Old Made New.

The photo below shows a small wooden boat parked in the Thermaic Gulf in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Row Row Row your Boat

My trip to Greece was about seven cameras ago, I don’t use years for my photos; just how many cameras have passed between now and then. This photo is so old it was under 1MB. I have since purchased the Topaz Gigapixel AI, not a sponsor, which adds filling to the photo to make it good enough to print in large sizes.

This has led me to review my old pictures (I never delete my photos) and upgrade the good ones. I remember waking up and walking around the harbor around 8 am this morning, and the Mediterranean sun was harsh. I saw a gang of wild dogs that gathered around a car at the red light; I saw the white tower looking a bit beige, and then I looked out over the water and all this boat. Even with the blinding light, I could admire the bold colors that stayed in my mind a few camera’s later. I’m thrilled with how well the image turned out; so if you have old photos you want to make new again, look online and find one you like.

First Time Visiting USA

If you plan to visit the United States of America, here are some things to know before you go.

  1. American is big; it’s a six-hour flight (nonstop) from the east coast to the west coast or three days non-stop by train (New York City to LA). If you plan to drive to multiple locations within different states, you need to google map those trips and see how long they take.
  2. We don’t use the Metric System. Part of the reason against switching is the cost (changing all the signs/packeting, number of miles to X city, speed limits, and measuring devices); the other part is because everyone says we should.
  3. So many names: we go by US, US of A, USA, America, ‘Merica, and the United States.
  4. We don’t have paid toilets; we have public rest areas on major roads with public restrooms, snacks, and grass for your traveling dogs.
  5. We defeated the UK, but we kept some of the customs. We are very firm on lines (or queues); just like Sting, we ask that you Don’t Stand so Close to me, we love our pet dogs, and we clap/cheer when a waiter drops a tray of glassware.
  6. Everything is big; our meals are enormous, you can buy soft drinks by the gallon, we have king-size candy (which is odd as we fought not to have a king), and eight-lane highways with two toll/express lanes in the middle.
  7. How many States do we have? It depends! The US has fifty states, but four technically call themselves commonwealth. Kentucky, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania all have Commonwealth in the legal name, but they are still states. There are also fourteen territories, but only five are inhabited (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and two of those five also have commonwealth in the official legal name, Northern Mariana Island and Puerto Rico, and then we have D.C.
  8. Washington D.C. No one calls it Washington D.C. It’s just D.C. because it’s shorter to say and avoids any confusion with Washington State. D.C. is not a State or territory but a federal district. They have elected local officials, like Mayor and a Congress member who can’t vote; any local laws can be overturned by the Federal Government (AKA Congress).
  9. We have some misleading states’ names. New Mexico is a state in the US; its neighbors are Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and the Country Mexico. New Mexico may have the word Mexico in the title, but it’s still in the US. We have North and South Dakota, North and South Carolina, and West Virginia and Virginia. These are all separate states; West Virginia is not the western part of Virginia.
  10. Sales tax varies by state; California has the highest rate at 7.25%, a few states have no sales tax, and some even vary on what gets taxed. Pennsylvania has a 6% sales tax rate, but necessities like food, water, and clothes are not taxed. The rates are not noted on any pricing labels.
  11. Arizona doesn’t use daylight savings time, so it’s an hour different from neighboring states for half the year.
  12. There are 12 states with two time zones. Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, and Idaho.
  13. Regions: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, West, Southwest, Northwest, and West. The states facing the Atlantic Ocean comprise the East Cost; the Northernmost is Maine, and the Southernmost is Florida. The northernmost third is the Northeast, the middle chunk is the Mid-Atlantic, and the bottom third is the Southeast. The Midwest is the middle, out towards the western part. The states that share a border with Mexico are Southwest, and everything north of California is Northwest.
  14. The Fourth of July is the national holiday or banking day; it is celebrated with cookouts (AKA Barbecues), drinking, parades, fireworks, and everyone wearing something in the red, white, and blue color scheme. So this is your warning; it gets loud.
  15. We don’t celebrate VE Day (Victory in Europe) Day because WWII didn’t end for us; we were still fighting in the Pacific. We do have Memorial Day in May, and Nov 11 is Veterans Day, not Remembrance Day.
  16. We have Labour Day, but it’s not May 1st because it got a bit communist, so our Labour Day is in September.
  17. Public Transportation is usually for workers during the work week (M-F), so check the weekend schedule.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Fourteen

This is the end: we leave the land and head back through the Drake Passage, which was rougher on the way back. How rough was it, the elevator was closed. If the boat is rocking, hold onto something.

Once land was in sight, we did see an hourglass dolphin riding the waves from the front of our boat.

We spend one last night on the boat outside of the port, I’m assuming this is due to the uncertain nature of how long the Drake Passage will take. We had a beautiful sunset outside of Ushuaia.

Then it was the arduous trip back home.

Happy Mother’s Day

Here are some cute photos of animal moms and their babies to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Elephants are pregnant for almost two years, and baby feeding happens near Mom’s armpits in the first two legs vs. the back with goats, cows, and horses.

Hi Mom, look at this thing I found lying on the ground! This a phrase most parents dread.

Don’t worry; Rhinos are born without horns.

Don’t mess with a Mama bear or any mother with her children!

Bison calves weigh 30-70 pounds at birth, that 13.7 to 32 Kilograms.

Do storks deliver their babies to themselves?

That would be helpful with human babies.

She’s about 5 seconds away from falling alseep.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Thirteen

Last stop in Antarctica Half Moon Island. We have all three penguins on this island, Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adélie, and some more cool rocks! We’ve also reached the part of every vacation where you want to go home but dread the trip back.

Baywatch penguin, walking in slow mode out of the ocean.

The seagull is diving into the water, looking for some fish.

The white ring around the Adélie Penguin’s eyes makes it looks shocked!

And now the cool rocks.

Penguins and an Iceberg.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Twelve Deception Island

This island is in South Shetlands and is a caldera with an active volcano; the last time it erupted was in 1969. It’s still so warm that snow doesn’t stick to the shoreline, and the rocky beach has a red hue. It was once a whaling station, but they didn’t want to deal with the lava. It has been used as a science station, but only in the summer.

We have some new animals on the island, the first is a female elephant seal, and the other is the chinstrap penguin. The elephant seal is sunbathing next to old tankers used to hold fuel (whale oil and, later on, gasoline). Remember, I have a good zoom lens; I’m not close to the seal.

I guess the elephant seal like a firm mattress; I’m not sure what sleep number matches steel.

We also saw fur seals during yoga; I love those long whiskers.

Hey, can I get a deep-fried krill meal deal? What do you mean those are penguins and not waiters in a tux??

Oh that hit the spot.

One Gentoo Penguin with a posse of Chinstrap Penguins.

I like the reflection in leftover water from the last wave. It’s a band album cover.

Some of the buildings that remain after the volcano erupted, I’m surprised the wood didn’t burn.

Science vessel passing through the island, checking up on the tourist.

The “modern” gas/oil tanks.

We close up with Cape petrel just bobbing in the ocean.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Eleven Mikkelsen Harbor

The beach was mostly cleared of snow and Ice, which allowed me to see some cool rocks! Some of the larger chunks of snow and ice created some great images and more penguins.

I think the darker rocks make colors pop; this was on the same 40-foot or 12-meter stretch of beach. I was able to capture water drops falling from the melting ice into a freezing puddle; and some ice formations.

I captured a Weddell seal doing yoga exercises; does anyone know what pose this is?

The other seal was channeling me on the weekends. Its fur pattern reminds me of a calico cat. We leave with the penguins playing king of the mountain.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Ten Cierva Cove

In the song 12 Days of Christmas day 10 is ten lords leaping; I present the updated lyric ten penguins leaping. The below images were taken from the balcony of the ship, a group of penguins in the water is called a Raft (a group on land is a waddle).

We didn’t make landfall for this stop, we tour a zodiac around the cove. Below is an example of how galcier ice is different from the sea ice, the glacier ice is in the middle and it looks like a dinosaur head or maybe a dragon head.

The birds in this image are rock shag birds, and are around 66-71 cm or 25 inches tall, to get a scale of the rock and snow in the back ground.

We add a new anaimal today, the sea lion, check out the tiny triangle ears.

Fun Fact, Glaicer ice is so compact due to the pressure of multiple ice layers. It creates textured bubbles and it’s so clear because the pressure pushes out air bubbles.

Net week is Mikkelsen Harbor.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Nine Paradise Island

It was snowing. People, boats, and cameras were getting wet, but the penguins were fine with the snow. Of course, I don’t speak penguin so maybe they were complaining about it.

Paradise Island is where we saw dirty penguins; that’s not a euphemism; they do get dirty. Too much muck will mess up the waterproofing on their wings, so they take a bath in the ocean. The smaller Adelie penguin is not a baby, it’s just smaller than the Gentoo penguins, but it’s covered.

Below are a series of penguins jumping into the ocean for a bath or maybe food.

Below are two different iceberg types or shapes, the first is a Tabular iceberg, Tabular icebergs have steep sides and a flat top, much like a plateau. The other is non-tabular and I think looks like a hand curled around a snowball; what do you see? 

We have another person running up that hill.

This island’s summer research station looks like a model inside a snow globe.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Eight Danco Island

Today’s blog is about Danco Island, where the Penguins like to dance; their favorite is the hop. The gentoo pengin just nailed it’s landing, hopping from on rock to another.

Danco Island also had some very cool rocks, great patterns, colors, and shapes. There were two heart shaped rocks and a green rock resting in a puddle that looked like a frog.

I did find a tidal pool with starfish and some kind of plant, i’m guessing kelp or algae.

I also saw

I like to think the penguin is looking up at the flying birds with envy. We also have a new bird to add to the list a Snowy sheathbill, aka Chionis albus, they blend in very well. The only bridge color it’s in pink face and beak.

The water from the tide rollling in froze over into this ice wave pattern, it even had it’s own small icebergs. Sometimes it pays to be borded and just wonder around looking at everything.

I included the cruis ship to help with scale.

We are nearing the end, the last stops are Paradise Island, Cierva Cove, Mikkelsen Harbour, Deception Island, Half Moon Island, and the return to Argentina.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Seven Petermann Island

Petermann Island has a built structure; it’s one of the refuge huts in Antarctica, and Argentina built this one in 1955. If something happens, the weather turns nasty, and you need a place to hunker down, you have this building. All the ones I saw were painted red because the color sticks out. I do love the idea that the penguins might use it when the tourist are gone. Maybe the penguins in the photo are planning a pizza party once we leave the island.

There are some stunning peaks on Petermann Island; the dark-colored jagged rocks contrast nicely against the white fluffy snow.

There were two penguin colonies on this Island, Gentoo and Adélie; the penguins took turns going back into the ocean to get clean. If their feathers are too dirty, they become less waterproof. The large boulders on the only clear beach way lead to penguins jumping from rock to rock. You can see just the tips of the penguin’s feet on the rock. Somehow they make jumping look cute.

This is the farest south we went, we turned around and started heading home, with a few stops along the way.

Visiting Antarctica

Part Six

Today we sailed through the Lemaire Channel, where the jagged cliffs were covered in fog. It did make it more ethereal and spooky, like Peter Jackson’s King Kong screen where they run into Kong Island.

Here’s a clearer view on the way back out once the fog was gone.

A thin layer of sea ice had formed in the channel; as our boat sailed forward, it pushed the thin ice lily pads together to create thicker ice off the wake. In the photo below, you can see the thin ice lily pads, and near the bottom of the image, it’s thicker as all the thin ice was smushed together.

Another example is sea ice forming over the ocean; saltwater freezing at 28F or -2C, so it’s frigid.

I wasn’t feeling that good this morning so I passed on the first trip off the boat, but it did give me time to watch the penguins swimming. All the penguin tv shows, movies, and photos are of penguins on land that you forget penguins spend most of their lives in open water. I also didn’t realize that penguins are fast underwater.

To evade predators, penguins randomly leap in the air and sprint in the opposite direction. If you want to get a photo, they jump 3 or 4 times and then sprint; they also jump as a group.

They also seem to like a pool party.

The penguin colony I could hear from the cruise ship. I’m guessing they do some snowboarding in the U-shaped dip.

That’s all for today! Stay tuned to this bat channel next week for Petermann Island.