A camera and tourist stuff used to spy in Nicaragua during the Cold War A few days ago I was visiting the Military Museum in Naples FL. It’s a typical veterans museum, the same type found in many cities across the country, with display cases full of uniforms, medals, perhaps some period weapons, and model … More A Conversation About Sandinistas and Contras, Thirty Years Later

  The Military Museum is located inside the terminal at the Naples Airport. It is a small museum, but has some interesting stuff. Here are some photos from a visit. The museum is inside an ordinary storefront Inside the museum A bell from the USS Maddox, one of the two destroyers involved in the Gulf … More The Military Museum

Most of us can’t live without our TV or DVD. I don’t have a TV set or DVD player in the van, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to watch TV shows or movies. I just use my laptop instead of a TV set. This actually isn’t much of a change for me, since … More Entertainment

The Depot Museum in Naples FL is part of the Collier County Museum system. It is located in the former Naples railroad terminal building. There are exhibits illustrating the history of transportation in the area, from the offshore coastal boats to the railroads to the automobile highway. In the 1910s and 1920s, most of Florida … More The Naples Depot Museum

  Freedom Park is a large wildlife refuge in Naples FL. It is criss-crossed by several boardwalks and hiking trails. Here are some photos from an afternoon at the Park. One of several ponds at the park A Great Egret scours the foliage for Anole Lizards Got one ! Wood Stork and a couple White … More A Walk at Freedom Park

  The city of Naples FL has a number of parks and wildlife preserves. One of the smaller is the Cocohatchee Creek Preserve, just 4 acres. But there was an abundance of wildlife about when I visited. Spatterdock Double-Crested Cormorant Wood Stork relaxing At first glance I thought this was a tri-Color heron, but I … More The Cocohatchee Creek Preserve

In 1938, the state of Florida built a bridged road out to San Marco Island, near Naples. Inadvertently, the bridge cut off the natural flow of seawater and killed over 250 acres of vital mangrove forest habitat. Today, 75 years later, efforts are being made to repair the damage. And the project just got some … More San Marco Island Mangrove Restoration Project

  I spent the day in the Delnor-Wiggins State Park in Naples FL. Here are some photos: Delnor-Wiggins Park Welcome to the Real Florida The real Florida is mostly wetlands. When people used to say that they had some swampland in Florida to sell you, they weren’t kidding. The boardwalk through the mangrove swamp Double-Crested … More Delnor-Wiggins State Park

  Clam Pass Park, in Naples FL, stretches from the Florida mainland across the intercoastal waterway to the offshore barrier islands and beaches. A boardwalk allows visitors to walk through mangrove forest and dunes to the beach. Here are some photos from an afternoon at Clam Pass. Clam Pass Park Little Blue Heron watches me … More Clam Pass Park

The simplest and most direct way to deal with dirty laundry, of course, is a simple trip to the laundromat. With a handful of quarters, I can do an entire load of laundry while working on my laptop, listening to MP3s, or whatever. For nearly all “dirty laundry”, though, the problem is not that the … More Laundry