Bird of the Day - Osprey Finds Dinner

Osprey with Dinner

It happened so quickly as we arrived at the beach Sunday afternoon for some enjoyment and Happy Hour. We saw the osprey soaring low over head, right above us and were awed by its appearance. Quickly, as the camera was being taken out of its bag and set to snap some great shots of the bird overhead, it dove to the water and surfaced with a fish--a good sized fish.

It was awesome!

Osprey in the Water after Dive

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Monday Musings - July 22, 2013

1. During this week in 1969, two men from the United States became the first humans to set foot on the moon. Sadly, that is a feat we cannot replicate today. The U.S. is no longer capable of putting men into space, let alone sending them to the moon and returning them safely. How far we have fallen!

2. When you take a new car to the beach, the beach always remains in the new car afterwards. Your should see out new Highlander--and we have vacuumed it religiously.

3. Sunny afternoons and happy hour on the sandy beaches--what could be better?

4. When vacations end, they become fond memories of what could have been.

5. I continue to be amazed at the reaction to the Zimmerman verdict--it seems that some people in America would prefer vigilante justice to the rule of law and juries. Just because we may not agree with the verdict does not mean that the finding was wrong.

6. I saw the movie Red 2 -- Liked it a lot. Review coming later in the week.

7. What if you survived the crash of an airplane, but were subsequently killed by a first responder fire truck? That is just tragic.

8. Where is the happiest place on Earth? Some say Disney. I'll let you know, later in the week.

-- Bob Doan, writing form Jupiter, FL

Bird of the Day - Egret View 2

What are you looking at?

I know I have already offered an image of an egret as the bird of the day, but I just love the way this one was captured, looking at me as I snapped its image almost as if to say "What are you looking at?"

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the egret hunt the tidal pools at low tide and occasionally find some morsel as a meal.

-- Bob Doan, Writing from Jupiter, FL

From Beach to Turtle Center

Ethan and Jax Scouring the Shore for Treasure

What can I say about another day on vacation in Florida with the sun, the clouds, the passing rain storms and the excitement of life along the Atlantic Ocean? I love it!

Yesterday began with another beach experience. We rescued our second loggerhead turtle hatchling in two days, making four distressed hatchlings for the trip. This one required the assistance of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center as it was on the beach, exhausted and not able to swim strongly enough to overcome the waves crashing onto the beach.

Loggerhead Turtle Hatchling on the Beach

The good news is that we took it to the center where it will be allowed to recover and then released. The bad news is that it abruptly ended the beach experience for the day. But the entire family got into the idea of rescuing the small turtle which clearly was not going to make it on its own.

Nearly Full Grown Loggerhead Turtle at the Turtle Center

Although initially we just dropped the young turtle off to the welcoming staff, we did return to the Center later in the day to get more educated about turtles and their rescue efforts. We got to see nearly full grown loggerhead turtles recovering from injuries and many juvenile green turtles also recovering from illness. It seems that power station water exhaust channels are especially dangerous for turtles as that is where many of the ones recovering in the center were found.

Jax and Ethan received certificates for rescuing the small, helpless loggerhead hatchling. Upon examination, the turtle appeared to have suffered injuries during a probable scuffle with a predator. Hopefully, the small turtle they rescued will be one of the lucky ones who did not become a meal or escape only to die on the beach and will grow to become an adult turtle.

Just another great day in Florida!!

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Bird of the Day -- Black Backed Gull

Gull Along the Beach

This image was taken by Chris of a gull flying along the shore the other day. It is fun to try to catch birds in flight.

I still wish that I could fly--like a bird or a bat.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Turning it up a Notch

Ethan and Jackson Discovering a Nine-Legged Starfish

The arrival of grandsons to coincide with the start of my last week of vacation has been like adding spice to a recipe. Days on the beach have taken on added dimensions as the discoveries of turtles, yes we found another loggerhead turtle hatchling yesterday, shells, ghost crabs, and even a nine armed starfish have sparked questions and generated enthusiasm.

Ethan Getting Air

Watching Ethan try to get as much air a possible while jumping off a sand dune into the ocean kept my attention much longer than watching a ghost crab try to determine whether I was watching it or not--I was, by the way watching it. It was fun to see them having fun. Much like the missing ingredient in a recipe.

The day was beautiful--for the first day in over a week there was no rain and the temperatures remained mild. There were two separate trips to the beach--while visiting three beaches provided hours of enjoyment and discovery.

There was also a snorkeling expedition into the calm waters of the inter-coastal  to familiarize everyone with their gear in non-swimming pool conditions.

Jax and Ethan Heading out to Boogie

But there was also a boogie boarding for some fun in the not so huge afternoon waves.

But the best part of all of it? It was Friday and I wasn't at work! On top of that, it was a great transition into my last week of vacation.

Whoo hoo!

Did I mention Happy Hour on the beach? It's always five o'clock somewhere, right?

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Bird of the Day - Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone on Jupiter Island Beach

Found this bird on the beach yesterday. It is a fairly common looking bird, but I haven't seen one before. It is also more commonly known as a sandpiper. OK, Chris won that one after I found the real name.

I have not seen many of these birds on the beaches we frequent here in Jupiter and so it was worthy of a few pictures.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Endless Summer Vineyard and Winery -- Review

Endless Summer Vineyard and Winery Entrance

Yes, I found a winery in Florida that actually grows grapes and makes wine. That, of course, deserved a visit to check out the wines and help drive away the blues of a rainy day.

The Endless Summer Vineyard and Winery in Fort Pierce, Florida is roughly a 45 minute drive from Jupiter. The winery is just a short two miles off the interstate and has a nice tasting room adorned with a beach theme. The winery is striving to develop serious Florida wines that will appeal to many people.

Palms and Grapes

Entering the tasting room provides a great introduction to the winery. Surf boards and beach items adorn the walls. We were met be a very nice and wine savvy hostess who helped us to understand the wines and the grapes used to make the wine for this vineyard. The tasting room has been open for only a year and the vines are only four years old--so they are using juice from other vineyards to make their wine. But, next year they are expecting to produce  their first home grown vintage.

The winery provided my first introduction to the muscadine grape, which is the only one that will grow in this part of Florida. I was amazed to find that there are over 300 varieties of muscadine grape. The grape is very light and sweet. I found that it smells a lot like the niagara grape grown in upstate NY. Likewise, the wines made from this grape smell like grapes and not berries like those made from the other wine making grapes. The grape nose is in every wine that the winery offered. Some of the wines are blended with merlot and chardonnay sourced from, of all places, Arkansas. One wine blended with a mango wine.

Endless Summer Vineyards

The wines that Endless Summer wines have very creative names: I found Marlin Monroe and Rated Arrr to be the best. All of the wines are on the sweeter side and all have the pronounced grape nose. These wines are good for drinking around the pool. This winery represents the furthest south in Florida that grapes are grown for the purpose of making wines. There is another winery further south, but they do not make wine from grapes.

Driving by the vineyards, it is clear the the vines are very young--but that does not dampen my enthusiasm for this winery. I am very impressed with the location, the concept, and the idea that they are going to produce the best possible wines from the grapes they can grow.

RECOMMENDATION: A must visit if you are in this part of Florida. The whites are the best and the reds are light, summery offerings.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

Bird of the Day - Egret on the Beach

Egret, probable juvenile

Chris and I have been taking many, many, many (read over three hundred) pictures of birds while on vacation.

So we have decided to publish a few of the better ones--OK, we are getting one better one per 300 images taken. Thank goodness for digital imagery!

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL

The Lone Ranger - A Review

I had the opportunity to view The Lone Ranger the other day.

Despite the poor attendance and dismal reviews, I liked this movie. It was far deeper and more complex than I imagined it would be. The interaction between Johnny Depp (the Ranger) and Armie Hammer (Tonto) was complex, funny and serious.

The story is set in the late 1800's but told as a narrative by Tonto to a young boy named Will during a fair in San Francisco during the 1930's. This narrative setting worked well and Johnny Depp's portrayal of Tonto is fantastic. The story is about how the Lone Ranger came to be "Lone" and I admit that I never knew the back story behind the larger than life hero portrayed by Clayton Moore for so many years on television. The relationship between The Lone Ranger and Tonto was an portrayed in the movie uneasy one which developed over time. I had expected a campy, corny, fun movie and saw instead movie about genocide, treachery, murder, and human trafficking to in the pursuit of greed and fortune. There are many very difficult scenes to watch in the movie which, in retrospect, I am not sure really needed to be part of the plot or story line.

The movie is a serious endeavor with humor often juxtaposed to help the audience overcome the depth of the tragedy just witnessed. The plot if deep with many twists and turns. The acting is very good, although there are no Oscar worthy performances. The villains are villainous, and the heroes are larger than life. I especially enjoyed the antics of the white horse--which eventually was named Silver in keeping with the history of the story. At one point Tonto utters that there is something not quite right about that horse. It is fun to watch the horse. It was also fun to watch the interplay between Depp and Hammer--they reminded me of the the interaction between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes. I admit though, for the closing scenes hearing the familiar Lone Ranger Theme (William Tell Overture) was a blast from the past and provided the spectacular movie ending that I had come in search of--but it remained a serious ending to a difficult movie because of its tough and often graphic reality.

I read a fair and even review of the movie that carefully lays out the positives and negatives of the film in   The Nerdist. I found it to be very accurate and I generally agree with it.

RECOMMENDATION: I liked the movie. The movie is not suitable for the pre-teen group due to its graphic nature and difficult subject matter which includes inferences of prostitution based in a western setting in addition to a particularly disturbing murder scene. One reviewer suggested that it was the most generous PG-13 rating in a long time. I agree! Based upon the violence and the subject matter an R rating might be more applicable.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Jupiter, FL