Tag Archives: Travel

Big A$$ Yachts

March 5, 2020 Tom Dills 5 Comments

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St Thomas, USVI

One of the things I enjoy while cruising is checking out the huge yachts that appear in Caribbean ports. They can be seen year-around, but mostly during the winter when it’s too cold for the French Riviera or Monaco, I guess. They seem to gravitate toward St. Thomas, St. Martin and San Juan, probably because they have harbors and marinas large enough to handle ships their size, and airports to handle the private jets of the owners. My understanding is that the owners don’t actually sail on them, they just have crew to take the ship to whatever port they wish to sail from, then the owners hop in on the private jet for a long weekend or a week.

Here are two of the notable spottings from our recent cruise.

Yacht “Eclipse” in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

From Wikipedia: M/Y Eclipse is a superyacht built by Blohm+Voss of Hamburg, Germany. Her exterior and interior were designed by Terence Disdale. The yacht was delivered to Russian businessman Roman Abramovich on 9 December 2010. At 162.5 metres (533 ft 2 in) long Eclipse was the world’s largest private yacht until the Azzam was launched in April 2013, which was 17.3 metres (56 ft 9 in) longer. The yacht’s cost has been estimated at €340 million. (Note: the Carnival ship we were on was 306 meters or 1004 feet long, but carried 4000 passengers and 1400 crew!)

From Wikipedia: The 80m Excellence yacht was built in 2019 by Abeking & Rasmussen. She features an exterior design by Winch and an interior by Winch. She cruises at 14 knots and reaches a top speed of 17.0 kn. She can sleep up to 14 guests taken care of by a crew of 20.

Oh, and while not exactly a superyacht, a properly-equipped catamaran is always a pleasant sight. 🙂

Travel

Optimistic or Determined?

March 3, 2020 Tom Dills

Cormorant trying to swallow a fish, in Everglades National Park

We never actually saw whether he met with success or not, but this guy was definitely working hard to get his dinner down the hatch!

Travel

An Unexpected Place

March 1, 2020 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Nike Missile Base Historic Area in Everglades National Park, Florida

When Kathy & I were looking over information about the Everglades, we had noticed several references to a Nike Missile base located within the park. There wasn’t a lot information online, but once we got there we saw signs directing us toward the location and indicating that there were “open house” hours daily. So we decided to check it out.

As it turns out, there had been three Nike sites located within the Everglades as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the close-the-barn-door approach that was taken after the fact. There are several abandoned bunkers that are inaccessible due to asbestos contamination, an unused hanger and one that houses an actual but de-fused Nike missile.

It was an interesting side trip on an otherwise nature-oriented visit, but it was something unexpected in an otherwise natural habitat.

“Don’t worry, those signs aren’t enforced on Mondays.” We were there on a Monday. Whew!

Travel

Slowly But Surely

February 29, 2020 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Early morning enroute to San Juan, Puerto Rico aboard Carnival Breeze

Kathy & I returned to home base this past Monday, and I’m currently halfway through the nearly 4,000 photos from our month-long adventure. I’ll be posting galleries to my Adobe Portfolio site (keep checking for updates!) and expect to have some more stories to tell here on the blog in the near future. Hang in there – I’m working on it! 😉

Travel

The Land Where The Palm Trees Grow *

February 9, 2020 Tom Dills 2 Comments

Palm tree nurseries near Homestead, Florida

I suppose if I had thought about it I would have realized that somewhere on this planet had to be a place that had palm tree nurseries. Today we found them!

Kathy & I are in south Florida and decided to head out to Biscayne National Park near Homestead. On our way there and back we passed dozens of palm tree nurseries, covering thousands of acres or more. I shot a few examples of them on the way, but it was amazing to see the sheer number of palm trees – of all sizes and types – being grown all in one place!

* Some sources suggest that the original song lyrics are “the land where the bong tree grows,” but this is the version I remember – from “The Owl & The Pussycat”

Travel

Itchy Feet

January 21, 2020 Tom Dills 4 Comments

Blackbeards Castle, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

We’ve been home long enough. It’s getting cold here (by NC standards – sorry Monte and Jeff!) so we’re preparing to depart for warmer climes for a few weeks of “cruise ship hopping” and exploring the Everglades. I hope to post periodic “postcards” from our travels. Stay warm!

Random Thoughts

Timing Is Everything

January 17, 2020 Tom Dills 2 Comments

Port Royal Boardwalk and Observation Tower, Port Royal, South Carolina

Photography

Tilting At Windmills

January 2, 2020 Tom Dills 2 Comments

Wind generators off US 36 near SW Lakesite Road near Osborn, Missouri

From Wikipedia: “Tilting at windmills is an English idiom that means attacking imaginary enemies. The expression is derived from Don Quixote, and the word “tilt” in this context comes from jousting.

The phrase is sometimes used to describe either confrontations where adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic justifications. It may also connote an importune, unfounded, and vain effort against adversaries real or imagined.”

Here in the east we don’t have many, if any, opportunities to see wind turbines in the huge farms like they have out west. There are a few in eastern North Carolina and I’m sure more in other locations, but I haven’t come across them in the numbers that we encountered out west. I had seen photos of wind farms in the west, but seeing them in person made an even greater impression.

Seven Mile Wind Farm near Medicine Bow, Wyoming

Wind turbines are not without controversy, certainly, but I find them to have a graceful beauty, spinning like a dancer in slow motion. I don’t profess to be an expert on wind turbines or any other methods of producing electricity. But as someone living within 20 miles (technically 20.5 miles) of two nuclear plants, two coal plants and a few other types, I think I would rather see a few dozen (or hundred) wind mills on my horizon than the steam plumes from the cooling towers of nuclear plants. They may not work here or make sense for an area as densely populated as Charlotte, but I see turbines as a viable alternative for producing electricity, particularly in rural areas such as Nebraska, the Dakotas and Wyoming where constant wind is a fact of life.

We were fortunate enough to come across a few sites at times when it was conducive to making photographs, and I hope I’ve done a reasonable job of presenting them.

Wind farm along US-487 south of Casper, Wyoming

Photography

Been There, Done That. Let’s Do It Again!

January 1, 2020 Tom Dills 4 Comments

I know this may seem like boasting, but Kathy & I had a very good year. Kathy is the recordkeeper and spreadsheet queen around here, and by her count we were away from home for 125 nights during 2019. The two questions we get asked most often by friends and neighbors are “how long are you home for?” and “where are you off to next?” We love it!

Train station in Landrum, South Carolina

Yes, it has cost us some money, possibly more than our financial advisor thinks is prudent. But I’m the financial guy and manage the flow of funds, and with the good year the markets have had I feel confident that we’ve done the right thing. We didn’t retire to sit home and watch Jeopardy or Faux News. We retired to spend time together and see the world.

So – no apologies.

Highlights of the past year:

4 cruises for a total of 43 days
Added 18 new states, for a total of 32
Over 19,000 photos
Almost 20,000 car miles

I admit that traveling over a third of the year might be overdoing it. I suppose the reaction (or over-reaction) to retirement is normal and to be expected. But having the time to do anything we want means we want to do everything! Frankly, the biggest challenge has been keeping our weight under control because of all the eating out. We essentially broke even for the year, which should probably be considered a win. But we’re always looking for ways to manage that, since being able to sustain that amount of travel requires being healthy, and one of the best ways to be healthy is to maintain healthy eating and exercise routines while away from home. We do great at home, but find old habits hard to break when we’re away.

So, what’s in store for 2020? We’ve got a few weeks scheduled in Florida in February, where we’re going to go “cruise ship hopping” and spend some time near the Everglades. Sometime in April we’re going to head toward the Southwest to bag a few more states and explore Route 66. We’ll be celebrating our 40^th anniversary in October with a – what else? – cruise. But there are a lot of empty spaces on the calendar which we’ll be filling in as we get closer. The year is young!

Cherry Pocket Steak & Seafood Shak in Lake Wales, Florida

I’ve included a few of my favorite photos from 2019 in this post, and as I’ve been doing lately, I have added some more galleries to my Adobe Portfolio site. This should cover most of the highlights from the year. So stay tuned! I think 2020 will turn out to be another interesting year.

Bike rack shadows in Virginia Beach, Virginia

Dale Chihuly glass ceiling in the tasting room at Maker’s Mark Distillery

Indian River Inlet Lifesaving Station Museum, Rehoboth Beach, DE

Travel

Views of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

December 27, 2019 Tom Dills 4 Comments

El Cuartel de Ballaja (The Ballaja Infantry Barracks Building)

I never get tired of walking around Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kathy & I spent two days there prior to our recent cruise on Celebrity Summit. Every time we go I photograph things I have seen before, plus there is always something new to find. For this visit, we concentrated on the two forts, Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro, both part of the San Juan National Historic Site and managed by the U.S. National Park Service. So we were able to use our newly-acquired lifetime pass for admission and gather the appropriate stamps in Kathy’s Passport book. And of course we managed to wander around town a bit.

As I have been doing, I have posted a more complete collection of my photos from Old San Juan on my Adobe Portfolio site, with just a sample of some of the more “artsy” photos here. Take a look and tell me what you think!