Searching for Sirenians

(Order: Sirenia, Genus: Trichechus, Species: Manatus)

Note: Due to our lack of determining manatee sex, all manatees will be referred to as male and share the name "Bernie" :)

So we hopped in Jack's boat and headed towards the manatee sanctuary about ten minutes away. After passing the "No wake, idle speeds only" sign, Shasta and I took our positions at the bow on manatee watch. When we spotted manatees Jack would kill the engine and we would drift while whitish/grayish blobs passed by the boat (some with little mini-blobs alongside). 

The manatee sanctuary is behind that buoy line. 

When we got in farther we anchored a few hundred feet from the manatee sanctuary. One curious blob was inspecting our engine and dive flag but by the time we donned our masks and fins and slid into the water we were alone. We began swimming towards one of the overlooks from the sanctuary where the volunteer manatee rangers were congregated in their kayaks. One paddled over to us and told us that there were a fair few manatees hanging out around the pylons under the overlook. We approached slowly (no aggressive movements allowed like swimming at the manatees). We saw a few close-up but they were more interested in hanging out on the bottom than the curious creatures we had been told about.

White blob by the boat. Aka: a manatee!

We found a pipe and stood on it watching the manatees. The pipe was about 6 inches off the bottom so our fins were sticking out parallel to the ground off the pipe. Finally, a manatee got curious about us. It came up close, angled so its little eye could look us up and down. We were able to reach out and touch its algae-covered skin. It had an interesting texture - copious small bumps like a faux snakeskin purse. It was rougher than other animals we have felt. The water was cloudy from the algae coming off its skin.

Skin close-up that shows a bit of the skin texture. And the problem isn't getting a good picture with a manatee - it's that they're too close to get enough perspective in the frame!  

After the first manatee wandered off, we watched two others come down the length of the pipe nibbling on the plants growing from the corroded metal. As one passed by my fin, he looked at it rather intently and then began to rub up against it, twirling his body allowing my fin to scratch him. As we watched another come up to inspect us, the fins gave me an idea. I reached out to touch the manatee but instead of petting the manatee like before I reached under him and began to scratch. 

A manatee inspecting Nico's fins as potential belly scratchers.

Do you like to be scratched under here? Yes? What a good manatee :)

The manatee began to slowly rotate until he was turned completely over. Shasta joined in and we continued scratching his belly. Then he flipped back over and we figured that he was leaving. The manatee began to move off, rising in the water. He popped his nose above the surface, took a breath, and immediately rolled back over so we could continue scratching him. This continued for about three more breaths. We got to scratch him all over - head, belly, back, fins, tail. As we scratched him, we could hear the manatees making high-pitched noises and a few others came over towards us but none of them interrupted the big guy's scratching time. We were just floating in the area, scratching one manatee with others swimming around and below us. 

Rolling over to keep getting belly scratches! (*See bonus movie at end of credits!)

Apparently, tail scratches are appreciated!

At this point, we were starting to get cold and Shasta was shivering pretty badly so we stopped scratching and headed back to the boat where we started shaking pretty badly from the cold, but Jack had towels ready for us and we warmed up in the sun while looking out for manatees on our way back.  

Amazing to share this time with these awe-inspiring, beautiful, gentle creatures!

CREDITS
Author      Nico    
Photographer      Shasta & Nico
Tour guide & Boat Captain      Jack                                    
Volunteer Ranger in Kayak 1      Debbie                                    
Volunteer Ranger in Kayak 2     ? ? ?                                      
Stuffed Manatee      Bernie                
Playful manatee 1      Bernie                  
Sleepy manatee 1      Bernie                  
Sleepy manatee 2      Bernie                  
Sleepy manatee 3     Bernie                 
Belly-scratching-loving manatee      Bernie                                          

Bonus Movie:

Diwrnod arall, castell arall! (Another day, another castle - Welsh edition!)

6 November 2016

Diwrnod arall, castell arall!
Translation from Welsh: Another day, another castle!

What do you do to get a feel for a new place? Visit castles, of course! On our recent visit to Cardiff in Wales, we went to see two castles in two days. So much fun!

Caerphilly Castle (Sounds like Care-filly) - Only a 15 min train ride from Cardiff to a cute town with a great castle! The fact that they rebuilt sections in the 1930's (they tried to keep it accurate) means that this is a very impressive castle.

View of the gatehouse from inside the main walls. The leaning turret is the one on the left :)

They do a great job presenting it with sounds, visual aids, and other interactive displays. The room above the gate has a portcullis projected on the wall, so you know exactly what it's used for. The guard room latrine has a motion-activated person who farts when you walk into the room!

There is no doubt what this room is for when you walk in and he lets out a huge fart!
It may seem immature, but so memorable and great for kids!

Nico and the leaning turret. His new nickname: Ho-turret (doesn't sound quite as good as Hodor)

Cardiff Castle, in the middle of Cardiff, was also cool, with a history of being used as a Roman fort (3rd Century), Norman Castle (11th Century), Welsh Royal College of Music and Drama (1950s-1998, Anthony Hopkins went here!), and finally as an air-raid shelter during WWII.

Inside Cardiff Castle on a beautiful fall day!

World War II bunker exhibit, complete with wartime sounds and propaganda. 'Be like dad, keep mum!' [Cardiff Castle]

Some of the beauty here is the detail inside the castle: intricately decorated stairways, rooms inlaid with gold, and a library with polished agate shelves!

Five languages represented in the intricate statues in the library!

The walls outside the castle were beautiful as well - the most unusual collection of animal statues on top of the wall in lifelike poses. How often do you see things like racoons and anteaters represented beside jaguars and lions?

The Cardiff Castle wall has a great selection of cool animals in really life-like poses! Just a few pictured here :) 

A few more photos from our Welsh weekend filled with castles:

We travel to Wales and bump into a Scottish piper at the castle... [Caerphilly Castle]

Caerphilly Castle

Crenelations you can sit on! Yay! [Caerphilly Castle]

Fancy lights in the handrails for the old, spiral staircases at Caerphilly Castle - wish more castles had this!

Something we've never seen at a castle before: Wooden structures built out over the castle walls so that you can look down over the attackers. Makes sense, but cool to see reconstructed! [Caerphilly Castle]

Duck! Unique sign - only in a castle! [Caerphilly Castle]

Nico playing with weapons :) Bombs away! [Caerphilly Castle]

Cardiff Castle 

View from Cardiff Castle with nice autumn colours :)

Beautiful ceiling in Cardiff Castle

Detail on stairway at Cardiff Castle

Increase the Dataset, Decrease the Pounds: Using science for weight loss

1 July 2016

"The difference between screwing around and science is writing it down" - Adam Savage

It’s been a full six months since the beginning of the year and I now weigh the same amount with my full Hadrian's Wall hiking pack (20 pounds) as I did completely naked on January 1! 

This began 33 pounds ago at the heaviest weight I've ever been. I’m a nerd when it comes to data – I record everything – and my new fitbit helped me finally get the last pieces of data and understanding I needed to really lose the weight. Technically, it was just diet and exercise, but there had always been something missing in the past. I would calculate my goal calorie consumption based on my Basal Metabolic Rate and record everything I ate and what exercises I had done but ended most days hungry or way over my target calories from giving in to the cravings. I found myself less happy and more tired and would eventually call it quits every time. I never stopped recording my weight (and periodically all the calories) because... well... scientist.

Happy doge :)

Turns out that missing piece was being able to figure out how many calories I was expending all throughout the day. With the addition of my fitbit and a good approximation of my caloric burn from my daily routine and my exercise routine, I finally had everything I needed to make it work. And here’s the story, as shown by the numbers, with a few before/after photos for fun. 

This figure certainly shows how I've gotten my new figure!
Graph showing three full years of my weight, as recorded every 
time I visited the gym (2-3x/week). (Click for full-size figure)

What worked for me?

To make a long story short: Fitbit, an injury-free period, and LOTS of walking. 

I’m the last person to jump on a bandwagon, but sometimes there’s a reason everyone's going crazy for a new fad. For me, fitbit has done a wonderful job accurately calculating the calories I’m expending in a day. It estimated that I should be losing ~1 pound per week if I kept to the diet plan (500 fewer calories each day isn’t that bad). I mostly kept to the diet plan and lost 0.8 pounds per week (0.13 pounds per day – yes, I fit a regression line to my dataset!). Part of my previous problem was actually not eating enough. Other diet plans had a fixed number of calories each day so I ended up eating too few calories on most days because I was more active than I realized - Edinburgh is built on seven hills! Now that I had the right data on expended calories, I could do a better job managing my food without getting frustrated and giving up.  And eating more vegetables never hurts…

The other major aspect of this was an injury-free period of time. Ever since I sprained my ankle in 2006, I’ve struggled with a chain of injuries that resulted in some way from that incident. Sprained ankle led to toe pain led to toe surgery led to knee problem led to hip problem led to back problem (you get the idea). It turns out that everything is connected. It also doesn’t help that the little bit of weight gained while injured is really hard to shed when you are never pain-free. For one of the first times in a decade, I’m feeling strong and capable and I’ve taken advantage of this to take back my physical self. 

Before and after: Kristin's wedding in July 2013 (my heaviest weight) compared to me in the same dress a couple of days ago - I had to hold the dress up so it didn't fall off! On the right, I'm holding my belt at the original notch I needed - now 6 notches away! My head shot from my first week at University of Edinburgh (June 2013) compared to a recent head shot from the Hadrian's Wall hike. Pictures really are worth a thousand words :) 

With the move to Scotland came a change in transportation: I. Walked. Everywhere. Even grocery shopping. My average day involves no less than 3 miles, with most days over 4 miles and 6 miles isn't unusual. Without even thinking about dieting (some would argue that Scotland has enough fried and sugary food to rival the US!), I lost a significant amount of weight right off the bat: about 17 pounds. I can’t stress the difference this has made in my life. However, I don’t know how I could have incorporated this change while I was still living in the US. So many cities are not built to be walking-friendly and a car is just required as part of daily life. I recognize the differences, but I'm sure I would struggle to incorporate my current regime if I had to move back.

What's next?

I’m seeing muscles reappear that have been hidden by fat for years. I’m feeling like I have more energy. My joints feel more solid. I feel like my ‘old’ athletic and outdoorsy self is emerging after hibernation (although I never let it stop me, there were also a lot of times where I had to push through the pain to see that part of myself). I've achieved my big goal and now I'm eyeing the last 6 pounds down to my college weight. At this point, however, I’m just going to keep eating healthy and doing the stuff that I love and see where that leads me!

Skip the blowing snow - time for Afternoon Tea!

13 February 2016

When life gives you blowing snow, sleet, and rain, it's time for afternoon tea!

Bon apetit!

My friend, Dawn, was visiting Edinburgh and we had planned a trip to Arthur's Seat. When we woke up to blowing precipitation in many forms (and no hopes of it stopping anytime soon), we changed plans and headed out for afternoon tea and all the pretty, delicious delights that included! My idea of 'scrummy' afternoon tea treats was based almost entirely on watching a challenge in the Great British Bake Off, so I had high expectations!

An imposing front at The Dome, complete with columns.
A beautiful building with a reputation for fantastic afternoon tea.

The brightly coloured dome that gives this place its name. 

The inside is all decorated for Valentine's Day!
We were a day early, but there were plenty of cute couples out for tea ;)

The neverending pot of delicious loose-leaf tea warmed us after lots of touristing outside in the elements. The food finally arrived - starting at the bottom, we had several sandwiches (salmon, egg salad, and ham), fresh-baked scones with clotted cream with jam, and baked cakes and other treats (macarons, éclairs, mango tart, and a small chocolate mousse cake). The only disappointment was the miniature sized scones - my favourite food was only in bite-sized form! But it was still delicious, so it's hard to complain too much :) Perhaps one of my British friends can tell me if the tiny size is a traditional part of afternoon tea?

We had Earl Grey and English Breakfast Tea. Just what we needed after a cold day outside!

A beautiful sight when you're starving!

All the delicious baked treats on the top tier!

This was the perfect activity for a blustery day and one I hope to repeat in the future - no need to wait for poor weather!

The Caledonian Sleeper Train

20 November 2015

In order to make the most of our weekend trip to London, Nico and I took the Caledonian Sleeper train from Edinburgh to London on Friday night. It’s billed as a fancy, comfortable way to travel the distance without losing any time. With a ‘Two Together’ Rail card, we were able to get the tickets for much cheaper (75 pounds each) than the normal price (100 pounds or more!). With a regular train costing 50 to >100 pounds per ticket, the sleeper is a pretty good deal. 

All aboard!!

We arrived at Edinburgh Waverley at the earliest boarding time (11:00pm), about 40 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. We walked past the train car with the ‘reclining seats’ and peered into the window and felt happy that we had opted for the twin berths with actual beds. We were checked off a list by the attendant, and then we stepped into the correct train car and worked our way down the tiny corridor to our room.

The room was tiny, but sufficient and cute. It had a sink, two beds, and hangers for coats. There were storage areas for luggage by each bed and there were little flip-out trays for tea service or breakfast in the morning. They even gave us a little packet with a sleeping mask, earplugs, and a little bar of soap! The bathroom was down the hall, but it was the cleanest train toilet I've ever seen. 

Before the train even left, we wandered to the lavish dining car with leather couches and got a snack before bed. The food is supposed to be regional and delicious. We didn’t really get any of the signature dishes (unless you count haggis and bacon rolls) – I guess there’s something to try next time! We were waiting for our food when the train started moving.

The dining car with fancy leather couches and great service. 

Back in our room, we changed into pajamas and crawled into our individual bunks. The beds were comfy enough and, with the sleep masks to block out the bright green night light, we slept relatively well, despite several stops along the way. They add cars to the train on the way to London – the train was a lot longer in the morning than it was when we went to bed!

Normally, arriving early would be great, but it is less exciting when it means the train arrives at 6:15am instead of 7am. Who knew we would wish for a LONGER train ride! Other than being a little sleepy when we arrived, we had fun trying out the sleeper train. On to adventures in London!

Cooking in Morocco 3: Fun in the kitchen

The Moroccan cooking class felt like a professional cooking show, with all the beautiful vegetables and spices already displayed in dishes in a beautiful, enormous kitchen. 

Dressed like the locals.

We jumped in to help as much as we could. Apparently, not all people who have taken their cooking class were willing to get their hands dirty! What's the point of a cooking class if you aren't willing to learn by doing? This earned us brownie points with everyone there and they taught us a few extra dishes in return. 

The kitchen was also a flurry of languages. Comments and instructions went from one end of the chain to the other and back again, going through Moroccan Arabic - French - English and then back again with the response or jokes. As the person in our group with the most French speaking experience, I got to do the bulk of the French to English translation. I love cooking, but I also had a lot of fun practicing my translation - it's been a REALLY long time and I was surprised at how much I remembered. All this translating might seem like it could bog things down, but it was a fun flurry of languages and passion for cooking and it certainly kept us all laughing all the way through! 

Beauty in nature.

Plating our food so it looks as beautiful as it tastes. 

We all took turns frantically scribbling everything down in the notebook. This was the only way to remember everything since we were cooking 10 dishes approximately simultaneously. 

We took the class very seriously...really.

I assure you, we were working very hard...

One piece!

Master Chef Bram finishing the sugared apples with fleur d'orangier yogurt. 

Making meatballs for the kefta. 

The best part of a cooking class is the end - tasting all the wonderful things you've created! There is a special prize for anyone who reads through to the bottom (spoiler: it might be recipes!).

Our first course - Moroccan salads. Includes aubergine, green beans, and the salad that essentially means 'salad of whatever you happen to have lying around'

The suspense! This was also our only meal with wine on the whole trip - we decided to try a local vintage with our fancy meal.

An easy dessert, but hard to beat. Moroccan oranges are the best! This is simply sliced oranges with strawberries, cinnamon, and powdered/icing sugar on top. Simple, beautiful, and delicious!!

Salade Aubergine

Ingredients: 

• Aubergine - cut up, remove some skin, rinse in H2O 
• Paprika - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• Cumin - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• garlic - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons 
• salt - 1 teaspoon + some later 
• coriander 1.5 teaspoon 
• 1 cup water 

Directions: 5 minutes in pressure cooker. Squish them. Taste and season and let them boil down until it's a thick consistency.

Tajine Viande Agée Kefta

Ingredients: 

• 7 tomatoes 
• 1.5 tablespoons parsley 
• 2-3 teaspoon garlic 
• 1 heaping teaspoon cumin 
• 2 heaping teaspoon paprika 
• 1 heaping teaspoon salt 
• olive oil 2+ tablespoons 
• Ground meat - ground with onion, parsley, cumin and salt 
• egg 

Directions: Slice bottom of the tomato and then grate tomatoes into skillet. Mix in parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and olive oil. Put tajine on fire and cover (or use a regular large sauce pan with lid). After 5 minutes, stir well. Make meatballs from ground meat (mix in onion, parsley, cumin, and salt if not pre-ground in). Add meat balls to tajine and cover. Wait until meatballs start to cook. Add egg on top and recover. Cook ∼20 minutes.

Bon apetit!