Guru Moves to Jacksonville, FL

Walking along the St. John’s River

Hello, hey, hi. It’s been a while. I know. I get calls, texts, emails, and tweets on the daily of fans asking me to update this blog. Kidding. But a couple months ago Carley did tell me she still checks the guru every once in a while to see if I updated so, there’s that. Where have I been, you ask? In August of 2014, I had to leave my beloved city of Gainesville, Florida to move home because well, I had no other choice. My loving parents decided they no longer wanted to foot the bill for me to just become a post-grad who ends up never leaving her college town. So, after less than two months of living in Pembroke Pines, FL I decided it was time to GTFO of there and happened to find an internship in the same city my Carley Pels moved to: Jacksonville, FL.

Letting children feel the shell of a Florida Box Turtle

What was the internship, you ask? I joined the Student Conservation Association and became the Natural Resources Intern at Naval Air Station Jacksonville where I took care of some animals, taught some kids about animals, and helped the Navy manage the animals that live aboard the installation. So, basically, animals.

Sadly, my internship ended October 2015, I miss it dearly but I didn’t venture far from the Navy and the people I met because now I am the Park Naturalist at the park across the street from the installation, Tillie K. Fowler.

Friends living that Jacksonville life

So, dear readers, never fear, the internet is not without one less white girl’s blog. I hope to be updating this space more frequently this year – the thing about internships is while the experience is invaluable the compensation is lacking which forced me to work two jobs and too many hours a week. So, while I miss the internship,  I don’t miss the pay and the lack of free time to do the things that I like such as, update this bloggity blog.

La Chua Trail

As many of you know, Paynes Prairie is one of my favorite places to visit near Gainesville. Instead of driving the to the main entrance in Micanopy another way to access the park is via biking or walking on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Rail to Trail.

Hey Gator

La Chua Trail Selfie

Still not good at bird identification

I spy a gator

Carley and I rode our bikes from our apartment to the trail. After locking our bikes up we hopped on the La Chua trail. The trail begins on concrete, the turns into a wooden walkway over water and eventually becomes grass which then turns into mud thanks to the rain. I have yet to see one of the seventy bison that roam the prairie so that is at the top of my animal sighting wish list every time I go.

Gators

While walking the trail we ran into a friend of mine, Alex, who was ahead of us on the trail. When she was passing us on her way back she asked me if we saw the rattlesnake on the trail. We had not seen said rattlesnake. Carley and I then felt like blind idiots. The trail can get very muddy during the summer since it rains almost every afternoon. Alex informed us the snake would be on our right on our way back near the beginning of the muddy patches. On our walk back to the start of the trail and our bikes Carley and kept a laser focus on the ground to spot this snake and its lethalness. After walking what felt like a further distance than when Alex said we should have seen the snake Carley and I let our guards down and thought we had once again been blind idiots. It was moments after the letting down of the guards that we then almost step on said rattlesnake. After jumping back in shock and unlocking my phone to take a picture I then decide spending one more second near this snake is not worth getting a picture over and keep walking.

Also Gators

Besides the mini heart attack induced by a snake sighting we had a great walk. The La Chua trail is a great chance to spot alligators. They’re in every body of water along the trail and sometimes in the middle of the trail itself. Chelsea once told me one was blocking the path and she and her boyfriend tried to scare it away but it wouldn’t budge so they called the rangers and after over an hour of waiting the ranger shows up and the alligator immediately moves because they know what happens when a ranger shows up (it involves a metal rod). Fortunately for Carley and I, no alligators slowed us down. Alas, I saw no bison but we did see wild horses and as you know from my Cumberland Island post, wild horses do not impress me. We also saw a few amphibians and many, many passion flowers.

Passion Flower

Overall, it was a lovely evening on the La Chua trail. I regret being unable to calm down and take a picture of the rattlesnake but you could say I was rattled by the way we discovered it.

O’Leno State Park

Gopher tortoise doing gopher tortoise things.

Located about a half hour from Gainesville along the Santa Fe River lies O’Leno State Park.   O’Leno has many diverse natural areas including sinkholes, hardwood hammocks, river swamps, and sandhills. In the mid-1800s the town of Leno was founded along the banks of the river but when the railroad was built and bypassed the town in 1896 the town inevitably decline. By the early 1930s the park was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and many of the original structures built during this period are still in use including the suspension bridge that still spans the river. Chelsea (who you hopefully recognize from previous posts) and I visited O’Leno in the beginning of July.

So happy to be amongst the heat and bugs

We arrived at O’Leno about five in the afternoon in hopes of cooler temperatures and a greater chance of seeing wildlife at dusk. Unfortunately, it was quite humid with no breeze and a very active bug population.We started on the River Trail and then ended up on the Parener’s Branch (3.69 miles) trail. I could be wrong about ending up on the Parener’s Branch trail because there is a serious lack of signage along the trail. If anyone who works at the park is reading this some mile markers would be nice. Also, when we were walking we’d walk up to signs facing the opposite direction making me wonder why no one would hike the way we did.

Bird identification is not really my thing

Hardwood hammock

Although hot, O’Leno is beautiful and I will definitely be back when the weather is cooler. I cannot speak for Chelsea though since she had a bit of a tick situation that I think turned her off to the place completely but I do think she learned the lesson to always hike in pants no matter what the weather. I don’t think she’d appreciate me sharing the video I have of her tiny meltdown.

This is Gainesville

A really great video about a really great city

Guru Goes to NOLA

I don’t think Carley Pels and I had the average NOLA experience of non-stop partying and drinking but we did have quite the interesting trip. The company Megabus added stops to Tallahassee, Mobile, and New Orleans from Gainesville and in celebration of these new additions they ran a promotion of $1 tickets. Upon hearing this I immediately booked us two round trip tickets. We left for New Orleans at 10 AM Saturday and left at 11:59 PM the following Wednesday. Carley and I definitely overestimated our ability to sleep overnight on a bus, so I’m not sure if I would plan a trip that way again or consider schlepping more items with me to increase my comfort.

Climbing Trees in Audubon Park

Strolling through Audubon Park

Our first two nights we stayed at India House Hostel which I would recommend purely for its ability to connect travelers with other travelers. India House Hostel is how Carley and I met another group of people from Gainesville who took advantage of the MegaBus offer. We spent the day with them which started at Cafe Du Monde, which I’m sorry, is a little over rated because I did not realize that a beignet was just fried dough with the some powdered sugar on it. From there we walked through the city market, then walked along the Mississippi River to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.

Sculpture Garden at NOMA

Our next two nights were spent with a man we met on Couchsurfing named Walter. Walter is a lifelong resident of New Orleans and enjoys spending time with tourists because he felt the city is in a depression and visitors bring an energy and enthusiasm with them that infects him as well. Walter gave us a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward where almost ten years later the effects of Hurricane Katrina are still very much evident.

A home still untouched after Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward

Lately

We marched for the babes

We welcomed spring at a Holi Festival

I turned 23 in our nations capital – cherry blossoms not ready to blossom

I finally met my brother’s sweet girlfriend

Drunk hand holding through Little Ethiopia

A return trip to Roger’s Farm for strawberry picking

 

Strawberry field selfie

A guru’s best friend graduated

The end of an era

Ms. Guru Goes to Washington

Pierre Charles L’Enfant, planner of Washington, DC gravesite overlooking the city

I have been visiting Washington, DC about once a year since 2008 when my father relocated to the city for work. Since then, my eldest brother and sister have joined him in our nations capital.

Arlington House

Pentagon City Metro Station

The architecture of the metro stations is one of my favorite things about the city. I can’t help but stare up at the brutalist architecture while waiting for the metro. My mother finds the stations too dark. My biggest problem with the show Scandal is the Olivia Pope’s flashback scenes of meeting Huck at a metro stop and having that metro stop look nothing like the actual thing is extremely bothersome.

The panda exhibit at the Smithsonian Zoo really makes you feel like you’re in the mountain forests of China

A lil panda booty for ya

As you saw with my Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo post I love the zoo, especially free zoos like the Smithsonian National Zoo. While I don’t think some of the animals they house such as elephants and cheetahs are right for zoo life the Smithsonian is still a well-maintained and educational zoo.

Przewalski horse

This photo was taken a little over a month before the Washington Monument reopened on May 12 after being closed since the 2011 5.8 magnitude earthquake. My father referred to it as the “biggest caulking job in the world”. I thought the monument looked quite beautiful with scaffolding around it.

Lake Wauberg

Where you going, Gator?

One perk to being a student of the University of Florida is access to a lake the university owns just eight miles south of campus called Lake Wauberg. Wauberg offers a variety of water activities from swimming, canoeing, paddle boating, and sailing to challenge courses and wall climbing.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I did not visit Lake Wauberg until my final semester when I took these photos. It was a beautiful, crisp and sunny December day. Carley and I planned on doing some boating but once we got there we no longer felt like it and ended up laying on a blanket by the shore and chatting for a few hours. Saturday February 22, was basically the best day ever. Carley and I woke up bright and early to participate in a coral ardisia pull, had brunch at Ivy’s and then headed over to Wauberg for a chance to participate in their brand new ropes course.

Distracted by other delicious looking food around me

Breakfast burrito, soba noodle salad, cranberry orange scone

Usually, these courses are for student groups to learn how to bond and trust each other or whatever, training them to become the future leaders they are bound to be and they were open to us non-future rulers of America this one Saturday since they are usually booked by said groups all semester long.

We had arrived just in time and secured one of the last spots on the list. We then had a couple of hours to kill before we could do the ropes course. During this down time I rock climbed for the first time in a very long time. Since it had been a very long time since I climbed I told Carley we were doing the easiest climbing wall. This was fine with her. The wall was pretty easy up until right before the top where I wasn’t tall enough to reach the next rung of the wall and the rungs my feet were resting on and the position I was in didn’t give me enough confidence to try and jump up to the next one. So, I hung out in this spot for a few minutes, not wanting to get down because I was so close to the top but not wanting to bruise my entire body by attempting to jump up to the next rung and slamming my body into the wall. I decided to attempt a jump. Little did I know that when I attempted this jump that Shirley my belay was basically going to pull me up to the rung that I felt was too far out of my reach. I felt like I was flying for a moment, there was no way I should have reached that rung on my own. And I didn’t. So, thank you, Shirley for pulling me to the top and allowing me to feel victorious over the easiest climbing wall of Lake Wauberg. A crowd of twenty people clapped for me when I finally got my ass off the wall. They were probably just happy they were closer to their turn. Carley completed the wall with ease and was upset when no one clapped when she finished. She demanded a clap. They clapped.

Closed section of the ropes course

We finally had our turn on the ropes court but were disappointed only three sections of it were open. The pirates crossing, suspended log incline and gravity zip line. Carley did the pirates crossing after watching a guy complete it and say, “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”. Carley did not find it quite as challenging. I did the log incline.

It was the best day ever. Giving back to Gainesville, delicious food from Ivy’s, recreation at Wauberg, beautiful weather. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.  #blessed

Guru Goes to Cumberland Island

One of the major reasons I love living in North Central Florida is the proximity to other cities in Florida and states. When leaving from my hometown of Pembroke Pines, getting out of Florida is basically a full days journey. I remember long drives from the Pines to New Jersey as child every summer, and on the return trip home my siblings and I would cheer at the sight of the “Welcome to Florida” sign only for it to quickly hit us that home was another seven hours away. Living in Gainesville, Florida, Georgia is now less than two hours away. On February 9, Carley and I joined another TRiP expedition and headed north to St. Marys, Georgia. From St. Marys we hopped aboard a ferry for a half hour boat ride out to Cumberland Island National Seashore. It was a beautiful day, slightly chilly in the morning and then warmed up nicely. According to a park ranger, that Sunday was the first time the sun was out in weeks.

An island of horse shit

One major aspect that I did not like about Cumberland Island is the approximately 140 wild horses that roam the island and are apparently a major tourist attraction on the island. Nonnative feral animals are not on my list of things that attract to potential place to visit. Feral animals are not naturally occurring animals, and can drastically alter the ecosystem they inhabit and threaten the ecosystems very existence by harming or eliminating key indigenous plant and animal species. Horses are not native to North America and are especially not native to Cumberland Island. These horses graze and thus reduce the density of grasses in the marsh which negatively affects the marsh’s ability to trap and hold sediments. This inability to trap sediment can lead to increased erosion and damage from storms. The wild horses of Cumberland Island thwart most of the park managers attempts to stabilize the dune system .

I’ve never seen so much horse poop in my life and the horses do an excellent job in marking their territory all over the island.

I also do not feel the ruins of homes the Carnegie family decided to abandon are a particularly interesting sight. I feel it is time they are torn down and native vegetation be replanted or a monument erected to the indigenous people of the island, the Timucua. Dungeness currently feels like a memorial to a time in the past that doesn’t need to be celebrated.

My favorite parts of Cumberland were the boardwalk along the salt marsh. As well as walking along Cumberland’s 17-mile stretch of beach whose landscape is not dominated by hotels, high rises, and other tall and touristy attractions. Cumberland Island is one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands in along the Atlantic Coast. The dense maritime forest inland on the island has a peaceful path among live oak trees covered with Spanish moss and saw palmetto. The island has one of the largest maritime forests remaining in the United States and one of the largest wilderness areas in a National Seashore on the east coast.

While some may enjoy the wild horses of Cumberland I would like to see the island which is largely without human development fully turn itself back into its most natural state by ridding the island of nonnative horses that are damaging the ecosystem. The Carnegie’s abandoned their mansion and park officials should finish the job by completely tearing it down. Remains of unsustainable wealth are not a sight to behold.

Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden

A story for you dear readers, when I was in the twelfth grade in 2009, I participated in a Fairchild Tropical Botanical Challenge through an event in my high school. As a reward for participating I received a free admission pass for four people to Fairchild. The pass expired December 2009. Five weeks after graduation I moved to Gainesville to begin my studies at UF and hung the pass on a bulletin board in my hometown room to use over my first winter break from college when the temperatures in South Florida are at an acceptable level for me to spend time outdoors. That December I arrive home to find that pass missing from its spot on my bulletin board. In shock, I asked my mother if she had seen my pass. Cooly, she states it was on the floor when she vacuumed my room and she simply threw it out. I was enraged. How could she throw away an unexpired pass valued at $40 without thinking to ask me about it? Four years later and I still had yet to visit. That all changed when this year I decided to make my mother’s Christmas present a trip to Fairchild thus forcing her to take me.

The base of a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree

Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden located in Coral Gables established in 1936 by Robert Montgomery but named for plant explorer David Fairchild opened to the public in 1938 and is an 83-acre botanic garden home to rare palms, cycads, flowering trees, and vines.

Upon exiting the admissions and gift shop area one of the first nonnative species you will encounter is this beautiful Rainbow Eucalyptus native to New Guinea. If you arrive in the morning you have the option to take a 45-minute guided tour with one starting at 10:15 AM and the second starting at 11:15 AM. Unless you are a botanist or plant enthusiast I highly recommend the guided tour. Your volunteer tour guide will provide you with facts about the plants and history of the garden as well as news and upcoming events.

Hi little guy.

Our volunteer guide said we have a lot of lizards here in South Florida which was funny to think of the little lizards I can walk out on to my porch and see on a daily basis could be considered exotic to tourists visiting the garden.

An attempt at a selfie with my mother

Roots.

The guide told us to get a good look at these coconut trees since they are featured in many botany books.

So, take a good look guys.