Car Show, Sunset

An antique car show on the pristine lawns of Rosemary Beach: what could possibly be more interesting?  That's what I thought over the last few years, but this show was always scheduled after we left for the frozen north.  This year, the show was scheduled for the last Saturday in March and I've been looking forward to it since we arrived in Panama City Beach.

Sometimes, I expect too much...  Saturday was a wash-out, ... literally!  It rained quite hard most of the day so the antique car show was moved to Sunday.  Maybe it was because it was a rain-date, or maybe it's just the local norm; a real antique car show it wasn't.  A one year old souped up Miata, a few hot rods, and some older cars does not an antique car show make.  Whatever, there were a few interesting cars there.  

The first four pictures are of two cars owned by one collector: a 1937 and a 1936 Ford four-door convertible.  These were both intelligent restorations; not better restored  than originally built.  These cars are driven and are definitely not 'trailer queens'. 

This next car is a 1936 [?] Packard Super Eight wearing a 20 year old re-paint.  It's never been fully restored, just continuously maintained, with the occasional paint, roof, or other replacement.  As an aside, the owner's wife [long suffering?] was sitting in the back seat reading a book.  When people noticed her, he just said: That's Miss Daisy"...  How appropriate, but I digress. 

The twenty year old paint job still had some shine!

While we're here in the Florida Panhandle, I've been eating a fair bit of shrimp.  Most of it is local [mainly from the Apalachicola area].  Yesterday, we went to the Panama City docks area for lunch and I made this photo of the fresh shrimp stand complete with the shrimpers backdrop.  How fresh is that?

Last night was to be the end of sunshine for the next few days...  Couldn't pass up the occasion to shoot the sunset. 

So now it's pack everything up [well done by Joan] and jam it all into car [my job].  Serious rain is expected this afternoon and we're meeting Jan for supper at Carrabba's Italian Grill, a newly discovered favorite [chain of excellent Italian food].  There's more rain expected for tomorrow [Wednesday] but our lease is up so we'll just hit the road northward.  I'll try to post updates of our return journey as occasion permits.  Thanks for caring.

Clouds and Silver Linings

Weather warnings; Small craft warning; High tide warnings; Tornado Watch; Violent thunderstorms warning; and finally, but not the least: double red flags at the beach.  It was starting to look like a good day to work on a puzzle...  Instead, we hurried to the beach for a quick walk and 'look-see' before the heavy rains started.

The sky was mean, the wind stiff, the breaking waves gorgeous.  Then in the distance, Joan spotted the distinctive parachutes that some surfers use.  No camera in hand, so I turned back to get it.  By then my glasses were covered with salt and I could barely see anyway so Joan marched on, upwind, and I went back for the camera and car...

When I got back to the park, the only people in the water were surfers and these para-surfers.  Everyone wore a wet-suit and the water was very rough.  The para-surfers wear a heavy duty harness that hitches them to their parachute and they also have a grab handle that seems to give them some measure of control over the huge kite-like sail they use.  Their speed is simply phenomenal! ... and it's a very exiting scene to watch and photograph.  By the time I had got there, two or three para-surfers had already left, probably exhausted but one remained for quite a while longer and I had a good chance to shoot him before the skies broke.  

The first picture gives you an idea of just how small people can look when the sea gets angry.

Somehow, it ends up looking pretty graceful also.

As the surfers tack to and from the beach, they often do spectacular jumps off the incoming waves.  Here's one just taking off.

The parachute just keeps pulling them upwards.  This next guy is already up a good 20 feet, and still rising.

I was standing on a platform that was about 30 feet above the water, and this guy managed to get well above the horizon line, probably over 60 feet above the water.  

At this point, the surfer looses the forward momentum that he had built up, and starts being pulled downwind by the para-sail.  This happens quite quickly but as he follows the sail, the sail loses its power and gravity slowly pulls the surfer back to the water.  The re-entry is very graceful and quite slow and of the dozen or more re-entries that I've witnessed, I've yet to see a fall, it's that gentle! 

The next picture shows the athlete just riding the top of a large wave.  He has enough control to catch up to waves when he wants to!

Here's a close-up o him approaching the beach.  Notice the harness and hand-bar.

This guy came screaming towards the beach only to quite suddenly make a 'u-turn' and head right back out.  In this next picture, he's just doing his u-turn and you can still see his inward track just behind the wave that  just broke.  Now that's what I call a sharp u-turn!  ... and at very high speed too!

Here's another jump.

... and now the landing.  Note that the lines to his sail are almost directly above him; he's literally just suspended by his sail.  This one was a very gentle landing, some area little less so.

Here he is just teasing the curl of a breaking wave, what fun!

For the month that we've been here, we've noticed that the pelicans aren't around much, and we missed them.  Today, with the high winds, the pelicans were either standing around, much like these guys, or they were soaring around the high-rises, looking for up-drafts.  I would have liked to shoot a few soaring pelicans but the rains had started, and it was lunch time...  Decision, decisions, 

The rains came and flooded the streets, the wind tried to push things around, the lightning and thunder made their appearance, and now all's well with the world: no tornadoes for this trailer park today, and Joan had another happy birthday on wednesday.

We expect to head back North on April 1, and will try to have some news for the blog on our way home.  Thanks for caring.

Edward Ball Wakulla Spring SP

On Sunday, we went for a long drive down #98 to the Edward Ball estate in Wakulla county.  This State Park has a wonderful boat ride on the short Wakulla river.  This short seven mile river is spring fed and is thought to be fed by the biggest spring in the world.  Anyhow, the water is very clear and it supports a lot of wildlife, like alligators, ducks and other water birds and the usual suspects found in wild areas.  This river has never been used for commercial purposes and is considered the last wild river in Florida.  The first picture is of an alligator just swimming along our boat, well camouflaged by the water weeds along the shore.

The next picture is a close-up of a different alligator in the more prevalent clear waters.

At mid day, alligators are usually found basking in the warm sun; this smaller one is sharing  log with  couple of turtles.

If you look closely, there's an osprey sitting on the side of his nest high atop this cypress tree [which is covered in spanish moss].  [double-click on image to see larger version]

Here's a shot of two Egrets, in full breeding plumage.

Here is a shot of a pair of wood ducks.

Next is a picture of spider lilies, which are white, huge, and just beautiful.

There's a brown water-snake hiding in the next picture.

Here's a shot of an anhinga, closely related to the cormorants that we have back home.

The anhinga is usually drying off its wings [much like the cormorant] and it's unusual to shoot its back with the wings closed.

Before the boat ride, we had lunch in this elegant old dining room, which is part of the small lodge that Edward Ball gave to the state of Florida.

Checkers anyone?

An adventure

On Thursday, we went off for an adventure to Shell Island, part of the St Andrews State Park, next door.  Our friends Len and Judy Churchward, from our boating days, are staying with us for the next few days and Jan joined us for the fifteen minute pontoon boat ride to the island.  The first picture is of the group in serious discussion while waiting for more passengers to arrive.  As usual, there will be laughter!

Good friends, warm sun and a great beach!  What's not to like?

 

We walked the beach with this palm tree as a target, so we had to touch it right?

The ferry leaves land on the hour, and the island on the half hour.  Our timing was decided by the almost brutal sunshine and we felt that an hour and a half at mid-day was more than enough, so here we are walking back.  The shelling was reasonable if you don't expect undamaged shells...  Check out Judy's bag...

Friday, we drove into Eden State Park for a quick visit before lunch.  The azaleas are doing their thing while the majestic Virginia Live Oaks look on.

 

Question:  If the sunset occurs while nobody is there to watch, is it still in colour?

If you sit and stare for a while, can you photograph a daydream?

 "Yes you can!" 

Week in Review

Hard to imagine that a week could whiz by so quickly; my guess is that I just have to get used to it...

These first three pictures were taken a couple of days after the prescribed burn in the State Park next door.  It's a pretty ugly [oxymoron alert!] sight and it didn't smell much better either.

In another couple of years, the vegetation will have grown enough that the Park staff  will be considering to do another prescribed burn, and the burn / re-growth process will start all over again.

Over the last ten years, we've watched this 'private house' [the Hilton residence] being built near Rosemary Beach.  It's still quite a way from being finished and they've started building a garage-cum-coach house that will be equally exciting.  The architect is Arthur Dyson and if you go to his web-site, you'll see early construction pictures and a great description of the anticipated interior.  It's not a small house at 9500 square feet!  The garage [guest house] would seem large to most of us, and it's not included on the Dyson web site.

The first of two pictures is from the water side of the house.  I'm sure that with overhangs like that, they'll be able to stay dry on the balcony while watching a hurricane!

The next picture is the view from the #30A highway and those turquoise pipes are conduits for water, electricity and sewers for houses that may be built in the future.  The white wall is a very permanent concrete wall around the Hilton residence [he's a concrete contractor].

The Hilton house generates a lot of comment locally, some good some bad.  I imagine these next two pictures could generate comments too...  It really proves that there's no accounting for taste, or better still, that good taste seems to be in short supply.

The next picture includes  the backs of four houses [in a 'development' of 20 such houses] and what you're seeing is the balcony over the parking spot of each house.  Each house is a popular local colour.

Bad enough to find a small housing development using questionable colour sense, but when a very large 1/4 mile square shopping mall follows suit, this is what you get...

On a calmer note, this morning's fog supplied some interesting light for a little while.  The next shot is of the southern view at the lagoon side of our development. 

This next shot is of the small boat harbour attached to our development.  The strip of boats on the left belong to a separate commercial marina.

With the fog quickly lifting, I went over to the gulf side and this little fiddler-crab [sand crab] and me frightened each other [but that's another story].

The little guy was ready to defend his turf and I was quite willing to avoid his bite, so we parted friends.  Just a few feet farther along the beach, the beach chair and umbrella merchants have set up for the 'Spring Breakers' which really is the start of the busy season around here.

The weather's now as it should be; we've lots to do; what more could we ask for?  Carpe Diem!