Dolphins Leap & Endeavor Awaits!

The mission to find something exciting in St. Pete's area has been a success. It was actually in Madeira Bay, which is near St. Pete's Beach, but, nonetheless, I'll consider them in the same neck of the woods!

In Orlando I was able to swing through Disney Marketplace, a place I had visited in March. This time there were all sorts of artists from photographers to potters displaying their wares. This was spectacular stuff and they were so friendly and would explain how they did things. It was a great place to get ideas from some talented folks. If in Disney, swing through. Parking is free and you get the Disneyworld feel without having to pay unless you find something you like or want to partake in.

Before I left Orlando I had to stop again at the Moroccan place and get a Turkish coffee. The same cook, with his black Kangol cap on backwards greeted me happily and made me my coffee. The sun was out and it made sitting out front with the Arabic-speaking patrons all the more enjoyable. Next stop, St. Pete's and Madeira Bay.

Feeling the approach of a real nasty cold, I attempted to push it back with a hard run on the beach in the setting sun. Upon my return, intuition pulled my eyes right to an object leaping from the ocean and splashing back down. Sure enough, a few moments later it happened again! It was a baby dolphin swimming with its pod! You could see the arcing dorsal fins of the other dolphins break the water and sink back down. But that young one! He would completely leave the water, his little body flying in miniature joy, and then return nose first to his family below the waves. At least 3 separate pods could be spotted each about half a football field away from one another. Perhaps they were of one but they seemed separate.

The nearest group was a stone's-throw away and I even contemplated swimming out to them it looked like so much fun. But I contented to watch from the shore, giggling each time the little guy would breach. The occassional couple passed but seemed unaware or disinterested. Perhaps its a more common occurrence than it looked!

Within walking distance of my place was a Greek restaurant that I had to frequent at least twice. The first night I had some tzatsiki sauce, full of fresh chunks of cucumber, triangles of pita and some avgo lemno soup. I've had many varieties of this Greek lemon soup in the past. This one was like eating a warm, salty, lemon custard. My search for chicken was in vain, as it was chicken broth by itself. No tasty bits of meat. I think I'll take my mom's instead! The second night I had a plate of long, thin ziti, covered in feta, light sauce and a encrusted chunk of chicken. The talkative, East Coast Greek, smirked, "This is your second night here, it must be good," and smacked me affectionately with the menu.

Next door there was an Italian ice place. It just opened that day and the owner, from Boston, was giving this place a go. He was very friendly and enthusiastic and I made sure that I gave him some free advertising. It's easy to be partial to places like these especially when full of good people!

During my next day shoot the owner took me down to an area called John's Pass. It was a pretty marina area full of shops and restaurants, feeling more comfortable than the sun-baked concrete and pavement stretches of St. Pete's. From the dock above we saw dolphins feeding out in the harbor. He remarked that just that morning he woke up to find a manatee sauntering by his house, which was built at the tip of the harbor. "You never get sick of seeing those porpoises," he told me.

The day continued with that Florida, perpetual summer weather. It has in fact been cooler than usual, with temps getting down into the 50's at night. Nonetheless, the sun is healing and the evergreen palms and St. Augustine grass do well in slowing you down and asking you to take it in.

Now it was time to reverse direction again and head back in the direction of Orlando, to Kissimmee. The name of that city always makes me chuckle as it sounds to be like Italian English. "Kissimmee! I a-kiss-a-you!"

Today's shoot was one of pools and palms, spas and Florida-esque rooms of floral theme and mirrored walls. It's quite pleasant shooting with the way Florida's nature enhances everything. The perfect blue sky with puffy clouds, missionary style architecture and those palm trees with their jagged stepped stalks, curving to this side and that, with a sprout of this years green leaves at the top. There is usually a body of water in the midst of that shot, whether it be a pool, bay, backwater or ocean. It makes you feel good, that does.

With half a day remaining the decision was made to drive to the other coast, to the Kennedy Space Station. It is about an hour and 15 minutes away from Kissimmee. The drive is a usual, smooth, straight and uncomplicated Florida drive, though tolls cause some slight interruption. Signs are frequent reminders of where you are going and soon, you are there! The approach is one along the Challenger Memorial Parkway that sets a straight line through an expansive body of water and green, bushy hammocks which are refuges for the birds. Most of the area around the Space Center, in fact is a wildlife refuge. The security and safety concerns in human terms have had the wonderful residual affect of creating a haven for living things!

I had got there just in time! Able to make my ticket reservation while I drove there, I entered the lot to find a man in a little security vehicle wave me behind him and he found me a nice parking spot all the way at the front. I grabbed my gear, got my ticket, passed through security and boarded the last tour buses (which leave at 2:15). I started to get excited at not only my timeliness but the fact that i was about to see many wonderful things with my childhood adult eye.

The bus first brings you pass the immense Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the box that they keep the Space Shuttle Inn. It is impressive. With that circular, blue NASA badge we know so well and little specs of birds flying all around it. Those little specs aren't crows, they're giant buzzards (turkey vultures)! Unless you were told you would have no idea! This is the largest single-floor building in the world! The entire Yankee Stadium could fit on the roof with room left over for parking! The blue star-field on the U.S. flag is the size of a basketball court!

From the VAB the shuttle gets wheeled out on the Mobile Launcher Platform, carried by the tank-tracked Crawler. This moves around one mile-per-hour to the launching site some 3.4 miles away.

The bus drops you off at the observation platform. During this trip I had been bummed that I was missing seeing the launch by 3 days. But now that I was there I started to become excited, realizing that the shuttle would be at the pad! You could see the launcher some three miles away and as you climbed the multi-floor observation deck, the shuttle came more in view. I joked with another spectator that they must not have thought about the orientation of the launch pad when they built the observation deck! The only part of the shuttle you could see was the orange liquid fuel tank and the two, white solid rocket boosters. But let me tell you, it was still fantastic! Here it was! To actually see it! Equal, if not surpassing, in every way, the Parthenon, the Colliseum, any work of DaVinci or Michelangelo. Just as in those great works and individuals is something that is just so difficult to wrap your mind around! Better yet, it supersedes the individual, as it is a product of a collective of human ingenuity! Seeing an actual launch should be an American pilgrimage, taken at least once in a human lifetime. At least, witnessing some form of our propulsion beyond the binds of terra firma! So, you get the point. It's moving and it's significant!

The view from up top is actually quite pretty. You can see the tracks from the Crawler still fresh in the tan gravel. The second crawler was just across the street.

From here you are bussed to the Apollo site and as you enter the building you stand beneath the suspended and detatched segments of a Saturn V rocket. Big, big, big!

The final stop, before the end, is the Internationa Space Station. Here you can walk through several different segments and see the work of the different country's components.

The drive back was at dusk. There were these little wisps of dark clouds about ten feet off the ground, at the edge of the road, above the trees. Upon a closer look I saw they were insects of some kind. Mosquitoes? I didn't know.

Finally tonight, I had a New York Strip. This may have been my first time, I can't remember. According to our friends at Wikipedia, this is a very tender piece of meat because it's taken from a place on the cow that sees very little use. If you keep the bone attached with a piece of the Beef Tenderloin as well, then it's a T-bone/Porterhouse. This particular piece of meat had been aged six weeks. I ordered mine medium rare. Why? Cause it's tasty, yes. but in medium rare I think you find the best of the flavor range. The middle will be bloody and juicy and the meat is more cooked as you work your way out. If truly grilled then it will have some black char on the outside so you get that extreme as well. Cooking meat gives it more flavor and also makes it easier for human stomaches to digest as well as kills bacteria. But don't overcook... then again, to each their own! I'm more than ready to return home to regular diet of Ramen, pasta, carrots, coffee and juice.

Now the road has not been all sun and rainbows. I came down with some dumb harsh cold. Starting with harsh sore throat and head misery that eventually graduated into lung crap and then the regular stuff. But what you gonna do? Though I did find that those lemon Ricola are excellent for sore throat and surpressing coughs without the mediciney taste. I also got a nasty little spider bite on my inner thigh. There are lots of spiders down here! I think I got it when I was at Dinosaur World in the jungle-like woods. I wanted to do some on-camera bit but saw a giant web with spiders right where I wanted to stand. Instead of ruining their home with a stick or something, I simply pushed it to the side with my leg and did my camera stuff and then stepped out of it. As I was leaving the exit a woman remarked, "Ooh, a black widow!" I stopped to take some picks and video footage but the little guy dropped like an ace to the ground above. I don't think he was a black widow, but it was neat nonetheless. Finally, I pitted my wide angle lense. This is probably the biggest bummer of all! Fortunately, I am done with all property shoots, etc. But still, it's right in the middle of the lense and I know not what I'm going to do about it. But, things will work themselves out! Things are what you make of 'em!

For now, it's back up to Daytona we go! Kissimme! I a-kiss-a-you!