A Trip to the Florida Keys

My brother in law, Hans, has been going on one week vacations a couple of times a year for the last couple of years. This winter he was supposed to go on a trip with a couple of his friends from his days at Natural Resources and Ontario Power Generation. As it turned out they were unable to go so I and another of Hans friends, Dan, offered to go with him instead. To make this as stress free as possible Dan and I split the organising duties with Hans deciding on the locale and primary sights. For this trip Hans selected the Florida Keys as it was an area that he had heard about and had always intrigued him. Plus it is the site of a small island host to lignum vitae trees, a species he has a lot of respect for as even to this day they still use wood of this tree for bearing blocks on the big water turbines at the power plants on the Nipigon River where he had worked for many years.

So the three of us packed our bags and then hopped on a plane to head down to Miami, Florida, the mainland access point to the Florida Keys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Keys). For those not aware, the keys are a series of ancient coral reefs now exposed due to sea level changes over the millennia. We arrived in Miami in late evening. After picking up the rental car we then headed to a nearby hotel for the night. Unfortunately it took a little linger than planned to get there as I had preprogramed my GPS with the two places we would be staying at but selected the wrong one! So instead of heading to the hotel we began heading to Marathon, halfway down the keys! It didn't take too long to realise my mistake and so we turned back only to discover that the hotel we were booked into had changed its name just a couple of weeks before we arrived. In the end we did find it and settled in for the night.

The next morning we drove to Islamorada and Robbies Marina (http://www.robbies.com/tarpon.htm) where we were booked to take a charter over to Lignum Vitae Key (http://www.floridastateparks.org/lignumvitaekey/default.cfm). As access to the key is strictly regulated you must take a guided tour and those tours are only offered on certain days only one of which fit our schedule. So we arrived with plenty of time before our charter was to leave so we enjoyed the sights of the marina including the many brown pelicans, and most surprising of all the numerous Tarpon, some over 5 feet in length!

After lunch overlooking the marina our charter boat arrived and we made the journey to the island:

Once on the island we met with the park guide who proceeded to provide a history as well as some information on the lignum vitae trees. Here is a picture of one that was planted beside the main building about 40 years ago:

And another along the main trail:

Hans was the first to admit that he was very underwhelmed by the size of these tress and we did not disagree! Apparently the thin soil on these coral islands is not all that conducive to tree growth and the frequent hurricanes don’t help either!

Upon return to the marina we then headed to Marathon where we checked into the vacation property Dan had located at Coral Lagoon in Marathon (http://www.keysrentalsonline.com/vacation-rental-home.asp?PageDataID=59689). It is a 3 bedroom home right on a canal so that if you have a boat you can pretty much tie it up right out front! As it turned out it was ideal, especially since the covered patio had an eastern exposure ensuring good shade in the afternoon. Next door is a large marina that provides boat storage facilities:

The second picture above is the large forklift they use to manoeuvre the boats with the one shown being our neighbours just before they headed home after after a few days of fishing.

The next full day in the Keys involved a trip down to Key West. There we walked along the harbour and were pleasantly surprised to come across a manatee and her calf browsing along the pier!

And here is Hans and Dan posing with the marlin they caught (actually just a fibreglass replica on display whereby you can pretend as they did):

An interesting feature of the keys is the remnants of a railway that was built from Miami all the way to Key West back at the turn of the 20th century. The railway was abandoned in the 1930’s after major sections were seriously damaged by a hurricane. The state bought the railway and converted it into a highway usually by building right on top of the many existing railway bridges that dominate the route, especially the “seven-mile bridge”. The highway, as it was only 20 feet wide, was replaced in 1982 by a new one, in many cases by following a new route and building anew leaving the old one beside it:

In this picture on the right is the old rail bridge with a road deck placed on top of girders extending the overall width to about 20 feet and even with shims added to bank it in this location as it is on a shallow curve. And to the left is the new, wider bridge built of precast concrete. Both real engineering marvels!

And of course what would be a trip to Florida without weeing some alligators!? On our last day there we made the journey to the Everglades Alligator Farm (http://www.everglades.com/). While we did not touch any we sure got close and got to see others touching the live gators! Hopefully I will continue to remember but I now know that an alligator has a blunt snout and a crocodile, of which there are some in Florida, have a much sharper snout as illustrated in the next two pictures (Crocodile on the left and Alligator on the right):

And here are a bunch of crocks in the main pond:

In addition we also went on a short airboat ride into the everglades!

All in all we had a great trip! Hans especially enjoyed himself which to me was very important. While I have no regrets going, personally I wouldn’t go back but only because I enjoy casual stints of snorkelling and that is something it is difficult to find there. All of the good snorkelling areas require booking a charter out to the active reefs 6 to 8 miles off shore and I did not want to spend that much time in one shot snorkelling. Even so there is a lot to see and we by no stretch saw everything the area has to offer!

2013 Dominion Cup – Northern Ontario Men’s curling championship

The year has started with a bang in that Nipigon, and in particular the Nipigon Curling Club, of which I am now president, played host to the Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Championship - the Dominion Cup (the title sponsor is Dominion Insurance). I volunteered as a timekeeper for several games and helped out any other way that I could. Thanks to the efforts of all the other volunteers and organisers it turned out to be a first class event and we were rewarded with some excellent curling!

The hometown favourite, Alan Hackner (above) provided some real excitement in that he orchestrated a couple of well played games including a nail biter in that he took the overall winner, the Brad Jacobs rink, to an extra end only to lose by a measurement. For those who are not aware, Alan is the same age as Janice and I and we all went to high school together. And then in the early 1980’s he went on to win the Canadian curling championship twice and then both times was successful at winning at the world championship too! It is no wonder why he was the hometown favourite, besides the fact he is originally from Nipigon. While he has had problems duplicating the success of almost 30 years ago it was hard to tell by the calibre of play that was on display.

Here is a picture of the winner, for the 3rd year in a row, Brad Jacobs from Sault St. Marie:

And some general pictures of the event:

Christmas in Nipigon - 2012

Well, it has been a while since my last post so I figured I would sit down and try and bring things up to date.

The first item is that we had no sooner got home from our trip to New Caledonia when we had a visit from the police. They had the unenviable task of having to tell us that our son Justin had died. I just cannot put into words the shock and the grief that followed. To help deal with this tragedy our son James invited us to Winnipeg to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family. And our youngest, Jordan, flew in from southern Ontario. To be with family and friends at such a time can be very therapeutic although even now I can’t help wonder if we could have done something even though in my heart I know we did all that we could.

For those who remember him and those he never met here is a picture I took the summer before last in Edmonton:

We all joined James and his family at his in-laws, Marlene and Peter Sedor`s home for Thanksgiving dinner. It is hard to describe how this trip did help the healing begin although it wasn't easy. In the end Janice and our daughter in-law, Courtenay,  drove out to Edmonton via Calgary to pick up Justin’s ashes as we had made arrangements to have his remains cremated. I drove back to Nipigon on my own but it didn't take long for another wrinkle to appear as I had an accident while still inside the city limits. Due to a number of factors my attention was diverted away from what was going on ahead of me until it was almost too late. Only at the last second did I notice the red light at the intersection I was entering and while I braked immediately it was too late to avoid colliding with a vehicle crossing in front of me. But thankfully soon enough that I only caught their back corner. As it turned out both vehicles were  not damaged too seriously, or at least not enough to make either incapacitated. We shared our insurance and other information, including getting help from several witnesses who made sure we were okay. Before long I was the only one remaining. Even though a call had gone out to the police no one showed so I continued my journey home much more cautiously and even more subdued than when I had began.

Oh, and here is a picture of the remnants of our family taken that weekend at James house (Jordan on the left and James on the right):

For the next couple of months I worked on the project associated with the trip to New Caledonia, one that turned out to be far more involved than I had originally expected. But it was, at least for me, good therapy.

Jordan, James, Courtenay, Daelyn and Desiree as well as Janice’s sister Linda all came to spend Christmas with us. I must admit that in recent years I have found Christmas is just not the same without young kids around! We tried to plan a number of activities to keep everyone entertained: James, Courtenay, Jordan and I attended a curling funspiel; I had a brush pile that needed burning so we had a bonfire; while there wasn’t much snow we did get in some snowmobiling; and Jordan and I went out ice fishing a couple of times out at camp.