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2023 Fall Adventure 11/16/2023

Singapore — Chinatown

Morning stroll through the streets and pathways of Chinatown and stopping to see Sri Mariamman Temple covered with vividly painted Hindu dieties. BTW we lost the 15th crossing the international date line.

While walking we noticed that we weren’t the only ones looking around.

Continuing our tour, we headed to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (supposably contains one of Buddhas sacred teeth – shown only twice a year — not today – BTW it is stored in a chest made of 930 pounds of gold).

Street Scenes …

For a change of pace, we took the subway to the civic district – the colonial hub of the city. We tried visiting St. Andrews Church, but it was closed and cordoned off for reconstruction. Our stroll continued past The Old Parliament building, National Gallery, Victoria Theater and Concert Hall, Asian Civilizations Museum, The Raffles Landing site (where Stamford Raffles founded the city) and past some of the rivers famous bridges.

Heading away from the river we passed the central fire house, the Ministry of Communications and Information with its multi-colored window, several churches and then to the highlight of the day lunch at the lengendary Raffles Hotel and drinks (Singapore Sling) at the famous Long Bar.

November 17, 2023 3

2023 Fall Adventure 11/13/2023 & 11/14/2023

Correction: Since it is about 2 am here in Japan I’ve been up for about 17 hours I am brain dead – so here are the Pearl Harbor pictures I left off the previous days post.

Exploring Oahu’s Southeast Coast: We drove along the coast road and enjoyed the ocean and beach views on our way to Halona Blowhole and a hike to see the Makapuu Lighthouse – a 2 mile hike to the eastern most tip of Oahu – great views of the coast, lighthouse and rabbit island.

Diamond Head Crater Hike: A must do on Oahu – A mile up then 99 steps – through a tunnel and to a pillbox overlooking the Ocean, Diamond Head Light, Waikiki and the interior of the crater.

The 14th is a travel day – started with breakfast overlooking the beach – then a 9 hour flight to Japan followed by 7 hours to Singapore.

November 15, 2023 4

2023 Fall Adventure 11/12/2023

Exploring Honolulu. We spent the morning touring the historic district around the Iolani Palace -Kamehameha Statue, Superior Court, Kawaiahao Church, a stroll to the waterfront to see the Aloha Tower.

Continuing around the Palace: Washington Palace, Father Damien, Liliuokalani, Hawaiian Mission Houses and the Aloha Tower

Mid morning we headed to the Kuan Yin Temple and the Foster Botanical Gardens

Then on to the Bishop Museum – the states cultural and history museum.

Our final stop of the day was the Pearl Harbor Memorial – a moving film covering the lead up to the attack and coverage from both the Japanese and American sides. The day concluded with a boat ride to the Arizona Memorial.

November 15, 2023 4

2023 Fall Adventure – 11/11/23

Flight to Honolulu – after too many hours on an airplane we arrived at the Sheraton Waikiki our home for the next 3 days. After check in we wandered the Saturday craft market along Kalākaua Ave. and finished just in time to see the beautiful Hawaiian sunset.

This is just the start of an adventure that will last almost six weeks.

November 12, 2023 19

Early Fall 2023 Travels

Travels in early September took us north for stops in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maine for visits with family, friends, college buddies and a Celebration of Life. A short week in Massachusetts brough me to Hyannis, Marthas Vineyard, and Fenway Park.

Beach time in Hyannis

Marths Vineyard

Fenway Park

Sunrise at Portland Head Light

Back in Florida – time for some exercise – first a day hikes at Carl Duval Moore State Forest and Park is located in Putnam County. Carl Duval Moore State Forest is one of the smallest State Forests (336 acres) but still maintains a variety of ecosystems, including sandhill, mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, and flatwoods lake. The Forest has two portions – in the north, The Up and Down Lake Trail has interpretive tree identification signs along the route. The trail also provides two areas from which to view the forest’s most notable natural feature, Up and Down Lake, a typical flatwoods lake. The south portion of the Forest is home to the Hardesty Lake Trail a straightforward out and back.

Finally, a visit to Split Oak Forest Wildlife and Environmental Area. Split Oak has more than nine miles of marked trails which wind through a variety of natural communities and features short spur trails to scenic overlooks. I followed the 5.4-mile Split Oak Loop the forests premier trail.

Next up a trip to Hawaii, Singapore, and a 28-day cruise through Indonesia and around Australia and New Zealand – it all starts on the 11th of November.

November 4, 2023 4

Several weeks ago, I planned this trip not anticipating the heavy rains that Florida has been experiencing. Well, I decided to go anyway. I had some early luck getting breaks in the rain or just sprinkles – but as the trip went on the weather got worse. On the 10th I started out at Indian Lake State Forest Hiking on the Bear-N-Oak Trail a 1.4-mile loop circling Indian Lake, a major karst (dissolving bedrock caused sinkhole) feature in the Ocala Limestone and through mossy live oaks. The lake is directly connected to the Floridan Aquifer.

Moving on to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, encompassing a 21,000-acre
savanna in Alachua County, Florida lying between Micanopy and Gainesville. It
is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark.

Paynes Prairie is unique in many
ways. Nowhere else in Florida can visitors
experience wild-roaming bison and horses. Nearly 300 species of birds also
frequent the park along with alligators, deer and many other animals. We
visited this park two years ago and did not see any horses or bison – this time
very close to horses but only a long distant view of the bison.

Started out at the visitors center and hiked the Wacahoota trail (.8 miles) to a viewing platform overlooking the savanna.

After a break in the rain, I headed to the Bolen Bluff Trail (2.6 mile) trek through an oak hammock and on to the savanna – where you could see other wildlife such as bobcats (no), white tailed deer (yes – but not fast enough with the camera) and wild turkeys (no). Halfway through the hike a monsoon came through and I took my second full shower of the day — more will come.

The rain stopped and the sun peaked through, so I headed to north end of Paynes Prairie, and the La Chua Trail an excellent wildlife watching site, with an elevated boardwalk and lengthy dike out to an observation tower.

Early start on the 11th, heavy rains greeted me but I headed to Newnans Lake SF to hike the West Lake and Sparrows trails. With rain lightening up I went out sans’ camera – smart move about a mile in the rain went from sprinkles to heavy down pour — fortunately only about 8/10 of a mile back to the car.

½ hour drive to my next stop – Goethe State Forest. The rain started to moderate along the way and I dried out some while driving. Good news – when I arrived at the trailhead the rain stopped and there were some breaks in the clouds. The Buck Island Pond trail (1.8 miles) circles the pond, starting at an oak hammock changing to pines and the cypresses along with their knees making footing precarious on the wet trail. Must have been a while since another hiker passed through, I needed to dodge many spiders web along the way.

Off to my last stop – Ross Prairie SF and its Holly Hammock trail – not to be, the rains came back more ferocious than at any time in the last two days. I decided to give it 20 minutes at the trailhead to see if the rains stopped or at least drop to a sprinkle – didn’t happen so I left for home – Any way it was a fun but wet trip.

June 3, 2023 – Silver Springs SP (very unusual sighting)

A Saturday morning road trip back to Silver Springs SP – the last time I went the trails were closed by a prescribed burn. I hiked the River Trail (1.3 miles) and the Swap Trail (1.9 miles) along with some time spent at the Silver River Museum. The unusual sighting was two monkeys running off the trail – never thought I would see these guys outside of a zoo in Florida.

June 6, 2023 9

April 22-28, 2023 – Myrtle Beach SC

Booked this week at a timeshare back in January – little did I know I would be in no shape for a week of golf. It turned out to be a very enjoyable week – great dining and wonderful non-golf activities.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach

Located in the Broadway at the Beach complex. The most noteworthy exhibit here is Dangerous Reef, a huge 340-foot underwater tunnel where you move on a glidepath through a 750,000-gallon tank surrounded by sharks, tarpons, sea turtles and green moray eels. Other exhibits include Rio Amazon, featuring animals typical of tropical rain forests, and the Living Gallery, which shelters corals, weedy sea dragons and a giant octopus. Meanwhile, Friendship Flats allows hands-on interactions with some of the aquarium’s creatures.

Heritage Shores Nature Preserve and Conway South Carolina

Conway is known for the abundance of murals throughout the city and the preserve extends into the Cherry Grove Marsh. A series of elevated boardwalks and observation docks provide access through and around the preserve, where more than seven acres of walking paths feature interpretive signage at dozens of stations describing the wide array of plants, animals, fish and bird species that can be discovered here.

Brookgreen Gardens

Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, located just south of Murrells Inlet, in South Carolina. The 9,100-acre property includes several themed gardens featuring American figurative sculptures, the Lowcountry Zoo, and trails through several ecosystems in nature reserves on the property.

May 4, 2023 4

Orlando Wetlands Park — 4/10/2023

Orlando Wetlands Park (OWP) is a man-mad wetland designed to treat reclaimed water and provide a wildlife habitat. The park is in Christmas FL. OWP has nineteen miles of berm built to create eighteen wetland cells. The wetland system provides habitat for over two hundred bird species, otters, foxes, deer, turtles, snakes, and alligators.