Skip to main content

Tagged With "Everglades National Park"

Comment

Re: American Samoa: The Park, The People and The Culture

DrFumblefinger ·
What an exotic experience! Hard to believe there's an American National Park that so few people visit. Thanks for sharing this unique destination with us, @59NationalParks!
Comment

Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#117)

Missteacher411 ·
IDK good one to be stumped. Thought a Caribbean or West African Nation capitol; then the Christmas Trees brought us back to North America, and we settled upon Harrisburg, PA. Probably early in December since no snow outside. Beautiful building, the eye can't take in all the detail, wherever it is. Missteacher411
Comment

Re: Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: Coral, Currents, and Clear waters

Jonathan L ·
The Yucatan is wonderful place, and so much more that Cancun. For those who don't scuba there is Xel-Há national park near Tulúm. This lagoon is wonderful place to snorkel and with beautiful fish in a more controlled environment.
Comment

Re: IRS gains power to get passports cancelled

Travel Rob ·
I don't like it either. The IRS has made mistakes before and I'm sure taxes and penalties add up quick if the person doesn't pay in time Plus people from certain states might need their passports to act as ID because they won't be able to get into federal facilities with their state drivers license only and might not be able to fly soon . http://www.latimes.com/nation/...-20160103-story.html
Comment

Re: New Orleans Winter Walking

DrFumblefinger ·
It's a beautiful hike, Whitney! I dislike the heat and humidity of New Orleans' summer, but this time of year sounds inviting and it's obviously charming! And while it's cold, winter is also beautiful. Here's a photo from my favorite place to hike, a 1 minute walk from my home, Fish Creek Provincial Park. We hike here along the Bow River in all four seasons, including winter. Snow slows you a little but it's not that deep as a rule. If it gets icy, you use microspikes.
Comment

Re: Mar. 17. 2016. Why did the Chicken cross the road ?

GarryRF ·
When you were a young boy DrF, were you made to stay back in class when the other kids went on a nature trip ? Did you ever pick flowers in the park and take them home? A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Comment

Re: Union Square NYC

Samantha ·
Hi Jonathan, thanks for sharing this info about Union Square. We were in NYC in Oct and had wanted to see this area, but sadly never made it due to time. It is definitely on our list to see the next time we are there - hopefully in the spring so we can sit out and enjoy lunch while people watching We did make it to Battery Park though, and that was pretty interesting. Thanks again for sharing.
Comment

Re: Where In the World is TravelGumbo (#199)

Paul Heymont ·
Saturday's clues include enough of a glimpse of the background to say "city park," but where? Two more clues tomorrow before the answer is revealed.
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

DrFumblefinger ·
Well, for a start, make sure you visit Reno, Travel Luver. It's a much small town than Vegas but still has all the casinos, restaurants, etc that you'd expect from a Nevada City. From here it's easy to do a day trip to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or down to Carson City. Reno is actually the closest major city to Great Basin National Park, say about a 3-4 hour drive. Vegas is 6-7 hour drive away. Salt Lake City is closer to Great Basin than Vegas. But you really can't do it as...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

PortMoresby ·
A friend who was a park planner for the National Park Service said his favorite park was Big Bend in Texas. He's a lover of desert landscapes, wide-open spaces and, in the case of this park too, almost no visitors. Another orphan, no doubt. http://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

DrFumblefinger ·
Thanks for the note, PortMoresby. I've visited a lot of the US parks, but Big Bend is still on my "to do" list. They do white water rafting trips there, which appeals to me. One of the things that a lot of folks enjoy about these "orphans" is that they are so sparsely peopled, with few tourists. I think the US Parks system is the USA's biggest tourist asset. I'm certainly a huge fan. Seems whenever I'm in a US Park, more German is spoken than English. The German folks certainly are aware of...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

Paul Heymont ·
The comments on "orphan parks" made for some interesting thoughts. How do we (as a society) choose what to save for parks? When you consider urban parkland, the point is obvious: people who have no land of their own need areas for public recreation. In other cases, individuals with wealth and influence have created parks in areas important to them personally (think of Acadia and the Rockefellers, Palisades Interstate Park and Morgan partners). But setting aside and maintaining areas like...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

PortMoresby ·
Pheymont, you speak as if budget cuts are in the future when in fact the Park Service has been functioning with less and less for years now. The Service has a mission to which they're dedicated but less funding has meant "deferred" maintenance on buildings, trails, you name it. And when features of a park are deemed unsafe or there isn't personnel to oversee visitors then parts are closed. I've experienced that myself recently when a trail I've visited in years past was closed. I have no...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

DrFumblefinger ·
Costs for the existing parks is mostly maintenance and salary. In the face of a broke federal government, I would favor increased user fees. $10-20 for a family to visit a national park for a week is the greatest bargain out there. People who love the parks would happily pay twice as much and I don't think the extra cost would be a deterent. Also, it's reasonable for those with concessions to pay up more than they are. They are given a monopoly and some of those profits should go back to the...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

Paul Heymont ·
No, I'm painfully aware of the past and present cuts...but I see more ahead. My concern is that there are loud voices (my own included) to speak out against cuts to parks that have a big "fan base," including Gateway here in the NY area. Because so many speak out for those parks, I fear that NPS will increasingly "hide the damage" by even more drastic cuts to others--perhaps even outright abandonment. And that's not so far-fetched an idea. For some 20 or more years here in New York, Prospect...
Comment

Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park

DrFumblefinger ·
PHeymont, I don't believe we disagree. I think the problem is that the park system relies on "federal handouts" and when a government is broke, there's less to hand out. As I said, I sort of favor them being self-funded by their user and concession fees. That's a lot of money already (if it was all kept in the parks) and people would be willing to pay more IF they knew the money stayed in the parks and didn't get diverted back into the Washington's general budget. Orphan parks would be...
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

Former Member ·
I've often advised travelers with jam-packed itineraries to step back and leave themselves time to take a walk in a park or sit there a while, experiencing what the locals see and do. That is absolutely excellent advice. I hope that most people were wise enough to take your advice. Many of my best trip memories are made of such stuff. Thank you so much, PHeymont, for this walk in the park. It is just what my jangled nerves needed today.
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

PortMoresby ·
I suspect a walk in the park is a habit acquired over time and familiarity with a place. I have a feeling, too, that the urge to go at top speed is the initial and overriding one. Or is it years and not travel experience that slows us down enough for such places to finally come into focus? Looking back over the decades I think maybe it's the latter.
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

DrFumblefinger ·
I do think people's perspectives and priorities change with time. For example, I care little about a bar or nightlife scene in most of my destinations nowadays; that mattered more to me when I was much younger. I have always loved walking in parks because of the beautiful gardens, etc. But I think i'm much more into people watching in these places than I used to be. One of my favorite places to visit is the provincial park a short block from my home. It's grand to go for a walk in it, see...
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

PortMoresby ·
I don't disagree. Just pointing out the nature of human beings and, like world peace, we can wish for it while not actually expecting everyone to join in. But lessons are learned from war too and how would we feel about every tourist in town flocking to OUR park.
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

GarryRF ·
I've mentioned in other pages that I love wide open spaces - like the State Delaware Park - but the designer of New York Central Park rung a Bell with me. Frederick Olmsted came to Liverpool to check out the "Peoples Garden" and he wrote in 1850 : "Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with...
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

Former Member ·
It is clear that the "dumb" animals always seem to know the best places to hang out. We can never have enough parks. Nice to read that Frederick Olmsted also knew a good park when he saw one. Thanks for that info GarryRF
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

Paul Heymont ·
Garry's note about Olmsted's travels (and he was quite a traveler) set me off on a quick look to find the park he was referring to (which I didn't; apparently "people's garden" was a description rather than a name?) and found that Liverpool has more parks and especially top-class parks than any British city besides London. The article also mentioned that for reasons of health—and keeping social unrest down—the city commissioners set out on a park-building spree starting about 1833. Many...
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

GarryRF ·
Another Park from the 1850s. People would escape Liverpool for the day and travel north to Hesketh Park. 20 minutes on the train. This is taken in Mid-Winter.
Comment

Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park

DrFumblefinger ·
Originally Posted by Grouchy Gumbo: The last pic is of my cousin Priscilla, who lives in Prospect Park. I see that you gave her a little gnosh. Not that she needs it. She seems to be putting on a little extra "winter coat" this year. She has a fine home. I would really like to visit the park sometime. Grouchy, I'm curious how a squirrel manages long distance travel to visit relatives. Maybe you can enlighten us mere mortals.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #4.5, 12/6/13

PortMoresby ·
The towns of Oxnard and Ventura are next to each other. Using Streetview seems to eliminate Ventura Pier, not as many buildings as in DrF's photo. I'm not finding anything called Oxnard Pier so I think maybe the pier closest to Oxnard is Port Hueneme Fishing Pier which has almost no buildings, park and parking lot, it would appear.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5

DrFumblefinger ·
There are probably a million miles of hiking trails in north America alone. But not many of them are this well groomed, with borders on the side of the path, smooth surface or well made wooden handrails where it seems none are needed. Ferns imply a shaded moister setting. This looks like some kind of urban park to me, not a wilderness park. PHeymont is an east coast guy, although he gets around a lot. I don't hike there, but who knows east coast hiking trails around here?
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5

Dan Carter ·
I see ferns, and I see birch and evergreens. Pretty sure it's back in the east, but I don't think it's a city park, because it's not set up for a lot of visitors. Wonder where!
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5

Dan Carter ·
Yeah, but he also posted about Lisbon, Spain, a park in Brooklyn, France, Chicago...so I wouldn't put too much stock in Maine.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5

PortMoresby ·
I don't see the stones, looks like wood along the path to me. My first thought was NYC, Central Park. Then I thought the park in Brooklyn made more sense in this context, Prospect Park. I agree it looks more like an urban than wilderness place, very tidy. So that's my best guess. I have no plans to search the internet for matching photos this go-around. So that's my thought & I'm stickin' to it.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #5

DrFumblefinger ·
Originally Posted by PortMoresby: I don't see the stones, looks like wood along the path to me. My first thought was NYC, Central Park. Then I thought the park in Brooklyn made more sense in this context, Prospect Park. I agree it looks more like an urban than wilderness place, very tidy. So that's my best guess. I have no plans to search the internet for matching photos this go-around. So that's my thought & I'm stickin' to it. In a far far away land, long long ago, there was a young...
Comment

Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, December 12, 2013: Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth, Minnesota

Ottoman ·
Hello again Theodore Sorry for the late response to your question. Personally, I do not think it is worth the time and effort it would take for you to drive to Duluth from Minneapolis for only one day in the winter time. The ride from Minneapolis to Duluth one way on Interstate 35 will take you 2.5 hours, and that's under good driving conditions. In the winter, chances are you will encounter bad weather, and that will definitely add to your driving time. Duluth doesn't shut down in the...
Comment

Re: Tampa Bay Automobile Museum: 3) cars from the USA and UK

rbciao ·
Great pics of great cars. I will put the Tampa Bay Museum on my list of things to see. Additionally, The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky is awesome, as well. It includes a 50's diner cafe featuring period stuff for lunch. Less than a mile away is the Corvette assembly plant, which offers tours. This is the only place in the whole wide world where Corvettes are assembled. Both are definitely worth a visit. The National Packard Museum is located In Warren, Oh and is small, but...
Comment

Re: A Walk through Florida's Everglades: Big Cypress Bend boardwalk at Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park

Paul Heymont ·
Looks like a great place for a walk and a learn! You might just be putting Florida on my map...
Comment

Re: A Walk through Florida's Everglades: Big Cypress Bend boardwalk at Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park

Travel Rob ·
What a great walk.I really enjoy the boardwalks that are all over Florida.Really let's you get on top of some interesting things that you don't want to walk through.
Comment

Re: A Visit to the “Spine Garden:”Cactus in Arizona’s Sonora Desert

DrFumblefinger ·
As it snows and storms outside, a welcome diversion! I find all cacti interesting but there's something captivating about the saguaro forest around Tucson. While visiting Saguaro National Park (years ago, before it was a national park), I remember a newspaper clipping tacked onto the park's information board. The headline read something like "Saguaro cactus involved in double homocide". Seems a drunk yahoo with a shotgun drove out to the desert to kill himself a giant saguaro. He did, the...
Comment

Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day. January 14, 2014: Calgary Peace Bridge

Dr.Y ·
Glad you like the pictures IslandMan. Yes Calgary and near by Banff National Park are beautiful parts of the world worth visit. If you are not into ski, summer (please note, it is very short here) is the best time to come. Let me know, I will take you to the best spot to see the bridge! Have a good day. Dr.Y
Comment

Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day. January 14, 2014: Calgary Peace Bridge

Dr.Y ·
The bridge on the bottom right of the picture 3 is called Bow River Pathway. It's a pedestrian/cycling bridge connecting the downtown ore - Prince's Island Park - The North bank of Bow river. The Peace bridge and C-train bridge are further west! Ha Ha Karl, you need get out more
Comment

Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Mar 10, 2014: Fiori di Como, The Bellagio, Las Vegas

DrFumblefinger ·
Well, when you're in Vegas for your anniversary sometime GarryRF, spring for the Bellagio for even just one night and let your beloved wife see the fountain show from that side of the street! I enjoy Vegas in small snippets -- 2-3 days every few years is about perfect. Great place to meet friends, eat well and enjoy a show. Gamble if you want, though I find it too painful to have my wallet stripped that way. I like to go there in the spring and fall so I can head into the surrounding desert...
Comment

Re: Help Celebrate Gumbo's New Year: Pick Your Favorite Pictures!

Travel Rob ·
Here's another one from Dr. Y that makes me want to go there. https://www.travelgumbo.com/blo...ational-park-china-1
Comment

Re: The Big Island of Hawaii (Part 1). Volcanoes Park

Paul Heymont ·
Great pictures, and great memories. This was our favorite part of Hawaii...especially the "end of the road" where the park highway suddenly comes to an end against a pile of lava from a few years ago. It's a big tourist attraction, yes, but it seemed much less so than many other places on the islands.
Comment

Re: A visit to Saudi Arabia: Part I

DrFumblefinger ·
Wow! Thanks for this fascinating contribution, Lestertheinvestor. I was exhausted just from reading the directions for applying for the visa. It is quite obvious that Saudi Arabia doesn't want infidels visiting them. A few questions you might know the answer to: 1) Is the process stream-lined for a Muslim wanting to go to Mecca, and what kind of proof do they need to have that they're a Muslim? 2) Do you have any rough idea how many hours you spent on this process? Ball-park guess would do.
Comment

Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, March 31, 2014: Saguaro National Park, Arizona

Jean ·
Just visited this park on the advice of our daughter and Dr. Fumblefinger. Enjoyed it immensly. Beautiful photos taken on the trip. Maybe see some of my daughters photos soon.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo #17

Paul Heymont ·
LAST HINT: You're looking at a National Park that's split between two states, and has a historical connection to Ronald Reagan's acting career).
Comment

Re: National Parks Centennial to get big marketing push

PortMoresby ·
I hope everyone rushes right out to get their Senior Passes, as I did, when you reach 62. $10 to get into every federal recreation site managed by the Forest Service, the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation, for life. Details for it, and other passes here: http://www.store.usgs.gov/pass/senior.html
Comment

Re: Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, Redux

DrFumblefinger ·
Hi Garry, and thanks for your comment. The active areas within the National Park are off limits because of toxic fume levels, not so much because of lava. The roads to the Pahoe area (outside the park) of actively flowing lava are closed and access is theoretically restricted. For a fee, one of the locals will guide you to the flowing lava. Remember this is thick fairly slowly flowing lava, not unlike moving pancake batter. But it is hot and you have to be careful. Shoes can melt and worse...
Comment

Re: Bayfront Stadium, Pensacola: As Good as it Gets

Paul Heymont ·
Nice touch, having a chance to catch a ball while swimming! Seriously, maybe the best thing about the revival of minor-league ball (besides the training opportunities for future big-leaguers) is the affordability that makes it possible for families to enjoy and learn the game now that most major league tickets (and concessions) are out of range! There's no way you can really understand baseball from TV watching, where you don't really see the game, only the camera angle chosen at that...
Comment

Re: Gold Country California: Malakoff Diggins, Ranger Connie in Charge

PortMoresby ·
I did, indeed, Dgems. And this last time, too, up one way, down the other. But it seems to me one is about as bad as the other and I'm so glad I decided not to live up there! The altitude at the park is about 5,000', DrF, and it gets quite a bit of snow when there's moisture to be had. So, anytime but winter is a good time. Tours by "herself" are summer only. Grass Valley and Nevada City are at about 2500'.
Comment

Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#63)

DrFumblefinger ·
Looks like its some kind of park. Still favor a flag being raised over a bat held up -- maybe the gamekeeper can clarify with a clue. If a flag, it has overtones of a revolution and I'd favor France then, probably Paris. The minibleacher invites the tykes to come -- play along with the French Revolution game. PHeymont has not shown us the mock-up of the guillotine beside this display (if it exists).
Comment

Re: Where in the World is Gumbo #47

DrFumblefinger ·
The path behind the statuary is in a park like setting. Perhaps a park? Vegetation is lush, but not tropical.....
×
×
×
×