Florida Vacation

I was on vacation for a week in Florida from March 23-27, 2007. I went to Sarasota and Key West.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 50-150K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3-5M). Just under 150 pictures included.

Oscar Scherer State Park

Oscar Scherer State Park is a park near by parents' house. We went there and walked around a bit.

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A sign warning of alligators, a butterfly, and the hiking path through the palm trees.

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My parents, and two shots of a stream from a little footbridge over it.

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Two more shots of the stream.

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My parents, and my parents with me, sitting on a bench.

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Three shots of a pond and the reeds by it, playing with some depth of field.

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Three shots of a fishing pole which was leaning on a bench near the pond.

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Two shots of a palm tree.

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Some Spanish moss growing on a tree.

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More shots of Spanish moss.

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A palm tree, and a pretty flower with a bee in it.

Backyard pets

Some of the animals near the pond by my parents' house.

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Sarasota, FL

A few shots of the Sarasota area, near the Intercoastal Waterway.

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Three shots of a swivel drawbridge, swiveling.

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A bird sitting on the edge of the bridge, a light on top of the drawbridge, and the marina.

Highway 1, en-route to Key West

From Sarasota, I drove across Alligator Alley to Miami, and then down Highway 1 to Key West.

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Three shots of driving down Highway 1 towards Key West.

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More shots of Highway 1, key-hopping, as the sun sets.

Biking around Key West

In Key West, I met up with my friends Moof and Jen. We rented bikes and used that as the primary means of travel around the key. It's not that big, everything is flat, and it's pretty easy to get around.

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Two shots of Jen and Moof, in front of me, figuring out where we are and where we want to be. I was happy to not have to do much navigating.

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We rode to a place behind the Key West airport. The first shot is of the general aviation hangars, and the second is of some weather observing equipment.

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There was an old building used for general storage in that same area by the airport. Two shots of that, plus one of a spider with an odd shape and cool markings, sitting on his web.

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My shadow in the water, and some ripples and small fish visible in the water.

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Three pictures of stuff in the water, kind of coral-y.

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The wind kicked up on the south side of the island, by the beach, blowing the palm trees.

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A shot of the beach, some people on the beach with seagulls nearby, and of the seagulls in the air just hovering because of the strong wind.

Mallory Square at Sunset

We went to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. It's a fairly crowded touristy area.

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A fairl large sailboat passed by at sunset. It looked cool. Two shots of all the people in Mallory Square. Note how many people are taking pictures in the second shot (at least 4).

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Three shots of the view of the water from Mallory Square at sunset.

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Another shot of Mallory Square (notice how the heat from the tiki torches distorts the air above them a bit), and one of the little island (Wisteria Island) that's just next to Key West. the

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Another shot of Wiseria Island, but this time during the day. A cruise ship docked and the Mallory Square area I was at the previous night. The water really is that aqua green color.

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For some reason there were chickens around the area. Fairly colorful too.

Bottle Inn B&B

I stayed at the Frances Street Bottle Inn Bed and Breakfast which was a nice B&B, that was close to the west end of town, but far enough away that it was a quiet area. And the breakfasts were quite good.

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Three shots of the front porch of the Bottle Inn, with me sitting on the porch in the last shot (a self-timed shot).

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The inside kitchen where said breakfast is served.

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The hairdryers carry a warning: Warn children of the risk of death by electric shock. I think I traumatized several I saw, but rules are rules. And a shot of the bedroom.

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A shot of me and Moof and Jen on the porch. And one of the tourist train while sitting on the porch. And a long shot of the Bottle Inn.

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They rent bicycles on site. The one I had had a problem with the light and bell, so they called in Bicycle Repair Man! He came with his weapons van bike and upgraded my bike. No smoke screen or missile though. Oh well.

Cooking with Moof and Frank

Moof and Jen's hotel came equipped with a full kitchen, so Moof and I decided we wanted to cook one night. We want grocery shopping for the main items, and then decided we needed to beg, borrow, or steal a few other things for fun (mostly beg).

The stuff in the hotel was pretty crappy. The knives were sharp enough to cut Moof, but not what we wanted. We bought a coconut so we could use it for sauce for some shrimp. We were able to drain the milk out of it using a corkscrew (which did break). But we knew we had nothing sharp or massive enough to break open the coconut.

So instead, we decided to use physics.

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Their room was on the third floor. So Moof went out to the balcony and I went below to make sure no one was around. Two shots of the view from above, and one from below. Moof dropped the coconut, figuring it would crack when it hit the bricks below.

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We miscalculated slightly. It shattered into many, many little bits. A small number of piece were in big enogh chunks. Most were too small and they flew everywhere. The first shot is of the biggest pieces that remained. The second is Moof after gathering some. And the third is actually chopping and using some of the coconut. Yes, we washed it off.

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Moof made a shrimp, cilantro, tri-colored bell pepers, and stuff saute. I made some yellow rice. We also had a bed of greens to serve it on plus a caprese salad (tomato, basil, and mozarella). The three pictures show it in various stages of construction.

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I made some biscotti (chocolate chip, cranberry, and almond). The parchement paper was obtained from a store by asking the bakery if they had any they could spare, and we got the baking power from the B&B. A few more shots of the table.

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And finally the end result: Shrimp ala Moof!

Key West at Night

After biking back from dinner at Moof and Jen's place, I decided it was such a nice night that I should ride around Key West a bit.

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Two shots of the customs house. I think I was using the curb as a makeshift tripod.

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The Mile 0 marker for Highway 1 is a fairly well known landmark. I took two shots of it. One with a flash, which was blown out since the signs are so reflective, and one with available light, but had to be resting on a flat surface.

Walking around the neighborhood (and flowers)

I walked around the neighborhood by the B&B and took some pictures of houses, flowers, and the like.

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Flowers, flowers, and more flowers.

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A house, some purple flowers, and purple flowers in front of the house.

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Three different houses. The houses tend to have a distincive style, though I don't know how to describe or characterize it.

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The Key West Cemetary is just down the street on Frances Street. I think this is at the corner of Frances and Angela.

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Two shots of the cemetary fence, looking down Frances Street, and one looking down Angela Street.

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An pierce of art in someone's front yard, it's called "Treasure Chest." All the bits are made of pieces of various things. It was kind of neat. And a shot of someone's garden.

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Orange, blue, and red flowers.

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Flowers, flowers, and more flowers.

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Two shots of catcus flowers, and one of some red flowers. No, I don't know much about flowers.

Zachary Taylor Park

The morning of my last day in Key West, we wandered around Zachary Taylor Park.

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The first picture is of the US Navy building (I don't know what is or was in there). The second is of the huge dock in front of the building, and the third are of some big boats in the distanace.

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A shot of a seagull, and a boat in the blue-green water, and one of the road that leads to the Little White House, which was Harry Truman's residence once he retired. We didn't actually go down that road.

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Two shots of looking up at the sky through palm leaves with different exposures.

Miscellaneous Key West—Old town

A few various shots in Key West.

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A shot of a banyan tree, and me in front of, or rather surrounded by, the banyan tree.

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A shot of a very nice house. And one of a not so nice house. The sign says "new price" but doesn't say what it is. Someone told us that it was reduced to merely a million dollars and would require a lot of money to be put into it.

This page last modified Dec 11, 2013.
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