Fun in Florida (without Disney)

Not long back from a holiday in South Florida with some family members and as an antidote to Scottish Winter Blues I can highly recommend it. In March the day-time temperature ranges from about 25 to 30 degC (not too dangerous for white Scottish people) and it hardly ever rains (when it does it is heavy and over quickly).
Our party consisted of Moira and me, my sisters Mary and Florence, and their respective (and respected) husbands Steve and Danny. We stayed in a holiday rental property, which was basically a bungalow in the suburbs of Hollywood City which lies between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The rental property had a swimming pool and BBQ/seating area in the back yard, and this was well used and much appreciated by us:

Relaxing by the pool

Fun in the sun

White Scottish people just chillin'

Enjoying the shade

Sunset over the pool

As well as the attraction of the pool area, there was surprisingly quite a lot of wildlife to be seen around this holiday rental. There was our resident band of Brown Anoles (a small non-native lizard originally from Cuba and the Bahamas) which enjoyed sunning themselves in the morning and evening:

Brown Anole warming up in the sun

Cute Bear or Anole Look-out Post?

These Anoles were harmless; unless of course you were a small insect, or a young Anole being bullied by an adult Anole:

They use their orange 'dewlap' both as a warning and to impress females.
The Anoles were on high alert one day when a Rough Green Snake came into the garden; this snake feeds on large insects but I don't think the Anoles were taking any chances as they watched it very cautiously whilst it slithered over the fence and left the garden:

We also saw lots of different birds around the holiday property including American Kestrel, Boat-tailed Crackle, Mourning Dove, Mockingbird as well as Turkey Vultures and Parakeets regularly flying overhead. Even the front lawn was visited by a juvenile White Ibis and a Blue Jay:

Juvenile White Ibis

These are not birds I normally see in my garden at home!!

The rental property was also in a great location with several places worth visiting nearby including  West Lake Park within walking distance and Hollywood North Beach and Downtown Hollywood just a five minute drive away.
Hollywood North Beach had a car-free boardwalk you could promenade, you just had to watch out for the bicycles which came in many formats, including a four-wheeled six-seat bike and a low-slung kids three wheel cart. It did have some interesting shops, bars and restaurants that you could visit and we ate there on two or three occasions.
As it faced East on to the Atlantic we didn't get spectacular sunsets but did get some brilliant moon-rises, and one occasion the moon was bright red, reflecting the setting sun:

North Hollywood Beach Area

Sunset at North Hollywood Beach

Moonrise at North Hollywood Beach

Downtown Hollywood was a bit more subdued but also had good eateries where we stopped for lunch one time. what did impress me here was the street art:

Downtown Hollywood Street Art

Street Art in Downtown Hollywood

This street art was just off Hollywood Boulevard (not to be confused with the famous and original boulevard in Los Angeles).
We walked (and cycled) over to West Lake Park several times during our stay: this park covers a huge area, however the part that was nearest to the rental property was within easy walking distance and included tennis courts, basketball courts, a pond and picnic areas:

The Girls at West Lake Park

Me and Moira at West Lake Park

West Lake Pond

An Anhinga on West Lake Pond

For those that don't know (which included me) an Anhinga is a type of Cormorant, and is very common in this area. However as well as common birds this park also attracts a fair number of rarer migrants which over-winter in sunny South Florida. I managed to capture some video footage of a few of these birds including a Loggerhead Shrike:

A Palm Warbler (with a Small Blue Heron as a bonus):

And an immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (sounds like an insult John Wayne would use):

West Lake Park also boasted a waterway trail where you could hire canoes and kayaks to explore the Mangrove swamps and the main West Lake itself (not to be confused with the West Lake Pond, which wouldn't take long to explore). So one bright and sunny morning Danny and I got up early (to avoid the low tide) and took to the water in a couple of hired kayaks:

The Boat Dock at West Lake Park

Starting out on White Trail

Danny going round the bend

After negotiating the Mangrove channels that make up the White Kayak Trail we had to cross over the southern end of West Lake in order to reach the Green Kayak Trail:

Sheridan Bridge on West Lake

Crossing southern end of West Lake

Searching for Green Trail entrance

Just as we were searching for the entrance to the Green Trail we came across an Osprey perched in a tree eating a fish it had just caught. It didn't seem too bothered about us at first, however as we got closer it flew off, taking its lunch with it:

We then managed to find the Green Trail and enjoyed kayaking round the various Mangrove channels where we saw quite a few birds including a pair of Yellow-crowned Night Herons and a White Ibis:

Yellow-crowned Night Herons in Mangroves

After completing the Green Trail we kayaked under the Sheridan Bridge and entered the northern end of West Lake before returning to the kayak boat dock:

Danny on northern end of West Lake

Filming on West lake

The majority of the northern part of West Lake Park is occupied by the Anne Kolb Nature Centre and this is an area we visited on several occasions. It is a coastal mangrove wetland and boasts several boardwalk trails, an exhibition centre, an observation tower and offers pontoon boat tours around West Lake.
Anne Kolb was the first woman elected as Commissioner of Broward County (which includes Hollywood area) and was an active environmentalist who was instrumental in saving this coastal mangrove wetland from development............ well done Anne........ we loved it!

Enjoying a stroll along the boardwalk

Florence & Danny at the Observation Tower

View of West Lake from Observation Tower

 

Liking the Anne Kolb Nature Centre

Pontoon Boat Tour of West Lake

On the opposite side of the nature centre from West Lake was an Intra-tidal Waterway, which was basically like a river running from Fort Lauderdale to Miami:

Holiday apartments across the Intra-tidal Waterway

 

Moira posing beside the Intra-tidal Waterway

Looking South towards Hollywood



Siblings on the boardwalk

 This intra-tidal waterway could be quite busy, although boats are supposed to slow down as they come past the nature centre:

As you would expect there was lots of wildlife to see at this nature reserve. We saw three different type of crabs; Fiddler Crabs on the mudflats, Horse-shoe Crabs in the water and Mangrove Tree Crabs which were unsurprisingly on the mangrove trees:

There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies to be seen as well, however they proved very difficult to photograph as they wouldn't stay still. I did get this strangely named one though:

Halloween Pennant Dragonfly

I have already featured many of the birds we seen at this nature reserve, but I liked this picture of a Little Blue Heron fishing:

Reflections of Little Blue Heron

The bird we probably saw most of was the Turkey Vulture, on some occasions there were up to ten of them in the skies overhead:

There were several species of lizard to be seen here, perhaps the most impressive being the non-native Green Iguana (from South and Central America). These Iguanas can grow to over a metre in length............ as was this one I photographed:

Green Iguana Sunbathing

It is hard to tell the size from this picture so here is a little video for comparison:

Probably best to leave it in peace.

Well that is it for the first instalment of my Florida blog, covering all the things we enjoyed local to our rental property.
We did do a few trips a bit further afield and I will cover that in my next blog posting. I promise you Baseball, Fancy Boats, Stylish Cars and of course some scary Gators.

See you soon

Teddyedward

Building The Queensferry Crossing

A few weeks back the last piece of roadway decking was added to the new Queensferry Crossing, which is the name for the latest bridge to be built over the River Forth. Once the roadway decking has been 'surfaced' and the approach road on the north side completed (plus a few thousand other little things) the bridge will be ready for public use.
This will become the third bridge crossing at Queensferry, with one being built in each of the last three centuries:

• Forth Rail Bridge completed 1890
• Forth Road Bridge completed 1964
• Queensferry Crossing completed 2017

Over the last few years I have taken some photos and videos of the new bridge during construction so I thought I would share these with you.:
Firstly the installation of the caissons (water-tight retaining structures) required to sink the foundations for the bridge towers. Early in 2013 we saw these huge metal rings being lowered into the River Forth to sit on the river bed.



Line of Caissons for New Bridge

Sinking Caissons for new Queensferry Crossing

The mud and silt was then removed from inside the caissons before the water was pumped out. They were then filled with concrete to form the foundations for the bridge towers. By the end of 2013 the foundations were almost in place:

Building a third Forth Bridge at Queensferry

Laying the foundations for the new Queensferry Crossing

As well as the construction taking place out on the river, work was also underway to construct the approach piers on the north and south banks. By the end of the summer in 2014 the roadway deckings were being inched out on to these piers using temporary support frames:

Temporary support frame for southern approach roadway decking

Southern Approach Roadway starting to take shape

 By this time the bridge towers were clearly visible as they rose from the river and the roadway decking could be seen pushing out from both shores. The southern roadway seemed to be a bit further advanced than the one on the northern shore ............. but hey! ..........it wasn't a race or anything like that!!.......... just the Fifers were a bit slower, that's all............. I might pay for that comment!
Here is how the bridge construction looked in August 2014:

Bridge Construction from Southern Shore

Bridge Construction from Society Point

Sorry about the quality of the last two photos, it was a bit murky that day.
As this new bridge is to be a replacement for the existing Forth Road Bridge (which will be retained for public transport, bicycles and pedestrians only) there was also major road-works underway on both shores in order to divert the A90. For those of you who don't know anything about the A90 it is the main route from Edinburgh heading over the Forth Road Bridge to Fife, Perth, Dundee and all points north (in other words quite a major artery).
The road-works on the north (Fife) side were much more substantial and complicated than on the south side as they  accommodate a railway line, the main route to Rosyth ferry port and a major sewage works serving Dunfermline. They also had to do lots of rock blasting to carve out the new route for the A90.........which was mostly carried out at night as I remember.
On the southern side we had a slightly easier time of it, but they did have to replace a bridge which carried the B800 (Queensferry to Kirkliston road) as it wasn't wide enough to span the new A90 being constructed. This involved some impressive lifting equipment as the new flyover was lifted in to place over the period of a couple of nights in October 2014:

Part of new B800 Flyover

Serious Lifting Equipment

Half of new B800 Flyover in place

By April 2015 the three bridge towers were almost complete, ready for the next phase of construction; which would involved attaching sections of roadway decking to either side of the towers:

Three towers taking shape

North tower with Rosyth in the background

Central and Southern Towers

Southern Approach Roadway at Port Edgar

Towards the end of 2015 the work on the southern side of the A90 was well underway and the following photos were taken from the new B800 flyover which was now up and running:

Removal of old B800 flyover with new bridge towers in background

New route for A90 taking shape

Work to remove remains of old B800 flyover

The progress on the towers by the end of 2015 can be seen in this photo taken from the Transport Scotland View Point:

Queensferry Crossing construction from Transport Scotland viewpoint

You can see that the towers are almost at their full height and that some decking sections have already been suspended on cables from the towers. This progress on the construction of the bridge is also highlighted in the following photos taken in January 2016:

Southern Tower viewed from beneath roadway decking

Southern Roadway Decking pushing out

Roadway Decking suspended from Southern Tower

North and Central Towers with suspended Roadway Decking

New Bridge viewed from Southern Shore

New Bridge viewed from Echline

A couple of months later and the roadway decking had extended further on each of the towers and on the north and south approaches:

Bridge construction viewed from southern shore

Bridge construction viewed from Society Point

By April 2016 the roadway decking between the north tower and the north approach had almost joined up (Yes the Fifers appeared to be winning the race!!). The gaps in other areas were getting smaller as well:

North Tower and North Approach almost joined together

Bridge Construction April 2016

Bridging the gap

Gap between Southern Approach and Southern Tower

Construction of the roadway decking continued throughout 2016 and by the end of the year there was only one piece of the jigsaw remaining and that was the final link to the Southern Approach:

The missing link viewed from southern shore



Bridge roadway almost complete, viewed from Society Point

Some bad weather over the winter months meant it was February 2017 before the final section of roadway decking was winched in to position and bolted together:

The final link now in place

Queensferry Crossing linked up February 2017

Final Link viewed from Port Edgar

 Whilst all this bridge construction was underway there was another major structure taking shape over in Rosyth. A new Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier was being built over in the Rosyth Dockyard and in February 2017 it was on clear view:

New Aircraft Carrier viewed from Society Point

So that is about it for my story about the construction of the new Queensferry Crossing but
before I go here is a compilation video showing some of the key stages of the bridge construction:

I will leave you to ponder whether there will ever be a Fourth Forth Bridge at Queensferry .......... maybe have to wait until next century for that!!

Take care

TeddyEdward