Of Snow and Michigan

I have only seen snow once in my lifetime, and it was in the middle of desert in Jordan on the way to Petra. It was basically a tiny mushy puddle of snow in a ditch in the middle of the highway. The driver of our tour-van (it was a van with just my family inside) stopped suddenly and said we could get down if we wanted to play with snow. We managed to make tiny snowmen and throw a few muddy snowballs around. We even managed to get the driver to join us.

Mini Snowman

Fast forward to the 2010. My boyfriend invited me to visit Michigan for Thanksgiving. Immediately my mind thought snow. And that's exactly what we got. Though there wasn't enough snow to cover the grasses, there was enough to have a bigger snowball fight. It was also so much colder than Jordan.

You can still see a little white where the snow is.

Me, being up close to a cow for the first time in my life.

And being up close to a horse too, for the first time in my life. I realize that I am such a city person that I've never really been exposed to animals all that much.

This is suppose to be a picture of a partially frozen river.

Cadillac, MI

Lake Michigan

I love the little accumulations of snow. 

A very decent snowball.

Of Lake Alice, Harn Museum and St. Augustine

When people think of Florida, there are three things they think of: sun, sand and the Everglades. Yes, I know people think of other things too like the Daytona 500, Universal Studios and Disney World. Like any other place, there are other beautiful places in Florida. Some, like Lake Alice and the Harn Museum, are hidden in bigger places, the University of Florida in this case. Others are a bit more well known. Case in point, St. Augustine. (Did you know that St. Augustine is the patron saint of brewers?)

At the banks of Lake Alice. I took this photo in December last year, so there were no alligators. We were lucky enough, though to see a tortoise. In the summer, the lake is teeming with alligators. Most of them are quite tiny, but a friend of mine once saw a five-footer on her way to the lab. Good thing she was on the bus.

  

A sculpture outside the Harn Museum. The museum mostly shows modern and contemporary art. There is one Monet, if I'm not mistaken. Right next to it is the Florida Museum of Natural History. If you love butterflies, this is a place to go. 

      

St. Augustine is the oldest European-established city in the USA. The moment I saw it, I had to laugh. It so obviously was established by the Spaniards. The biggest indicator in my knowledge? The Castillos de San Marcos looked exactly like Intramuros in Manila. The same curtain walls, the same towers etc. It's almost like the Spaniards had some sort of template.

All photographs were taken by me.