Archive for March, 2023

The first sailing in FL

What do dolphins want: the sound of motor, the companionship of the humans, or simply bathing? We saw plenty of them, jumping around our boat continuously.

Have you entertain the idea to live on a boat? A friend does that on his 44 footer most of the time. Only retrieves to his condo near by during the hurricanes or severe weather.

The community It’s pretty sizable, with four sections: the 200+ slip marina, houses, low rise and a high rise. On top of sectional hoa, everyone pays community’s hoa. There are two swimming pools for the marina, with has bbq grill and tables, all are very clean. boaters on the far end of the marina use bikes to get around. There is a lively restaurant Dockside Social Bar & Grill, with live music.

The design of the boat is really good and considerate. It has a bedroom, two pull out sleeping areas, three open areas and one enclosed space with air conditioning for social. The marina has 220 slips, his was $65,000 in 2018, is cost $160k now, in 2023.

One of the boats at the marina gets the most love: a sleek alloy color cruiser that looks futuristic. In a sea of mostly white boats, it’s sparkling. 码头上最受喜爱的一艘船: 闪闪发光 时尚 充满未来感一艘 cruiser.

The green roof house Legend has it that the husband often came home drunk and couldn’t find their house. So the loving wife painted their roof green that can glow in the dark night. 绿屋顶 传说丈夫经常醉酒后找不到家. 于是, 他慈爱的妻子就把他们的屋顶漆成了在黑夜里会发光的绿色.

One of the mates on board fell off the boat as he was making a phone call. The other mates alert the captain who stopped and went to pick him up. Remarkably, he still has his phone. Falling off any boat is easy …

 

We’ve late lunch at Floridays, sat at our usual table and tried their sun died tomato mussels, which is really good. There are many jumping fish. I didn’t catch any on my camera: too difficult. One fun fact: the two young men were asked to wear their shirts while the young women could go in with bikini tops. The heavily tattooed husband said, “oh, that’s so not fair. Can someone lend me a bra?” His wife said no …ha ha ha  四老四小 2个女娃👙 1个男娃光背. 六块还是八块腹肌+纹身 去吃饭时被告知上身需要点什么 失望 … 为啥? 性别歧视 “能有人借俺个胸围吗?” 他媳妇儿不肯 😂

The parking by the restaurant isn’t easy. Many diners have made reservation. One of the attendant is very talkative and told us that this is his 2nd career. His first was working in his family’s hardware business in Ohio (?) He later came up to the restaurant and took our plates away – helping the waiting staff or what?

Between Hernando De Soto (1957) and Green (an old photo; fishing pier) bridges at Manatee River by Bradenton is the railroad bascule / drawbridge 吊桥 Google map labels it as CSX Train Bridge. The boat owner said it’s used by Tropicana and stays up most of the time. This website captions it  “This riveted through plate girder bascule also includes extremely long approaches. Lengths given are extremely rough estimates.”

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The mornings & sun rise

An early bird … getting up early, seeing different scenes at the same locations:

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NY Mets @ Clover Park


31 Piazza Dr.
Port St. Lucie, FL 34986

Will return.

Mets’ training days are played here. We passed by Cardinals’ in Jupiter which looks rather minor. This one for the Mets is pretty major.

It’s my first time to a training game and like it a lot. The park is intimate compare to Shea and now Citifield. The bathrooms are plenty and clean. Food smell rather good – given the fact that I just had a huge meal. Staff is courteous.

Tonight’s game vs St. Louis Cardinals is a tie: 4-4.

 

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FLA Live Arena: Panthers


FLA Live Arena
1 Panther Pkwy,
Sunrise, FL 33323

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Panthers 6-2 and we’re happy: Islanders is fighting the playoff spot with the Panthers.

The Florida Panthers is based in the Miami metropolitan area / Fort Lauderdale, who competes in the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They initially played their home games at Miami Arena before moving to the FLA Live Arena in 1998.

Toronto team scored shortly after starting … and they lead till the end. There are so many Canadians …

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Miami Open 2023 迈亚密公开赛

Hard Rock Stadium
347 Don Shula Dr,
Miami Gardens, FL 33056

2024

This is a major tennis event with both ATP and WTA (men and women) held in Miami Gardens, Florida in March each year, on hard court. It started in 1985 in Delray Beach, billed as Winter Wimbledon, with $1.8m prize money. A few moves later, it settled in Hard Rock Stadium since 2019.

2023’s prize money is $16m. Singles winners receive $1,262,220 prize money.

Beside the stadium court, there are grandstand court and a few other courts.

For general parking, we’re directed to Gate 18. $40 per car ($35 if you pay with Sunshine Pass), which is a breeze – very convenient and efficient. DO check out their pre-paid parking …

The ground is nicely laid out. Car displays, foods and bars. We’ve drinks at … with a few shrimps, the bill is $80.

The tickets

Unlike US Open, the qualifying rounds ticket are $15 each, plus fees.

Stadium court tickets provide specific seats and access to the ground, and general admission to grandstand.

Grandstand tickets have designated seats, and access to the ground.

Ground pass is $55 per ticket plus fees.

They’re pretty tight on bags. A lady carries a tiny bag but is refused because it is a lightly larger than the sample the door checker holds. Many people have the clear plastic bags.

Hard Rock Stadium opened in 1987, is the home to the Miami Dolphins but is being used for a few other events, such as tennis, and college football the Orange Bowl. For tennis, they added huge sections at the stadium court, making it small because American football field is 120 yards by 53.3 yards, while tennis court is 78ft (23.77m) by 27ft (8.23m). Bathrooms have no ac, if I remembered right. USTA do. The ground is nicely groomed and laid out. I enjoyed the different seating areas, bars and eateries. Lacking corporate heavy hitters, such as Amex and Chase that are stables at US Open, La Roche-Posay passes out mini size. At Amex corner at the US Open, they gave at least two different full sizes. Don Shula (1930-2020) was a defensive back for 7 seasons but wa most famous for being the head coach of Miami Dolphins from 1970 to 1995, with the winningest recored: 347 victories and 328 regular season victories. In 1972, Dolphins had a perfect session, 14-0 but failed to win the Super Bowl. The QB I knew was Dan Marino (1961-) who lost to Joe Montana (1956-) and his 49er’s in Super Bowl XIX, in 1985. Marino won no Super Bowl while Joe Cool has 4 rings.

The matches on Day One …

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Hard Rock Stadium


347 Don Shula Dr.
Miami Gardens, FL 33056

… more pix & videos on Google Maps

For Miami Open/Master

Hard Rock Stadium opened in 1987, is the home to the Miami Dolphins but is being used for a few other events, such as tennis, and college football the Orange Bowl. For tennis, they added huge sections at the stadium court, making it small because American football field is 120 yards by 53.3 yards, while tennis court is 78ft (23.77m) by 27ft (8.23m).

Bathrooms have no ac, if I remembered right. USTA do.

The ground is nicely groomed and laid out. I enjoyed the different seating areas, bars and eateries. Lacking corporate heavy hitters, such as Amex and Chase that are stables at US Open, La Roche-Posay passes out mini size. At Amex corner at the US Open, they gave at least two different full sizes.

Don Shula (1930-2020) was a defensive back for 7 seasons but wa most famous for being the head coach of Miami Dolphins from 1970 to 1995, with the winningest recored: 347 victories and 328 regular season victories. In 1972, Dolphins had a perfect session, 14-0 but failed to win the Super Bowl. The QB I knew was Dan Marino (1961-) who lost to Joe Montana (1956-) and his 49er’s in Super Bowl XIX, in 1985. Marino won no Super Bowl while Joe Cool has 4 rings.

 

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Miami Vice, 2023

Four sport events in a week, in and around Miami:

  1. World Baseball Classic: US lost the final
  2. Miami Open day 1
  3. Ice hockey Toronto Leafs vs Panthers: 6-2
  4. Mets’ training day: 4-4, a tie

Tampa has a few pro teams that are winning:

  • Buccaneers: 2 Super Bowls, 2002 and 2020 with the aging QB Tom Brady
  • Lightning: 3 Stanley Cups, 2003/4, 1019/20 and 2020/1
  • Rays (AL): pennants in 2008 and 2020

I think the best way to rise a city’s profile, is to have a winning pro team, imho.

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Skin care & sun screen

Spring is here, it’s time to get facial / skin suntan lotions out.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer is the one I use most often, from their facial to body mist. They’re not dry nor greasy, and inexpensive.

Anthelios spf 60, by Laroche-Posay (their cream spf30  good) is good too, I think I got it at US Open: neither dry nor greasy.

Anessa spf 50 Mild Milk by Shiseido company, is so so – feels dry on my skin.

Sunshady by BioClarity is the worst: thick, greasy and stays white on my skin after applying it and their shelf life is very short, only 3 months. I’m active and out there under the sun all the time, but never have I finished a 1.7 oz tube within a year. I learnt this after I purchased a set in Sept 2022, and the Face screen expires May 2023, less than a year.

PTR Peter Thomas Roth is one of my faved brand. Their products seem to agree with my skin:

1. Intensive anti-aging creme thick but not greasy
2. Power K eye rescue
3. 24K gold hydra-gel eye patches
4. Firm peeling gel
5. Water drench hyaluronic cloud cream

Over the years, I also used Estée Lauder and Clinique.

Estée

  1. Soft clean infusion rich and thick
  2. Advanced night repair pretty good
  3. advanced night repair eye average
  4. advanced night eye concentrate good
  5. Advanced Night Cleaning gel good
  6. Perfectly clean ok
  7. Revitalizing supreme+ average
  8. Revitalizing spf 15 good
  9. NightWare Plus ok
  10. Futurist aqua primer why did I buy this?
  11. DayWear spf 15 so so

Clinique

Christian Dior: I used it exclusively in Hong Kong. Still remembered its chubby tonic bottle with relative small mouth. Their Prestige line came near the end of 1990s. After a few years, I stopped all together.

Recently when I purchased a Dior 006 berry Addict lipstick, the sales girl gave me a sample of the cream, with faint rose smell. I couldn’t remember if there is any improvement from its initial stage. Their samples are also neatly packaged, just like their regular products, which is overkill. One of the reason I left Dior is, too much marketing and packaging, which is one of the reason I tried PTR.

 

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Kayak on Little Manatee River


215 Lightfoot Road
Wimauma FL 33598

Swimming with alligators

A little Amazon in Florida: Little Manatee River State Park is one of blackwater rivers in southwest Florida and the most pristine.

A blackwater river has slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. The darkness comes from vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea.

This park begins in a swampy area near Fort Lonesome and travels west nearly 40 miles, to merge into Tampa Bay from E.G. Simmons.

One of the friends said that the tide was below sea level when we started.

I’ve done canoeing in the Delaware River many times, especially during the spring when the rapids are strong. Kayaking on the Little Manatee is different, the water is very calm, and couple of times the water is so shallow, we have to get off the boat to push. Weight of the paddlers do make difference. For newbies, it’s better to rent flat bottom kayak.

We started from Access Point #1 and rent from Canoe Outpost. Their fees are $5 parking $30 rental that includes van pick up for 1; two paddlers in a kayak is about $50.


One of interesting posts we’ve seen is 
this 

Y’all better paddle faster I hear BANJO music

Suppose a homepage paid to Deliverance, a 1972 thriller film by Boorman, starring Burt Reynolds (1936-2018)? A few men went on a canoe trip … and one of them was being raped/molested by a group of locals … “Paddle faster, I hear banjos” becomes a phrase, perhaps means immediate danger or bunch of really stupid people. We all got a good laugh out of it.

   

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Grand Prix 2023

Albert Whitted Airport
107 8th Ave SE
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete (May 3-5) is the season opener for the IndyCar series. The ground includes Dali Museum and Mahaffey Theater.

The 180 miles race is ran on track and streets. It has multiple crashes: the first one occurred on their first lap. This one took out Grosjean who was the leader, as we were about to leave. Luckily, no one hurt. Marcus Ericsson of Sweden (1990-) survived the chaos and won the race – last man standing.

This is the second auto racing event I attended. The first was 30+ years ago at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PA – nascar – that race was ran entirely on the oval race track.

Noise is bearable. Maybe I’m old and hear no evil because I remembered the nascar race I went, was nearly killed or deafened by the unbearable noise. Getting old has its advantages.

The national anthem is awesome. The country singer Trace Adkins (1962-) has an incredible deep voice and sang beautifully.

There is fire works; jets fly over;

Some photos

A serious tailgating. Biking two wheelers come to watch four wheelers.

Seriously? Yes

There are many exits. Some has really long lines. We walked around and found one that has no line and left.

Many apartment building along the route have watching parties.

Be the One – Save a veteran

We left before the end

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