Cool things to do around North Florida

NASA Shuttle Launch
I tried during summer 2006 to watch a shuttle launch, get there and 5 minutes before it was cancel due to weather. I know is not the best way to open a statement of promoting an activity with its negative side. But that's how dirty weather plays here in FL. But I tried again during Spring 2009. I was going to be in Miami and on my way back to Tallahassee during launch time, so I was lucky enough that after this mission being cancel twice before, I had the chance to go and try one more time. The are many locations along road US-1, but some how I ended up at the same spot than my previous time, I-95 heading to the coast. If you arrive early, parking around the area is easy, bring binoculars and chairs, and your camera, of course.
Launch time was right after sunset. The entire sky lighted up, the noise is really cool. An amazing experience to witness.


The downside is traffic, since everybody leaves at the same time. Both times I kept going towards Orlando, Bad Idea. Next time will try to keep going north on I-95 to Jacksonville.
Travel time to Tallahassee: more than 5 hours, but totally worth it!

Wakulla Springs: Manatees, Kayaks
About 30 min south of Tallahassee, I went kayaking on beautiful day to finally see manatees. It was so peaceful. I saw turtles,



birds, a gator and manatees! We ran into 3, mom and kids.



One of the babies, started swimming around the kayak and doing turns next to us.



It was so cute, the sad part was to see all the scarf on his back, as a consequence of all the motor boats that go along the river :-(



Note: I copy this in case anyone had concerns about the pictures. "The manatee is also protected by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978, which states: 'It is unlawful for any person, at any time, intentionally or negligently, to annoy, molest, harass or disturb any manatee.'" None of these were done on this trip by anyone.

River Tubing

Beach

My simple ideas for the Three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I will be posting ideas and picture of a better way to save the environment. One of the issues I think we have to fix in the future is that citizens might be just going for the third R and end of the discussion, "they have done their part." Recycling is good, don't get me wrong, but we should do something before getting to that third R. What we should do instead is to set our minds in the order the 3 R's are on the title:

1) Reduce!
-Bottle Water: I got this idea from other website for the intention of saving $$$. Tap water might not be the best option, so I bought a water pitcher filter, save money and reduce the plastic gallons of water I used to buy and recycle. But then, what I can do with the filter? Here how to recyle (if Brita):
Where to recycle Britas filters?
http://www.filterforgood.com/
http://www.brita.com/support/filter-recycling/

2) Reuse!
-Bowls: Before you throw something to the trash can, think: Can I reuse this? Butter bowls, bottled juice, bottled water are some of the things I have reused.
-- Butter bowls: when done, fill with water and soap, shake, and leave it cover for couple of days, then rinse and the soap have cut the greasy butter off your new reusable bowls for food storage.
--Bottled juice: when done, fill with a little bit of water and a drop of soap, shake and rinse. Then next time you want to enjoy the fruity taste of juice, go to the frozen section of your favorite grocery store and get the 8 oz. concentrated juice. Poor in the juice and 3 of the 8oz. fill with water.

3) Recycle!
Here some pictures of my new recycling center. I reused some boxes, white paper and some colorful paper my roommate got at a store. So no more excuses for an ugly recycling.

Future missions by NASA including ISS missions

I have been a fan of NASA launchs, and this past Spring Break I finally got the chance to watch mission STS-119, which its crew included the first Puertorrican descended NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba. It was such a trill to be part of history...
If you ever think about driving/flying to Cape Canaveral to see a launch, that will be wrong: Don't think about it and do it!

Future Missions:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_manifest.html
STS-119
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts119/main/index.html
Next mission STS-129 , Target Date: Nov 16
In this mission, one of the astranauts, Leland D. Melvin, was a guest to a NASA conference @ PR I attended back in 2004. I have a picture with him, which I will post soon. He already have been on space (STS-122 Atlantis February 7-20, 2008) and going again as the Mission Specialist on STS-129 . Good Luck Melvin!

Hurricane Season is ON! Where to find the right info...

Very cool interaction features with the storms, buoys around the area, and wind fields of the storm:
http://www.stormpulse.com/

From this website you can download all the different models' track and download it to Google Earth or Google Maps!
http://tropicalatlantic.com/home/

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies

Robert Hart, FSU Associate Professor's website (contains most important models)
http://moe.met.fsu.edu/

But all the official information should be found on the National Hurricane Center: