2015 – Hungry Mike

South Florida

Choon-Chern Lim — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Everglades National Park is one of the national parks we always wanted to visit, but we were unsure how to do a proper sightseeing on the wetlands. This time, we decided to cover the Everglades and it turned out to be a great unique experience.

Covering 1.5 million acres, the Everglades is the largest subtropical wetland ecosystem in North America, the largest wilderness in the Southeast, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere and the largest stand of sawgrass prairie in North America. The Everglades is also the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist. Although we didn’t encounter any crocodiles, based on the park official, there are only a couple thousands of crocodiles left in Florida while there are in the upwards of 2 millions alligators.

During our time in the park, we did the airboat ride right outside the park territory and the pontoon boat ride in the park. Besides covering Everglades National Park, we also visited the nearby Big Cypress National Preserve based on the park official’s recommendation, which has very different vegetation than the Everglades.

Although we didn’t truly cover Miami, we joined a food tour in the Little Havana neighborhood to sample the Cuban cuisine and learn about the Cuban culture. We also spent one full day driving all the way to Key West while visiting several attractions, such as the Turtle Hospital, Hemingway House and strolling along the famous Duval Street. The remaining 4 days were spent in Fort Lauderdale to attend a conference.

2-hour private airboat ride right outside the national park territory.

Plenty of alligators in the Everglades.

Black vultures scratch and damage our rental vehicle.

An Anhinga fishes for food.

Exploring the vast mangrove forest.

4-hour bike ride in Shark Valley.

Although the Great Blue Heron is considered the largest bird in the Everglades, this Wood Stork is by far the largest bird we encountered.

The southernmost point of the United States in Key West.

Learning about turtle rescue in Turtle Hospital.

Bald cypress trees and cardinal airplants in Big Cypress National Preserve.

Cuban cigar factory in Little Havana neighorhood.

Sunrises and morning walks in Fort Lauderdale.

Places we covered in South Florida.

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Perrot State Park

Choon-Chern Lim — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Since most state parks in our area were closed due to the deer hunting season, we decided to visit Perrot State Park in Trempealeau, WI. Pretty amazing 3-hour hikes to Perrot Ridge and Brady’s Bluff, not to mention it was unseasonably warm in mid November.

Spectacular view from Brady’s Bluff… Mississippi River on the left and Trempealeau Bay on the right.

Curvy trail… the hike down from Brady’s Bluff.

The places we hiked.

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Beaver Valley Creek State Park

Choon-Chern Lim — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Spent a gorgeous day hiking in Beaver Valley Creek State Park. The drive from I-90 to Houston and then Caledonia was incredibly scenic… possibly one of the best drives in south eastern Minnesota. We hiked for four hours covering about 7 miles in the park.

Beaver Creek.

Yay!

The places we hiked.

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Carley State Park

Choon-Chern Lim — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Spent a few hours hiking in Carley State Park. This is our first time visiting this state park. Most trails are rather flat and easy. Most trees are leafless except the oak trees.

River crossing.

The places we hiked.

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Winona & Great River Bluffs State Park

Choon-Chern Lim — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Did a half day trip to Winona and Great River Bluffs State Park to see fall colors. After having lunch in Winona, we bought some donuts from the well known Bloedow’s Bakery before strolling along Winona Lake. Then, we spent a few hours in Great River Bluffs State Park. It was rather past peak at this point but we managed to capture some colorful shots.

Weeping willow tree at Winona Lake.

Fall colors in Great River Bluffs State Park.

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The Laws in Frontenac State Park

Choon-Chern Lim — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Did short hikes in Frontenac State Park in a rather windy afternoon. Met up with Andy and Jenny to help them to take some family photos. The fall colors was only 10-20% according to DNR website but we managed to find a few good spots to take pictures in the late afternoon. We headed to Lake City for a good dinner at a Mexican restaurant before we parted ways.

Mario.

Luigi.

Little Mermaid.

The Law family.

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The McGlones at the Barn

Choon-Chern Lim — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Spent two hours in a rather chilly afternoon doing photo shoots for the McGlones. Dale was gracious enough to allow us to use his barn area to do some epic shots. At the end of the photo shoot, all of us had delicious dinner at the McGlones’ place: home-cooked ribs, smoked for 5 hours… pretty much the highlight of my day.

A pretty impressive barn architecture. Built in the 30s, some lumbers are more than 100 years old.

Best friend forever!

Two kids, plotting to run away from the parents.

Dale provides a free combine harvester ride for Conor.

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Supermoon

Choon-Chern Lim — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Stumbled upon a rather yellowish supermoon on the horizon at about 8:30 PM.

Supermoon view from the deck. Composite of 2 shots. The bright light at the background is a gas station.

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Super Blood Moon

Choon-Chern Lim — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Caught a truly rare opportunity to witness the rare supermoon total lunar eclipse on the same night as the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. There have only been five supermoon eclipses since 1900 (in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982), and the next will occur in 2033. The supermoon appears 14% larger and 33% brighter than other full moons.

We didn’t initially plan to do any moon watching, but there was virtually no clouds at night. So, we sat outside on the deck under the starry night, drinking hot chocolates, eating mooncakes, playing games on iPad and taking a few pictures from 8:00 PM to 10:15 PM.

Super blood moon.

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Perseid Meteor Shower

Choon-Chern Lim — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Attempted to capture Perseid meteor shower as it was supposed to peak between 11th and 13th. Used Star Walk app on iPad to determine the location of the constellation Perseus. Set up the camera with an intervalometer on the deck pointing to that direction and shot continuous 30-second exposure shots from 9:30 PM to dawn, and hope for the best. Granted, Others within the city area isn’t ideal in the first place due to the light pollution.

No meteor shower due to overcast sky. Here’s 900 30-second exposure shots in 30 seconds:-

Again, no meteor shower due to overcast sky. For some reason, the intervalometer didn’t fire the shutter at all. Hence, no pictures were taken. On top of that, the camera was wet due to early morning rain. Pretty much a big epic fail.

Perfect clear sky. Captured about 10 meteors between 9:30 PM and midnight before the condensation started forming on the lens after midnight, rendering unusable shots. Nevertheless, somewhat a success even though it wasn’t 60 to 100 meteors per hour.

800 ISO, f/2.8, 14mm, Bulb, 1″ interval, 30″ frame, hand warmer on lens hood, lens coat on body.

A composite shot of Perseid meteor shower. Most trails are fairly faint due to light pollution.

Star trail from 300 shots.

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