So I never saw square trees until I visited Palm Beach, Florida.
What’s the saying:
“It’s hip to be square!”
I definitely had to take a doubletake when I saw these.
Wherever we were going, I was gonna stop and get a photo of this.
These trees are almost as if they are from another planet.
What planet would have square trees?
Hope you enjoy it.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Wow, I love this artwork from Haitian artist, Alix Baptiste, who works out of Savannah, Georgia.
This one is called “Best of the Caribbean”–and I think it really is!
The colors and style he uses is so amazing.
Someone else I know had one his artworks called, “Island Living” and it was so spectacular.
Somehow it feels like being there…almost.
Baptiste has a website where you can see and shop from some of his other originals and lithographs.
I am so glad I found this…it really makes me happy.
Thank you G-d for the beauty of life and in art!
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Alix Baptiste)
This is a funny sticker on the streets of Washington, D.C.
It says, “This is not New York.”
And it advertises a website called StuckInDC.com.
“Formed by a few friends who’ve probably lived in the capital long enough, but lack the wherewithal to move elsewhere.”
Having come from NYC, I can empathize in many ways.
The DC metro area is great if you are interested in working in some very cool jobs for the Federal government, and it has a fairly nice lifestyle for families here (clean and green).
While not as exciting as NYC (it doesn’t have the vibe), it’s also not as dirty, congested, or generally dangerous (in DC, there are lots of gun-totting federal agents everywhere).
If you yearn for someplace nicer to live, maybe Florida for the Caribbean climate, beautiful nature, slower lifestyle, and fun atmosphere or then again, there is always the awesome Holy Land!
For now stuck in DC, after retirement who knows. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So it’s sort of become a tradition that when we go away, I try and take my daughter on a special activity of her choosing.
This time we went fishing in the beautiful Caribbean.
What I didn’t expect is that I would end up reeling in a 66-inch Spinner Shark.
This thing was massive and powerful.
The guide keeps telling me to pull up slowly and then drop forward while quickly reeling it in then stop and repeat.
But this shark wasn’t exactly cooperating and it kept pulling this way and that and hard.
In fact, about 15 minutes earlier another shark had jumped out of the water and actually broken the end of the line and got away.
This one was another real fighter, but we were determined.
We get to the point, where we had it on the side of the boat coming up and all the people are standing back and I am thinking to myself what am I crazy sitting up front here with this monster fish about to come over the side.
The guide says “Don’t worry, I am an expert.”
Expert my foot, I think to myself…what the heck am I doing?
Fortunately, since no one wanted to measure it to make into some sort of mantle piece trophy, we end up letting it go (apparently, it’s against the law to actually kill these in Florida).
My daughter was so brave with all the fish, and doing her job keeping the baitfish swimming around and alive with her bare hands in the water–she was awesome.
I don’t frequently let so loose, but I find that when I do, these really are special moments in time for me with my daughter that I end up remembering and cherishing the most.
Thank you G-d for this amazing experience; now to treating the sunburn. 😉
(Source Video: Rebecca Blumenthal)
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