Category: Nature

My Flickr Photostream

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 16, 2020

Happy Thursday my friends. It’s the start of a 5-blog-post holiday weekend here at #CountUp. As is always the case – weekends start on Thursdays !

2019 was a great year for one of my other longtime social media platforms – Flickr – where I store all of my treasured photos online – many for public viewing. It was my most active year (as far as uploading new photos) since 2015, and it was the first year since 2015 that I uploaded at least 10 photos per month for all 12 months.

I plan to do it again in 2020. I’m off to a good start so far with 27 photos uploaded this month (as of last night). I’m currently uploading (and captioning) the best photos of my recent Christmas Eve trip to Okeechobee Florida. I’ve currently got 21 out of 52 photos up now, and I’ll probably put up another 20 over the next few weeks. (Generally out of every 5 photos taken on any given trip – 3 to 4 make it onto my Flickr Photostream for all to see.)

Here’s a photo that is not yet up on my Flickr site:

That’s one of several military static displays located at Veterans Park in the heart of Okeechobee Florida where U.S. 98, U.S. 441, and Florida State Road 70 converge.

My Flickr Photostream – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmday6567

You can follow me over there, or you can simply view my last 5 photos uploaded here at revchrismday.com. (They appear over on the right-hand side of the blog.)

Animals Driving Food Holidays Nature People Photography Travel

Christmas In Okeechobee

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 26, 2019

Merry Day After Christmas my friends. I hope that you got to spend some quality time with loved ones, or you got to do something that you love.

For the 2ND Christmas in a row I embarked on a Florida road-trip to and from just a few hours to the north of where I live. This time I drove 355 miles round-trip to West Palm Beach, and then over to Okeechobee. It was a 4-day road-trip. I returned home yesterday (Christmas Day) morning.

Over in West Palm Beach I saw Jim Gaffigan LIVE in concert at the Kravis Center For The Performing Arts. He’s my favorite comedian today. I last saw him in 2010. Ryan Hamilton opened for Jim. He was very funny. He reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld. The next morning I spent a couple of hours at the historic Palm Beach Zoo. I got in for free as a military veteran. It was my first visit since 2010.

A few times each year I visit a town in Florida that I’ve never been to before, I haven’t visited in many years, or I’ve only driven through – in order to determine whether or not I wish to move there in a few years after I retire. I selected Okeechobee several months ago, and I spent a couple of days and nights there leading up to Christmas Day. It’s on the northern side of the big Lake Okeechobee.

While in Okeechobee I visited the main attraction – the big Lake ‘O’. I walked a couple of miles high atop the dike / levee known as the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail. If you were to walk completely around the lake then it would take you a few days to do so – because it’s 109 miles around the lake ! I also ate at a couple of family-owned restaurants “where the locals eat”, and I toured the town’s old historic downtown district. It was a fun visit, but I don’t think I’d want to move there after I retire. Its location is a bit secluded from other towns. I’ll visit again though. It’s got small-town charm.

I ended up taking over 110 photos of my excursions on this Florida road-trip. 3 of them are up above, and I’ll probably post about half of the remaining photos over on my Flickr site in the weeks and months to come.

Animals Church Driving Food Nature Photography Travel

Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 1, 2019
1 Comment on Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Let’s try this again – a rapid-fire session of thoughts on my mind right this minute:

I went on a short weekend getaway last weekend.
I left at dawn last Friday, and I returned late this past Monday morning.
It was a 76-hour vacation away from home.
I drove about 140 miles away from home, so not too far.
Once upon a time I’d announce my vacations away from home on social media.
I’m much smarter nowadays, as I now reveal vacations after-the-fact.
So I drove to Fort Myers Florida on Friday.
I ate Breakfast at Perkins along the way in Naples.
I like Perkins. I wish we had those here at home.
I enjoyed a late Lunch / early Dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
I can’t remember the last time I ate there (maybe over 10 years ?)
We don’t have one close to home, but we have Longhorn & Texas here.
I love to eat steak !
I saw longtime comedian Brian Regan LIVE in concert that night.
He packed-in a lot of laughs in 55 minutes.
I wish he had performed for 90 minutes.
He left us wanting more, so he did his job as a comedian.
He had an opening act too – a comedian that made us laugh for 15 minutes.
The next morning I headed over to Fort Myers Beach.
I visited “The Island” (as the natives refer to it) 7 times from 2011 to 2015.
It was love at first sight at the end of April of 2011.
I thought I had found my future retirement town.
On subsequent visits I discovered the “seedier” side of town.
I decided not to retire there.
I decided to stop visiting there.
So this was my 8TH visit, but 1ST visit in a little over 4 years.
It’s still a fun place to visit.
I’ll visit for a 9TH time sooner rather than later.
I did considerable research on churches on the island beforehand.
There are a lot of churches along its narrow 7-mile length.
A friend suggested a specific church to visit.
I watched the previous Sunday sermon from the Pastor.
I didn’t care for his style. He was too Jimmy Buffett-like.
He acted too silly for me.
His use of Scripture was mighty thin too.
I like a Pastor with a sense of humor, but this dude was over-the-top.
I ended-up watching a LIVE Facebook feed of my own Pastor back home.
I like his style.
Later on Sunday night I took a fun 3-hour boat cruise that I pre-booked.
It was billed as a “Dolphin & Shelling Sunset Cruise“.
There were 38 of us including the Captain & Skipper.
Both narrated portions of the cruise.
We saw lots of birds at play on the various islands.
Dolphins jumped all around us at the rear of the boat.
Those dolphins know how to get from Point A to Point B quicker.
They simply ride the waves created by the boat.
I didn’t get any pictures of the dolphins because there were lots of kids too.
They blocked my view, but it’s all good.
The sunset was beautiful too, but again my line-of-sight was blocked.
I did manage to get one reasonably good photo of the sunset.

Sunset (Cruise)

You’re lookin’ good Fort Myers Beach !

Animals Astronomy Bible Christian Driving Food God Health History Home Life Ministry Movies Music Nature Scripture Shopping Travel

Home Sweet Homestead

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 9, 2019

I’m back from vacation ! My 6-day / 590-mile / 14-county Florida road-trip has come to a close. My trek started in deep South Miami-Dade County (where my home is), and it continued northward through Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, and Polk Counties, westward into Hillsborough County (Tampa), southward through Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier Counties, and then back into Miami-Dade County. I also came within a few feet of touching (mainland) Monroe County for a second.

It was a fun trip. I saw a couple of current movies, I did a little bit of shopping (didn’t buy anything), I ate a lot of good food, I walked over 60,000 steps (to burn-off that good food), I did a lot of sightseeing, I visited some historical museums and animal-based tourist attractions, I went to two Christian music concerts, and I spent a lot of time at the beach.

I saw and I did things that I had never seen or done before in my life. This was a classic vacation. I get to spend the near future reminiscing about the times I enjoyed via the 140+ photos and 1 video I captured during all of the fun.

The 1 video I captured is a spectacular 3½-minute video of this past Tuesday night’s sunset on Venice Beach Florida. The video captures the 3 minutes leading up to the sun dropping below the horizon at sea as well as the 30 seconds right after that moment. I intended to post that video in its entirety here on my blog, but I realized that I can’t upload videos on here with my current WordPress plan. The video is also about 1:10 too long for Twitter, so I’ll have to figure out how to trim it down to 2:20 for Twitter.

In the meantime here’s Monday night’s sunset at 8:05 PM EDT on Venice Beach.

Sunset