Enjoying a hike in the nearby Serenova Tract area.

Grizzly Adams

Rare shot of me in front of the camera, at Franklin Park Conservatory

Who’s That?

More Chihuly at the Franklin Park Conservatory

Cha-cha-chihuly

Clarissa has a thing for waterfalls, apparently.

Clarissa

Greenhouse in Franklin Park Conservatory

Green House

This place has some odd (but good) combinations of plants and Chihuly artwork.

While in Ohio, we stopped in here for a bit of hiking. Lots of people, but it was worth checking out.

Hocking Hills

OMFG, the best burger ever!

The “Kitchen Sink Burger” from Ted’s Montana Grill is made with bison meat is topped with thick grilled ham, mushrooms, onions, fried egg, and bacon.

…I think I’m in love…

Kitchen Sink Burger

Every once and a while, Clarissa’s cat, “Kitten”, does something that’s actually cute…

Kitten

Found her like this one morning… not sure if she slept there the previous night or what…

Creepy

Bubbles and Buttercup, getting their closeup.

The other hens were all a bit more camera-shy than I had expected, so I couldn’t do a full group shot.

Nothing fancy, but it works :)

Bee Hive

I have no clue which chick is which in this shot.

Thankfully, one of them grew up to have a white blotch on one of her tails. That’s the only way I can tell them apart, aside from personality.

Clover was a gift to my girlfriend, Clarissa. I gave it to her for St. Patrick’s Day (which is also her birthday). She named it Clover because — in addition to St. Patrick’s Day — the adult Black Australorps have a green-sheen to their feathers. It was always a pretty easily-frightening bird and would always follow the other one around.

I named mine Crimson mainly because it was the only thing I could come up with that went with Clover :)

Crimson and Clover

Found this in Alexander Springs.

I don’t really know the back-story on it or anything…

I just like dilapidated old buildings like this.

Old Building

As far as general parks, hiking areas, and stuff like that goes, I wasn’t very impressed with this place…

The trail was much too close to nearby roads, which took away from my enjoyment of the footpath trail.

I’m sure the entrance fees are worth it if you’re into diving, but — other than that — I’d recommend skipping this place and trying somewhere else instead.

Alexander Springs

Apparently, this is the sort of trail Clarissa likes. Me? I like a nice dirt path out in the middle of nowhere. To each their own, though, right? :)

Trail

I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved taking shots like these.

Under A Bridge

My first attempt at making egusi with fufu. Mostly followed the direction from a Nigerian cookbook recipe… but I think the egusi came out thicker than it was supposed to. Oh, well. Still tasty.

Egusi

I love how clear the water is here. There’s an area for swimming, but it was a bit too chilly out for me.

Lagoon

I’m not sure what type of tree this is, but I loved the colors of the leaves, especially since so much of the park was all green still.

Tree

One of the waterfalls at Rainbow Springs.

Waterfall

There are all sorts of beautiful areas in this park, both for photo opportunities and just for sitting back and relaxing.

Rainbow Springs State Park

Picture of the cruise ship before setting out on the St. John’s River. It looks like something out of the 70’s. Also, yes, Clarissa and I stood out a bit on there. lol

Honey On The River

This is an African Horned Melon split in half. The seeds are soft and flavorless, a lot like cucumber seeds. There are TONS of these seeds, though. Each seed is enclosed inside of single “droplet” of fruit. The taste is somewhere between a watermelon and a kiwi. I could eat these all day long. Love ’em!

African Horned Melon

Only a handful of weeks old and the girls are already growing quite big.

Bubbles

My dad and girlfriend both helped me make this coop.

It’s big enough to comfortably hold about 20-chickens, but I’m probably only going to ever have a small handful of them. We can only eat so many eggs… and unless we start growing ones for meat, I don’t want to get too carried away and end up with more hens than I need.

Chicken Coop

This is Buttercup when she was a little baby chick. Her two sisters are Bubbles and Blossom.

Yes, I named them after the Powerpuff Girls…

Buttercup

A view of the nuclear power plant in Crystal River.

Crystal River

Me, with my giant portrait of Vigo the Carpathian the Ghostbusters II that I had printed out from hi-res images I found online.

…ain’t technology grand? ;)