A Celebration of Birds--John James Audubon Exhibition

We went into Ely to get ready for some Christmas festivities. One of our stops was to the ever-favorite East Ely Railroad Museum, located at the Nevada Northern Railway. I had seen flyers about an exhibition of John James Audubon and The Birds of America exhibition. While the kids watched The Polar Express, my husband and I enjoyed the marvelous paintings.

Many paintings showed birds we see in the area, like an osprey and a white-headed eagle, now known as a bald eagle. I didn't know much about John James Audubon, so I appreciated the information provided.

Audubon was born in Haiti (with a different name) and raised in France and didn't come to the U.S. until he was 18, in 1803. Lands west of the Mississippi had just been sold to the U.S. by France as a condition of the Louisiana Purchase. Audubon explored these frontier lands, collecting and drawing birds of these places. He had little formal training in birds or drawing, but his close attention to detail helped him immensely. He was also a very good hunter, and he shot the birds before he drew and painted them. In the 1830s, Audubon began commenting on the decline of some birds from overhunting, namely passenger pigeons. His name began to be associated with conservation.

The painting above shows ivory-billed woodpeckers. Another showed passenger pigeons. When I look at the paintings I'm sad that I'll never get to see these birds in real life.

The above painting showed a bird I saw recently on our trip: an anhinga, known better in the 1800s as
the black-bellied darter.

The exhibit will be at the East Ely Railroad Museum until January 6. It's free! Open 8-4:30 every day but Tuesday. They have a really nice brochure that goes with the exhibition and has a map of Important Bird Areas in Nevada and activities for kids, as well as a guide to bird identification.

To read a little more about how the exhibition came to be, here's an article in the Elko Daily Free Press.

Key West

 On our four-night cruise from Miami we had two port stops: Key West and Cozumel. I had previously visited Key West and hadn't found that much that excited me. Knowing the kids would be happiest to dig in the sand, I decided that the best place for us to go would be Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The cruise ship docked at the Navy pier, and from there we could catch free shuttles to downtown. Our helpful shuttle driver let us off right by the entrance to the state park.

 The state park included the remnants of a fort that was built on a key, but over time fill materials had annexed it to the mainland. The fort was originally three-stories tall, but the upper two stories had been removed, leaving it not quite as imposing. Nevertheless, the large structure still had a lot of bricks.

 And a lot of cannons. This was an important defensive position during the 1800s.

 Desert Boy thoroughly inspected one cannon.

 Our cruise ship wasn't far away, but because we had to go through the almost-retired Navy restricted area, we had to go a roundabout way to tour the fort.

It was hot and muggy, and what we really wanted to see was the beach, so we didn't stay long.

 We saw a couple huge iguanas on the fort as we continued on our short walk to the beach.

 The beach has both sand and some rocky areas. The first rocky area I snorkeled by I didn't see any fish. Fortunately another rocky area did have some fish.

 Desert Boy couldn't wait to go clamber on the rocks. I followed, wincing as my sore feet came in contact with the sharp rocks. It turned out that the rocks were quite interesting.

 They had tons of fossils! Way cool!

 The water was a nice respite from the heat. I wasn't used to being able to go swimming and not come out cold.

 We watched another cruise ship heading to the pier. We were the only one there that morning, so the beach wasn't very busy.

 On the way back, we crossed the road by the state park entrance and went to the Florida Keys Eco-discovery Center, a facility sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The shuttle driver had told us it was free--and air-conditioned. Sounded good to me. (It's hard to believe that I'm writing about air conditioning when it's barely above freezing outside my house right now!) I didn't know anything about this center, as my Internet searches about what to do in Key West hadn't turned up information about it.

 The center has a number of displays about different habitats, such as the mangrove coastlines and the coral reef. The kids loved looking at the fish.

 They also had a mock up Aquarius, the only under-ocean laboratory. Desert Boy was thrilled to go in and press buttons.

 We met up with other family members, who had taken the shuttle to Mallory Square, walked along Duval Street, went to the southernmost point in the U.S., and then met us at the state park. It was a very pleasant day, and if anyone is wondering what to do in Key West that is good for kids and not expensive, I would definitely recommend these sites. I have to admit the parasailing looked like a lot of fun--but that will have to wait for another trip!

I think living in the desert makes me appreciate the abundance of water in Florida even more. The ecosystems there are so different and amazing.

Maya Lands: A Trip to Cozumel

 I figured it might be apropos to do a post that had a Mayan connection on this 21st day of December in 2012. It so happened that about ten days ago I was in Cozumel, Mexico, the main destination of our cruise. I was so excited to get there. The water was an amazing blue color that I've never seen before.

 In the distance we could see buildings and monuments of Cozumel island, which is the largest island in Mexico. It is a bit south of Cancun, located offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula.

 It was a stormy day, but that didn't deter us from our plans: to go snorkeling.

 We waited in line to get off the cruise ship, then hurriedly walked down the pier, through the little fake village of shops, and to the taxi stand. They didn't have a sign as to where you could get out of the village, and I think the cruise companies kind of hope that people will stay there.

When we got to the taxis, we were the only cruisers there. We had one guy try and talk us into going to a beach to the north, but we had decided we really wanted to go to Parque Nacional Chankanaab, located a few kilometers south of the pier. Our taxi driver also tried to get us to change our minds, but we decided no. Chankanaab charges $21 a person to enter, which includes several attractions, as you will see if you keep reading this rather long post.

 Desert Girl was wearing her princess crown, and she was a sleeping beauty, lulled to sleep by the short taxi ride.

 The entrance to the park was quite nice.

 We quickly got to see some of the local fauna.

 We really wanted to get to the beach. We found a nice chair and parked our worn-out princess. Then it was time for most of our group to go snorkeling.

 Desert Boy really wanted to climb a tree and get a coconut, but he never quite achieved that.
I had read that much of the sand at Chankanaab had been imported. Beaches in Cozumel tend to be either rocky with good snorkeling or sandy with poor snorkeling. Chankanaab had solved that problem by bringing in sand to its rocky shores and appealing to everyone.

 It was very easy to get to the water, and the visibility was very good, at least by our standards (and much better than Key West, where we had snorkeled the day before).

 Fish were everywhere! It was so cool to watch them swimming, feeding, and sometimes hiding.

 I don't know what the fish were, even though I had a tropical fish book. I still need to look them up!

 The snorkeling area was quite large. Further down the beach they had scuba diving, but none of us came prepared for that.

 When Desert Girl woke up, she was ready to play on one of the hammocks. It was mid-afternoon and not very busy, possibly because of the storms.

 Our admission fee included a sea lion show.

 The sea lions were very well trained.

 Desert Boy and Desert Girl each got a special kiss at the end of the show.

We also saw dolphins. One of the main attractions at the park is to swim with the dolphins. We didn't feel the need to do that. Supposedly they also have manatees, but we never could find them.

 It started raining hard, and the waves got kind of big, so most of our group went in search of the crocodiles. They looked a little scary. Then we ended up on a trail to see some archeological finds.

 Desert Girl was not too sure of being in such a downpour. It was a little chilly, but as long as we kept walking, we were fine.

 Along the trail they had replicas from many cultures from all over Mexico. We didn't really read much as we were trying to stay warm and find our way through. They had lights by some of the statues, and it would be really cool to go through there are night.

 We were surprised to come to a little temple. As we looked at it, we noticed a pair of glowing eyes inside it. We had been talking about monkeys, so at first we thought it might be one. It also sort of looked like an owl. We decided the best way to find out what it was would be to take a photo.

 The flash revealed a cat taking refuge from the rain inside. Well, not too exciting, so we kept going.

 The kids found a small turtle in a puddle and were enthralled by it.

 When we got back to the beach (skipping the tequila tasting section of the park), the rain had slowed, so we snorkeled some more. The kids played in a really nice freshwater pool. Then it was dark, and we were the last tourists out of the park.

We debated whether we should go back to the ship or not and decided to make the most of our time in Mexico and go see the downtown area. We had no problem getting a taxi, and our taxi driver enjoyed a conversation in Spanish with Desert Boy. He let us off at the central plaza.

 Desert Girl was ready to party it up.

 They had some nice Christmas lights up. It also appeared that they have a small carousel and a trampoline that parents can pay for during the day. We didn't mention those to the kids. Instead, we plied them with an all-time favorite: churros.

 Yum. Who can resist some sugary fried dough?

 We wandered down the pedestrian streets (so nice not to worry about traffic!). One English-speaking lady told my sister-in-law that Cozumel had changed a lot in the last decade. More and more cruise ships come, so the area has developed a much larger shopping district. One cab driver said about 25 ships come each week. Only one other ship was in port the day we arrived, and it left at 5:30 pm, so we found very few tourists wandering with us.

 We found a simple church. It was the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a huge religious holiday in Mexico. However, the big celebration was the night before, as they had a procession around the island that culminated with a midnight mass. One senora that left the church told me that the six o'clock mass was just ending and that there would be another at eight o'clock.

 We found a little cafe and ordered some tamales. They were huge!

 As we wandered, we passed this mural, which I found extremely touching. It shows the native flora and fauna and is entitled: Los veradaderos islenos/Our real islanders. It is so great to see that the people who live there realize that they are not the only inhabitants, that many other species share the island with them. This mural really grabbed me, and I wish I had taken more photos of it so I could see it even better.

 We wandered by many shops, most selling trinkets. When we went by the boot store, the bored shopkeeepers let us take a photo of Desert Boy in the big boot.

 Desert Girl tried on a hat.

 At Mr. Chile's, we found a bar with swings as seats. The owner encouraged us to take a few photos.

 If we had more time, I would have loved to have had a drink or two there. It looked like so much fun!

 Eventually we got tired of wandering and got a taxi back to the cruise village. We ambled through and back to the ship. It had been a good day in Mexico, and I didn't really want to leave. I could easily spend more time in Cozumel.

And in case you're wondering, I didn't get any strange vibes that the world was going to end or that Mayans were going to rise up and reconquer the island. But maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. We'll see what happens...