping containers throughout Wynyard Quarter.
You can get money out of the ATM at this one. There is a television screen on the other side showing videos.

At this one, you can buy some ice cream with the money you just took out of the ATM.

And you can even catch the bus from this shipping container.

At the end of Wynyard Quarter is Silo Park. It is full of siloes. The name kind of gives it away.

They've jazzed some of the old siloes up with colorful paintings.

Silo Park marina is where the mega-yachts berth. This ridiculous boat, the A, is owned by a Russian tycoon and worth $350 million. He has brought it into Auckland to be repainted. It is going to cost around NZ$30 million alone to repaint and take approx. 18 months.

These boats are much nicer.

And the most important thing to know about the Wynyard Quarter is that they just opened a branch of Sal's Pizza there. This is the best proper American style pizza in Auckland. I think they import the cheese from Wisconsin. Getting a pizza from Sal's is a priority must-do for Scott this week now that he is back in New Zealand.

Have you ever been to New Zealand? Do you like to go for urban walks?

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01 December 2017

Going For A Walk In Search Of Ethiopian Food | Little Five Points, Atlanta

Whenever Scott and I travel to a new city, we always look to see if they have an Ethiopian restaurant. We were spoiled for choice when we were spending time in Atlanta hiding out from Hurricane Irma. We weren't sure which restaurant to go to, but then our friends suggested we try the one in the Little Five Points neighborhood because the area is fun and funky. Who are we to argue with fun and funky?

We took a roundabout way to Little Five Points from where we were staying in Cabbagetown, meandering through the streets. We walked past this building several times when we were in Atlanta. It wasn't until the second time I saw it that I realized the windows were meant to represent the eyes.

Personally, I've never been tempted to dumpster dive, but, for those people that are, this is a creative way to tell them to keep out.

We hooked up with the BeltLine and walked along this multi-use trail running through the heart of Atlanta, checking out the art scattered about, as well as people creating art in real-time.

After some confusion about where to get off of the BeltLine (who's to blame is still a matter of some dispute), we made our way over to the Carter Center and walked around the grounds.

Some more walking and then we reached Little Five Points. I love how they painted the side of the post office, welcoming you to the neighborhood.

I wonder how many bouquets of flowers he sells in a day.

Little Five Points is a colorful neighborhood - both in terms of the buildings and the characters walking about.

Does anyone else find this juxtaposition of signs intriguing? The >>Zone 6 Mini Police Precinct<< right next to a >>Medical Cannabis<< store.

At last, we found it - Kimi's Ethiopian Bistro.

It's such a cute little place and the people that work there are lovely.

Here's what happens when they bring our meal to us in an Ethiopian restaurant. We roll up our sleeves (which is important because you eat with your hands) and dive straight in. After a few minutes of stuffing our face, we remember to take a picture.

And this is what you get - a picture of a half eaten plate of doro wat (chicken stew with hard boiled eggs), miser wat (lentil stew) and injera (a spongy flat bread). It might not look like it in the picture, but it was delicious.

Of course, because we live on a sailboat, we couldn't pass up a stop at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club. We had had overpriced beer earlier at a nearby bar which had zero atmosphere, so Scott was particularly excited to see a sign outside the Yacht Club that advertised cheap beer. Oh, yeah, if you haven't figured out by now, it's not so much a yacht club as it is a bar with tons of atmosphere. It was a great way to end the afternoon.

Have you ever been to Atlanta? Have you ever eaten Ethiopian food? Do you like eating with your hands or do you prefer to use utensils? Do you belong to a yacht club?

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27 November 2017

Going For A Crazy Cabbagetown Walk | Atlanta, Georgia, Pt. 2

The title of this blog post might be slightly misleading. It's not exactly about walking in Cabbagetown, although we did walk there. It's about walking around Atlanta with a certain mindset - >>a crazy Cabbagetown mindset<<. It's also about the Cabbagetown spirit that comes into full-force in the face of ex-tropical cyclone weather barrelling across the city.

If you haven't heard of Cabbagetown, it's a funky, quirky little neighborhood in Atlanta, full of interesting and fascinating people. We spent some time there with friends when we fled from Hurricane Irma. You can read more about our crazy Cabbagetown time here.

But enough about that, let's get on with our walk. Which isn't really a single walk as much as it's a compilation of many walks over many days, because, let's be honest, the >>crazy Cabbagetown mindset<< isn't really about keeping track of what day of the week it is.

Here's one of things Cabbagetown is known for - crazy street art.

Story time at a children's bookstore. Yes, that's a drag queen. So worth the walk to see this. Aren't those eyelashes amazing? I wonder if it hurts to take them off.

Proof that actual walking did take place.

I don't think this bike is going anywhere.

We walked to this bar. The good thing about walking is that you don't feel as guilty when you have nachos and some beer.

This is the Sweet Auburn Market. Everything looked so delicious there, but we had eaten so much during our time in Atlanta, we couldn't eat any more. Okay, that's a lie. I'm pretty sure we had pizza of some variety later that night.

Take a close look at this. Notice the cars hanging off of the side of this parking garage? Isn't that insane?

We got stopped by some panhandlers here. Actually, we got stopped by panhandlers lots of places. They see your camera and ask you if you're visiting. I find it helps if you start speaking Hungarian in response. Not that I speak Hungarian, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't know if I was speaking it or not.

My family loves visiting cemeteries. They'd think the Oakland Cemetery is awesome. And it is. Margaret Mitchell is buried there. So is some famous golfer. I didn't have a clue who he was, but Scott did.

It would be wrong to visit Atlanta and not walk up to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. So we did. Such a moving place. Everyone should spend time there.

Now for the non-walking part. The people of Cabbagetown are resilient. In the face of awful weather, they focus on the truly important things, like finding a place to charge their devices and freeze their chicken.

Here's a picture of some of the local residents hanging out in the house we were staying at. It was one of the few places in the neighborhood to have power after the remnants of Hurricane Irma swept through.

Look at all of this chicken! The lady who brought it over to keep it from thawing knows a serious sale on chicken when she sees one. Seeing all of this is giving me a craving for a chicken salad sandwich, preferably curry chicken salad.

Let's stop for a minute and indulge me in a crazy cat lady moment. Look at this cat - isn't he adorable? His name is Deck Star. His human built him a little platform on top of a newspaper box, complete with a food dispenser. And just in case you were confused as to what the platform was all about, the helpful sign on the wall lets you know that >>cat goes here<<.

Deck Star lives near Little's Food Store. The folks at Little's lost power, but they're not the type to cry and whine about all of their meat going bad. No, these people are true Cabbagetownians. A storm and power outage can only mean one thing - a street party. They got out the grills and cooked up amazing burgers, steak and potatoes and passed it out for free. By the way, we walked here.

Scott really got into the swing of things. He bought a couple of 12-packs of beer and started handing them out. I think he may have secretly been running for Mayor of Cabbagetown and trying to buy votes, one can at a time.

It's not a street party without music.

And we'll have to wrap it up here because I need to go for a walk. No, not really. What I really need is to fix myself a snack. All this talk about chicken, burgers and steak is making me a little peckish.

Would you park your car in that crazy parking lot? What's the last walk you went on? What do you have in your freezer?

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