Category: Photography

My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 10, 2021

Last Wednesday June 02ND 2021 about 45 minutes before local sunrise I embarked on my latest fun road-trip exploring my great state of Florida. This was actually a road-trip that was planned more than 3 years earlier and scheduled for the exact same Wednesday to Saturday time-period in June 2018. I had to cancel that trip when I was offered the opportunity to attend an important work-related trip to Middle Georgia (Warner Robins) later that same month in June 2018.

Earlier this year I decided to resurrect that June 2018 road-trip exactly 3 years later. I took my original itinerary for the trip, and I updated and enhanced it. As it turns out I actually visited a majority of the places that were on the original itinerary.

This was a 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). Aside from driving to and from Florida’s Treasure Coast I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River (which is actually a very long [121-mile] lagoon).

Starting today and continuing for the next 3 or 4 Thursdays I’ll share some of my road-trip adventures with you. I presented a sneak-preview of this road-trip recap this past Sunday here on my blog. (Check out “Sunday Scripture”.)

We start about 3 hours north of my home for a full Breakfast pitstop in Stuart Florida. I enjoyed a nice hearty meal at a local place called Berry Fresh Cafe. I’ve been there before (at their Jupiter Florida location), so I knew what to expect. I knew that I would be full when I walked out. My waiter was over-the-top energized and passionate about his job – perhaps even borderline bombastic – but in a good way. I told him that I was on vacation visiting the area, and he gave me a list of places to visit in Stuart. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his restaurant was my only stop in Stuart proper. I now have a list of places that I can check-out on my next (perhaps longer) visit to Stuart. I actually have friends who live in neighboring Jensen Beach. I didn’t get a chance to visit them on this trip, so maybe next time.

My next stop was to a popular place located on the barrier island adjacent to Stuart (South Hutchinson Island) known as Bathtub Beach. My aforementioned friends go there on a regular basis with their young daughters, so I decided to check it out. It’s very unique in that it’s the Atlantic Ocean – but with subdued waves and currents. There’s a mile-and-a-half-long reef just offshore. It’s below the water surface during high tide, but during low tide there are exposed sections. This reef is not a typical coral reef, but rather a living worm reef. I’ll let this sign explain it in greater detail:

I spent a lot of time all along a 54-mile stretch of Florida State Road A1A – from 27.2° to 27.8° north latitude. I visited a lot of nice Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River County beaches on this road-trip. I think this was probably the nicest and cleanest beach of them all. Check out this photo of this beautiful wide beach:

As you may know if you’ve been following me for awhile I try to keep my blog posts to under 3 minutes or less, and I think that we’re close to that ceiling right now, so let me close this part of my road-trip. Next Thursday I’ll present Part 2, and we’ll visit House Of Refuge Museum At Gilbert’s Bar and Elliott Museum.

Bible Blogging Christian Church Driving God Ministry Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 6, 2021

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 06TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us look upon our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ for guidance and direction – for safety and security.

I have returned from a 77-hour / 472-mile summer vacation road-trip to and from Florida’s Treasure Coast. I spent some quality time, I learned a lot, I had a lot of fun, and I met some great people along the way from Stuart to Sebastian Inlet State Park.

I have at least a month’s worth of new material to write about, and I’ll be sharing that for the next 4 or 5 Thursdays starting this Thursday June 10TH 2021.

One of my many fun visits was to the McKee Botanical Garden just south of the city limits of Vero Beach off U.S. 1. It’s on the U.S. National Register Of Historic Places. From 1932 to 1976 it was known as McKee Jungle Gardens, and it was a popular roadside tourist attraction right alongside the main highway for the U.S. East Coast.

That’s the King James Version from the Book Of Genesis – Chapter 2 – Verses 8 & 9a.

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, Florida, God, Jesus, Minister, Ministry, Scripture, Travel

Blogging Driving Nature Photography Travel

My Flickr Albums

Regular readers of my blog know that I don’t Instagram. I Flickr. I know that over a billion people worldwide are registered users on Instagram, and that it’s probably the 2ND most popular app / web site known to mankind (2ND to Facebook which owns Instagram). I never got into Instagram. I’ve never created an account. I don’t even know what it looks like. I ignore all Instagram links. I’m probably missing some fun stuff, but oh well. I’m a Flickr(er).

Flickr was created long before Instagram – way back in 2004. Yahoo ran it for about a dozen years. I’ve been a registered user since April 2011, and I’ve been a paying (“PRO”) member for many years now. I like Flickr. I like it a lot. It’s my favorite social media app / web site (after WordPress of course). It’s where I store all of my photos online – most of them (88%) for public viewing.

I generally average about 250 to 300 uploaded photos per year. But I don’t just upload photos. I do research on my photos and write captions for each of them. I often learn more about what I took a picture of weeks and months later. It’s like electronic photo-booking. Each photo is individually enhanced (brightened, straightened, etc.), uploaded, and captioned into one of my albums on Flickr based on location or subject matter.

This past week I finally finished uploading and captioning all of my photos from my recent Spring Break road-trip this past February. You may have seen some of them by glancing down near the bottom of this page where the last 6 added to my Flickr Photostream are displayed.

Many of my Spring Break road-trip photos can be viewed on my Tampa Bay Region album. There are 136 photos and 1 video (of a sunset) within that album from 2014 on, and it showcases my best vacation photos from the Tampa Bay region of Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, and Hardee Counties. I spent a day in Hardee County on my recent road-trip, so the final 12 photos of that album are from that day.

In the future I may showcase a different Flickr album about once a month here on my blog – maybe on the last Thursday of every month.

I’ve also got another road-trip vacation planned, so one of my Flickr albums will soon be updated with all-new photos.

Tags Flickr

Blogging Career Driving Life Nature Photography Travel

I Want To See America After I Retire

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 22, 2021

If all goes right I plan to retire from U.S. Federal Civil Service in less than 3 years from now. By that time I will have served for over 38½ years (military and civilian time combined). I’m ready to retire.

I have multiple plans on staying busy on a day-to-day basis in the next part of my life. They include full-time ministry with a local church, working indoors or outdoors at a Florida State Park, working as a docent at a local museum, and if that’s not enough then perhaps working at Publix – where shopping is a pleasure. #LOL

I also want to travel more. For many years I’ve talked about (and even blogged about) taking a 100-day / 10,000-mile road-trip completely around the circumference of the continental United States (clockwise) averaging about 100 miles per day, and mostly driving along the roads less traveled – our old U.S. highways. I don’t really talk about doing that anymore. I don’t mind driving around and exploring the backroads of Florida (and maybe even nearby states like Alabama and Georgia), but I can’t really see myself driving all around the country. Driving is less fun now than it used to be. As I get older the aches and pains while driving increase. I also experience anxiety attacks while driving. Also – most other drivers annoy me substantially.

I’ve recently been eyeing (and doing research on) a new way to see America after I retire – by rail and coach. A couple of years before my Dad passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2010 he was planning one final family trip for the 5 of us (Himself, Mom, Brother, Sister-In-Law, & I). In fact he planned it all and even booked the nearly 2-week trip. It was a combination train and bus tour of several of our great National Parks out west (in the Rocky Mountains). I think the tour commenced in Bozeman Montana and concluded on the Las Vegas Strip. I was really excited about the trip. Unfortunately my Dad soon canceled the trip when his conditions deteriorated further from the disease.

(Side Note: Tomorrow – the 23RD of April – would have been my Mom and Dad’s 55TH wedding anniversary.)

In memory of my Dad I really want to take that trip that he wanted to go on with his family – perhaps not necessarily that same exact trip via that same exact travel agency, but a similar one to it. I know that they are quite expensive. I saw one for $4,320 per person for 14 days, and that includes all hotel accommodations, and a meal a day. $4,320 probably means well over $5,000 (possibly even closer to $6,000) with taxes, fees, and other charges included. I have at least a couple of years to do extensive research and price comparisons for this trip of a lifetime.

For the past 30 years I’ve seen and experienced the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific via 22 cruises (138 nights at sea). I actually have my 23RD cruise booked. As I retire from my career on land I may very well retire from my vacations at sea. As the title of this blog post states – I want to see America after I retire.

Tags America