Travalon's Tropical Photos

Here are some pictures Travalon took on our trip. The first couple are of a house? house boat? in Miami, and some sort of beachside building in Miami.

These next photos are from Cuba. First, the lighthouse:

Next is a little lizard we encountered in a courtyard.

Here I am trying to be as colorful as the local ladies!

There is a lot of public art in Havana, like this mosaic.

I love the brightly colored classic cars!

This building in Revolution Square has Che Guevara on it.

Another classic car, this one in sea foam green:

At the Christopher Columbus Cemetery, there were a lot of cool monuments. This one looks a bit like the Il Duomo church in Siena.

There was a grave of a woman believed to be a saint, and the locals knock on her grave and then touch the statue of the baby to make a wish, believing she will grant in. Our tour guide encouraged us to do the same, so here I am touching the baby.

This is a monument to the Cuban Missile Crisis:

More candy-colored classic cars! In three shades of pink!

These are the Legends of Salsa we saw perform. The guy in the newsboy cap looks a bit like my maternal grandfather.

Here the band is performing a Mexican song for the Mexicans in the audience:

This yacht, which was docked next to our cruise ship in Nassau, supposedly belongs to Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

Here are some shots of our harbor tour of Nassau:

This is a baby turtle from the pool at the Atlantis in Nassau:

Here is the lighthouse in Nassau with a yacht behind it:

We were going to eat at this restaurant on the water, but they didn't have conch fritters.

We saw this sailboat from the cruise ship.

And who ever gets sick of pictures of tropical sunsets?

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Rescue Plants and Bucks Game

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I had a quiet Friday evening, just going out for fish at the nearby country club and then getting to bed early. We were still recovering from our trip, and we had to get up early for my band’s annual gig at the MacKenzie Center pancake breakfast the next morning. While Travalon explored the little zoo at the nature center, I played with my bandmates and felt very “on.” While I was playing a Finnish song called “Metsakukkia” (forest flower) that sounds Russian, so I play with tremolo as though my mandolin were a balalaika, I could see a woman and her two young granddaughters looking at pictures of mandolins on a cell phone. “Aha,” I thought, “they are wondering what Mandy is!” Sure enough, when the song was over, they came up and asked me about her. It is so much fun to play an instrument that attracts so much attention. Kathbert says she feels the same way when she plays the great bass recorder – people are so curious about it, because they have never seen anything like it. Poor OK Cap showed up moments after we had quit playing, so then she, Travalon, and I went to the Thirsty Moose for some lunch, and she and I bought tie-dyed shirts. It was a gorgeous day, so Travalon and I went for a walk at Holy Wisdom Monastery, and then when we got home, Hardingfele texted to let me know there were some plants that needed rehoming in her neighborhood. It was a six-foot parlor palm, a six-foot dumb cane, and a fern. I borrowed Travalon’s car and drove over, and on the way I found myself behind a Hummer that had a Punisher sticker on the back window and a license plate that said: “Satan.” I wasn’t too concerned about Satan until he kept making the same turns I did… and then he stopped right in the middle of the road as if he were freaked out by my following him, so I drove around him. Maybe he saw the post on Craig’s List and wanted some free plants. Anyway, the dumb cane got adopted by someone else, which is fine because I already have one, and I drove home with the palm tree next to my head as I listened to reggae. It was like a small reprise of our tropical trip! Travalon is so good-natured: he helped me carry the huge palm upstairs, and he didn’t have much to say about the mess that the tree made despite our attempts to not dump any dirt in the car. In the evening he wanted to watch the Final Four games, so I went to Rich’s house to tell him and Kathbert all about our trip.

Yesterday after Mass we had a leisurely brunch at the Lakeside Café with Rich and another bass from our choir, then Travalon and I drove to Milwaukee. Our first stop was the Early Music Now office, where I did buy that lute guitar that didn’t sell at the silent auction, as well as a contraption to water up to ten plants while on vacation. All the money goes to Early Music Now, and I got a way better price than they wanted for the opening bid at the silent auction. Then we had some pizza before going to a Bucks game. Travalon found 14^th row seats for a very good price, maybe because this game was considered unimportant: the Atlanta Hawks are not a particularly good team, and the Bucks have already clinched a playoff berth. In fact, the Bucks did play a lot of bench warmers, so then the game was getting unnervingly close, but Giannis went in at the end and got a three-pointer that had everyone hollering: “MVP! MVP!” It was almost a religious experience. He also won an award for being the top European basketball player of 2018, since he is from Greece (and originally Nigeria). He is just the greatest! I just love watching him play. He looks like he is having so much fun when he dunks a ball and then dangles from the rim of the basket, or when he steals the ball from the other team and is all the way down the court before they even realize it. Travalon was very happy because there was a giant bobble-head of his childhood hero, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, so I took a picture of him with it. He said I could post it on this blog, so look for that at some point in the future. And yes, the Bucks won - the first time they have won 60 in a season since 1981!

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I Am a (Poetry) Winner!

I will post some more photos soon, but I just wanted to share some exciting news: one of the poems I submitted into our city bus company's poetry contest was chosen! This means it will be artistically rendered and printed on the sides of buses or at a bus stop. The theme was places in Madison, and I am probably not allowed to share the winning poem just yet, but here are the other two I submitted (you were allowed to submit three):

Floating on Starkweather Creek

We gaze at the golden reflection

Of the Olbrich Thai Pavilion.

Every morning on the bus we pass Castle Place,

Then as we continue and the sun rises a bit further,

It guilds the remnants of the castle fashioned into another house.

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The Long Trip North

Travalon and I are back home, and we suffered through a day of work after getting in at 11:45 last night. Tuesday we drove along the Florida Panhandle, through the hurricane destruction in Mexico Beach and the crazy tourists in Panama City Beach, which Travalon calls the "Redneck Riviera." We went for a walk along the beach at Grayton State Park, with the beautiful sugar-white sand and the blue and green Gulf of Mexico. We had lunch outside at the Grayton Brewery - delicious beer! Then we took more of a back road through Alabama, and we passed a place selling old gas station signs. Only after Travalon had paid for the top lamp from an old Sinclair gas pump did the proprietor drawl, "Y'all gone vote for Trump agin?" How to reply to that? It's not like we voted for him before. I lied and said, "That's a long time from now - I haven't really thought about it," since I wasn't in any mood to get in a political argument with some random redneck. He seemed pleased with that answer, like he thought I shouldn't trouble my pretty little head with such issues. Heck, he probably wishes women still couldn't vote. Then we got on the road again and drove, playing a game where Travalon got a point for gun shops or pawn shops, and I got a point for every Baptist church we passed. I am pleased to report that I won by a lot; Alabama loves God more than guns. After dark we got to Birmingham and drove to the Vulcan statue, from which you can get a great view of the city. I took some fabulous pictures with my real camera and will post them at some point. However, I was too terrified to go out on the observation deck - the floor was grating, so you could see straight down! We ended up having dinner just before midnight at a Waffle House in Columbia, Tennessee.

Yesterday we had lunch at a Backyard Burger in Paducah, Kentucky, and they have a really good black bean burger. We stopped for a hike around a lake in Ferne Clyff State Park in southern Illinois, then we drove forever and I got points for license plates west of the Mississippi while Travalon got points for Casey's General Stores and mileage signs to Chicago. At first I was ahead, but after dark I couldn't see license plates anymore, and he ended up winning by nine points. Just about the time twilight was falling, we stopped at Ma Hat's Alma Mater of Illinois State University and explored the campus briefly. Illinois is a very long state, so we didn't get back to Wisconsin until after 11.

Here are some pictures from our northern road trip. First are a couple of pictures from Grayton Beach.

Here is the old gas pump lamp Travalon bought.

Here are a couple of pictures from Ferne Clyff State Park:

Here are some shots from Illinois State University. The first picture is the music building. I'm not sure what all the other ones are.

This is some sort of power plant thing that looked really creepy at night. It might have been the nuclear power plant; we aren't sure.

And finally, a short video of the light show on the Vulcan statue in Birmingham.

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The Real Florida

Sorry that I didn't blog yesterday - we were exhausted by the time we got here to Apalachicola, and we just went to bed. Then this morning the alarm went off at 6; once before this happened to Tiffy and me, only it was 5, so you'd think I would remember to always check alarms in hotels. The one we are staying at is a charming bed and breakfast that is 112 years old, not a chain hotel like usual. (Forgot to mention that our hotel the night before, which was a Holiday Inn Express, had a wonderful heated outdoor pool.) Anyway, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I am blogging in the bathroom in order to not wake up Travalon, who just rolled over and dozed right off after the alarm clock debacle.

Travalon said he wanted to show me the real Florida, not the touristy part most people see. Our first stop yesterday was Homosassa Springs, where you either take a tram or a boat to the main part of the park. Unfortunately, because it was raining, the boats weren't running so we had to take the tram. Fortunately since it had been raining in Nassau when we first got off the boat, Norwegian Cruise Lines gave us cheap, commemorative rain ponchos, so we had those with us to use again yesterday. The rain didn't keep the animals away; the park has sort of a zoo full of rehabilitated local wildlife that can't be released back into the wild, and a hippo who was part of the exotic animal park when Homosassa Springs was privately owned. Now it is a Florida State Park. I really loved all the birds, but the coolest part was a viewing room under water, where you could see all the fish that gather at the natural spring, where the salt and fresh waters meet. And then they threw some lettuce into the water, and the three female manatees showed up. They are such cool animals!

Our next stop was Cedar Key, a small island in the Gulf of Mexico, where we had a delicious lunch of steamed clams and fried oysters, all locally caught. The restaurant, 86 West, is right on the water, and we watched pelicans flying around as we dined. I had wanted to get some Spanish moss to replace the stuff I got on the Gainesville campus last year, which according to my plant sitter Kathbert has finally completely died (I now know what I was doing wrong), but they had tons at the state park where you can't take it, and none on Cedar Key... until we passed the Catholic  church. So now I have Catholic Spanish moss!

Our third stop was Manatee Springs State Park. Unlike in Wisconsin, where we have a standard price for all the state parks, and an annual pass to get into any one an unlimited number of times, in Florida the pricing seems quite random, and this one was half the price of Homosassa Springs. It does boast a warm spring that keeps the water at a comfortable 72 F all year (but we didn't swim since the air was much cooler than that yesterday), and a long boardwalk over a mangrove swamp to the Suwannee River. You can sometimes see manatees there, but all we saw were a whole bunch of vultures gathered in one moss-covered tree. According to Travalon, who has been to this park several times, those vultures are always in that tree.

Here are a few pictures. First are some shots of Homsassa Springs.

sign at the entrance of the park

 spoonbills

 snowy egret

 flamingos

 fish as seen from the underwater "fishbowl"

 manatee as seen from underwater

 two manatees eating lettuce

Next are a photo of our view during lunch on Cedar Key, the mermaid image on the women's bathroom door at 86 West, and a shot down the street where it is located.

Finally, two shots from Manatee Springs: a view of the mangrove swamp, and one of the large trees covered in moss on the banks of the Suwannee River (but not the one full of vultures). (My cell phone couldn't zoom in enough, but Travalon got a shot of it that I will share at some point.)

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Lion Country Safari

Today we got up early and left the ship, which was a surprisingly smooth process. We were planning to go to Mass at 11 at a church called St. Patrick's in South Beach, Miami; however, the process was so seamless that we got there in time for the 9:30 Mass. They had a very good choir, and they sang a beautiful "Kyrie," but there was a weird moment when a baby was crying (as they do) and some woman yelled, "It's OK to take it out!" right in the middle of the homily. It's easier to forgive the baby than to forgive her for interrupting the priest...

Our next stop was Lion Country Safari, since Travalon had always wanted to see it, and it did not disappoint. We drove slowly through a wildlife park filled with lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, and all sorts of exotic antelopes. Then we parked and wandered through the second part of the park, admiring fish and smaller animals, especially an aviary full of colorful lorikeets. We really enjoyed it and took tons of photos.

We got back on the Florida Turnpike and entertained ourselves in a very 21st Century fashion: by my googling things while Travalon drove. I wanted a royal palm, and did you know you can order five seeds for $4.49 online? Then we passed a marina with inflatable quonset huts, and I wondered if you could buy those online too. Sure enough, you can. Travalon made me laugh till I cried when he said we could get one and inflate it at Rich's house if we ran out of things to talk about. Now we are just outside of Inverness... Florida, not Scotland. However, I do have my red plaid hat from Inverness, Scotland along with me. I don't need it now - I'm using Famous Hat's replacement - but soon enough we will be back north and I will need it once again.

Here are some photos from today. First are some colorful buildings in Miami.

Next are the interior of St. Patrick's, the parish building across the street, and the outside of the church:

Here are a bunch of shots from our safari:

 zebras

 young giraffe

 orange fish

 hornbills

 ti plants (like my little one at work, only pink)

 flamingos

 lorikeets

 ibises

 ibis and some sort of coot...?

gars that look like little alligators

I am going to try to upload the photos from our cameras, so stand by for that blog post.

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