The South Florida Railway Museum

On November 24, 2015November 24, 2015 By StevenIn Life At Home1 Comment

Much of the time that I spend with Amelie involves trains. Specifically, we use them to see one another instead of taking the drive. When Amelie comes up to visit me, I usually pick her up here, at the Deerfield Beach Tri-Rail station.

Tri-Rail is short for tri-county rail, and it’s a north-south rail corridor in South Florida that connects Miami, Ft. lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and parts in between.

The Deerfield Beach Station is also one of several throughout the state that serves as an Amtrak station. Amtrak is America’s answer to the Deutsche Bahn, except it’s not as convenient, not as cheap, and not as useful. It’s also not as punctual, because Amtrak leases the rail lines from the freight companies, but that’s a different post.

One day in late April, I noticed this sign on the street near the entrance.

Following the sign, I found another one pointing to a nondescript door. As it turns out, they were doing some work on the external face of the building. Now, seven months later, there’s a clear sign to indicate that this is an actual museum. At the time, it looked pretty sketchy.

Inside, however, it was kind of amazing. This, it turns out, is the home of the South Florida Railway Museum and Model Railroad Club. Housed in the old rail terminal building, it’s only natural that the museum contained model trains.

This part of the museum reminded me of Miniatur Wunderland.

There was a lot of detail here, including a tiny herd of tiny cows.

The rail model was a giant construct in the center of a large open room, but the walls were filled with other things.

This vintage Coca-Cola machine was actually being used by the museum staffers as a refridgerator- the place on the left where you’d normally see Coke bottles is being used to keep the coffee creamer cold.

There were dozens of model engines on the walls representing different time periods and train styles.

Some of them have specific historic importance, like this one from an old hobby store in Miami. The store is long gone.

Even train cars need sweaters when it gets chilly out.

To a model train enthusiast, this museum is a goldmine.

This license plate had an inside joke for train engineers, but I can’t remember what the word on the bottom was.

Cheap plastic sunglasses from the launch of Tri-Rail serve as memorabilia here.

The museum has a fantastic collection of items from the golden age of rail travel, including an ash tray, a drinking glass, and “pasteurized drinking water” as it was distributed on passenger trains in the past.

There are lots of ash trays in the museum. People smoked a lot back then.

One huge corner of the museum is dedicated to old Amtrak swag.

I think I had a set of those Amtrak playing cards when I was a kid.

This old control board is stuffed to the gills with ancient communications gear, and a now-rare example of an analog word processor. Er. Typewriter. I mean Typewriter.

This old Amtrak sign is about six feet tall, up near the ceiling in the front.

Here’s more examples of older rail signs. These haven’t changed all that much in the intervening years.

Magic City Comic Con, Ten Months Later

On November 16, 2015November 16, 2015 By StevenIn Life At Home4 Comments

It’s good to take a break from the Japan posts every so often. With only five posts left from that trip, this seems like a good time to detour.

In January of this year, when I’d been back to the US for just over three months, Amelie and I went to the Magic City Comic Con in Miami. I took a bunch of photos while we were there, and I prepped them for posting in the blog. What happened next was that I got caught up in moving into my first new apartment in the U.S. since 2003, and I completely and utterly forgot to post the Magic City photos.

With that said, here they are, and only ten months late. For the Flash, ten months is an eternity.

Miami Beach party people. Klingons. Same difference.

I feel like Rocky Horror is too easy for a Con, but kudos to this chick for finding that jacket.

As with any costume from video games, there’s always a good chance I just won’t get the reference. And if I never see another Harley Quinn at a con, it’ll be too soon. Seriously, Harley Quinn and Deadpool are the new Crow – there are far, far, far too many of them at any given event.

This was one of the highlights of the day- a “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” dance party with Waldo, Ash, Spidey, and the dancing banana.

Adventure Time’s Ice King needed a break from the South Florida heat.

What did I say earlier about all the Harley Quinns? It’s a little more palatable when she’s with a Joker, Black Mask, and Doctor Freeze.

Amelie, a TARDIS, and a Doctor. I think that’s a Tenth Doctor, but it’s possible she wasn’t going for a specific incarnation. The vaguely steam-punky TARDIS outfit was pretty nifty also.

There were lots of video-game inspired costumes at this con.

…and a larger than average contingent of DC Comics characters, like this excellent Huntress cosplay. The Batman Begins Batsuit utility belt painted purple is a nice touch.

A pretty decent Thor, with YAH. (Yet Another Harley.)

I caught this Airbender on the escalator.

More DC Comics folks- a Poison Ivy, a Robin, YAH, and a Riddler.

Here’s the reason for all the DC Comics Batman characters- Kevin Conroy, the voice of the animated Batman since 1992’s “The Animated Series,” was doing a panel.

Also attending this con was Jim Cumming, the voice of Darkwing Duck, Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, and many more.

…and back to the costumes. I’m not sure what’s going on with Kitty-Thor, but it’s a very fun outfit.

As we were headed out at the end of the day, we walked right past a very well done Spawn.

Which do you prefer, Coke, Pepsi, or some other third brand?

2015 Morikami Lantern Festival: In The Spirit of Obon

On October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 By StevenIn Life At Home8 Comments

Allow me to step away from my neverending flurry of Japan posts to talk about… Japanese culture in South Florida! This weekend was the 2015 Morikami Lantern Festival: In The Spirit Of Obon.

First, a little bit of history: In 1903, a Japanese man named Jo Sakai who had recently graduated from New York University purchased 1000 acres of land from Henry Flagler’s Model Land Company, in order to build a farming community. Jo Sakai recruited young men from his home town of Miyazu, Japan to help farm the land. The Yamato Colony was located in what is now Boca Raton, Florida. One of their main crops was pineapples, and the pineapple is a symbol of nearby Delray Beach to this day. A major East-West roadway in Boca Raton is still called Yamato Road, and I drive that road every time I go to work.

Over time, the Yamato Colony could no longer compete with cheaper pineapples from nearby Cuba. Most of the farmers returned to Japan, and those who remained lost much of their land when the United States government took it during World War II to build an Army Air Corps training base. That land is currently part of Florida Atlantic University and the local Boca Raton Airport. Shoppers leaving the Whole Foods off Glades Road in Boca Raton can still see giant Army turrets left over from the military base bordering the field of the local high school.

The lone member of the Yamato Colony to remain in the area was George Morikami. George migrated to the area from Miyazu in 1906, and he stayed in the area after the Yamato Colony disbanded. He purchased land in Delray Beach after World War II, and farmed it for almost thirty years. George Morikami died at age 89 in 1976, and his ashes were returned to Miyazu. Nearby Delray Beach is a sister city to Miyazu, in his honor.

Before George died, he donated his land to Palm Beach County, and that land became the Morikami Park and Japanese Gardens. Ground breaking for Morikami Park was in 1976, and the museum building on site began construction in 1993.

The Museum and Gardens have been celebrating the Bon festival for many years. Obon has traditionally been celebrated in July or August, but the Morikami changed their celebration a few years ago to be slightly later in the year in order to better avoid summer weather conditions. The newer festival was combined with another fall Lantern celebration, and thus is called “The Morikami Lantern Festival: In The Spirit of Obon.”

Now that we’ve got that background out of the way, let’s talk about the festival! As with any festival in Florida, there are tents for small wares- tea, jewelry, and the like.

There were entertainment tents for the children, including facepainting, ring toss games, and a Doraemon’s Pocket game where children can toss a small bean bag into Doraemon’s pocket to win prizes. Not familiar with Doraemon? He’s a robot cat from the future, and he’s very popular in Japan.

A local screen printing company was working on the official shirts for the festival. If you’ve never watched screen printing being done, it’s worth a look. The entire process is just fascinating.

The design for the event logo is beautiful. The Fine Print Shoppe does nice work.

There were food options at the festival as well. Some of the food choices were typical American festival fare, but most of the food booths were either Japanese or Japanese-inspired foods. Amelie and I ate Takoyaki, a round and battered snack which is traditionally filled with octopus, tempura, ginger, and onion, but was made at the Morikami with chicken instead of octopus. We also tried Kinoko Gohan, a type of brown rice with mushroom in it. Both dishes were delicious.

Emboldened by the delicious flavors of the other two, we tried a dessert called Dango. Dango is a semi-sweet dumpling made of mochiko (rice flour), and covered in a syrup made of soy sauce, sugar, and starch. Neither of us enjoyed this as much as the other dishes we had tried- the texture was very dense, and the syrup brought very little sweetness to the whole concoction. As a dessert, this kind of failed for me.

In order to cleanse your mental palate from the foodstuffs, let me show you around the park a little bit. They have a Bonsai work area where they grow and trim many varieties of the sprightly little trees.

The garden has long winding pathways on which you might stroll with pretty girlfriends. Here’s mine.

There are waterfalls and stone paths over water, as well as wooden boardwalks over some pools.

There is a proper zen garden. While we were in this area, we overheard a young frat boy asking the attendant if the design was ever changed. When he was told that it was not, he suggested (with a blinding surge of stupidity) that they should cover it in a coat of clear acrylic.

There are nooks and crannies on the pathways around the garden. On one particular nook, there’s a bamboo water pipe which fills and then dips each time it is too full:

The entire garden wraps around a very large lake.

One part of the garden is a small bamboo forest. The sound of bamboo rubbing against other bamboo is unlike any other sound on Earth. Not that I haven’t tried to imitate it. Quite a lot, in fact.

Near the main museum is a stone ring on a stand. I don’t truly understand the significance of the stone, but it’s pretty and photogenic. And a banana spider has made a web in the center of the ring which catches the light very nicely.

This little fellow didn’t seem overly concerned with the hordes of humans present in the park on Saturday. He was hunting for food and wandered right past me, no more than an arm’s length away.

There are several bridges in the park demonstrating various types of Japanese architecture. I couldn’t begin to tell you much about this one, but it’s nice looking, don’t you think?

Now that you have a better idea of the setting, let me show you some of the entertainment. There were rotating shows, three times each, of two Japanese arts. The first was Japanese folk dancing by Chitose Kai.

Some of the folk dancing was assisted by members of the second group, the Fushu Daiko Taiko drumming troupe.

Founded in 1990, Fushu Daiko is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. That big drum behind the group? They call it Godzilla.

It’s difficult to get clear shots of the drummers- they’re very fast.

Fushu Daiko teaches classes in their dojo, so the students also perform at some shows.

I’m not gonna lie to you- Taiko drumming is super cool to watch. I’m not going to talk about the next nine photos. Just look through them slowly, and then figure out when you can go see a Taiko show. For those of you in Orlando, just go to Epcot- they do it there every day. I’ll see you after the Fushu Daiko pictures.

Welcome back! How did you like the Taiko drums?

By the time the final drumming finished up, there were only a few things left to do at the festival. There was a little more shopping available- these lights were much prettier after dark than they were in the daytime.

The lantern part of the lantern festival was close to the end of the evening. Visitors were encouraged to purchase and build a floating lantern or a tanzaku slip in memory of a loved one. These lanterns would then float across Morikami Lake at the end of the evening. There wasn’t much of a breeze, so the lanterns didn’t move very much. They still looked pretty nifty, though.

Finally, just before the close of the festival, there were fireworks. Lots of them, right over the corner of Morikami Lake.

Have you ever been to the Morikami Museum and Gardens? Have you ever been to a Bon Festival?

Throwback Thursday: Repatriation day plus one year.

On October 1, 2015October 1, 2015 By StevenIn Life At Home6 Comments

A lot of my friends do this thing on Facebook called Throwback Thursday, where you post a really old photograph of yourself, but I realized a few days ago that this Thursday would be the first of October. It’s been precisely one year since I left Germany to start my life over here in South Florida.

In that time:

I spent just over four months living in my brother’s spare bedroom which was also his office after my return. I’m still very grateful for his hospitality- by staying there, I was able to find an apartment on my own terms. When I moved to Germany, I had to live in a hotel for three weeks while I searched for my apartment. This was significantly more relaxed.
Soon after my arrival, I inexplicably won a Bose SoundLink Mini in a contest from my web hosting provider. Thanks, DreamHost!
On my first weekend back, I attended the wedding of a man I’ve known for more than twenty years now.

I brought Amelie as my date. I first met Amelie a few years ago, and we officially became a couple during my last year in Germany. This was the first time we went to a wedding together. Amelie wore a Valentino dress, and she looked awesome.
I reacquainted myself with Tijuana Flats. Amelie introduced me to Shake Shack.
I relearned the convenience of grocery shopping whenever the heck I feel like it instead of having to do it before 8pm on weekdays.
About a month after my return, I purchased a car. My previous car was sold when I moved to Germany, so I was starting from scratch. After much deliberation, I decided on a Mazda 3 hatchback. This decision proved beneficial later, when Amelie and I bought all new furniture for my apartment at Ikea. The storage in this hatchback is insane.
Amelie and I have gone to many, many concerts since my return, including some long time favorites of mine (Information Society, Kraftwerk, Weird Al Yankovic) and some favorites of hers (My Morning Jacket, Barenaked Ladies, Paramore, Pixies) as well.
During the late January trip to California to see Information Society, Amelie and I briefly visited with my old friend Miri in the Sacramento area. Less than six months later, Miri took her own life. That sucks.
Back to fun stuff! Amelie and I have also been to six theme parks in South Florida since my return- all four Florida Disney parks, and both of the Universal Studios parks. We are now Disney annual pass holders, because it’s so close!
On the fifth month, I moved into my own apartment, a one bedroom affair boasting 617 square feet of space. It’s 150% the size of my apartment in Regensburg, yet somehow feels smaller. This can probably be accounted for by the actual kitchen, which does eat up a bit of space. Totally worth it, though.
I spent five weeks in Japan for work, and I’m only about a quarter of the way through posting those photographs. This was the 27th country outside of the US that I have visited.
Work also sent me to Utah for a week. It’s not as fascinating as Japan, but it’s still pretty darn scenic.
Edit: I didn’t realize this until I hit publish, but this is the 350th post on this blog. I thought that was momentous enough to warrant a post-publish edit!

So the running total for this last twelve months: One wedding, one funeral, one new country, three out of state trips, and lots of concerts and shows. I wanted to write a great deal more, but one thing that I’ve noticed in the last year is that time goes much, much faster here. I often feel like I don’t have enough time to write everything that I want to write. In Germany, it felt like I had a great deal more time to write and so forth.

This doesn’t mean I’m not having fun, though. While I was scrolling through my phone’s camera roll for this post, I noticed two things: First, that I’ve taken better than five thousand photos in the past year, just on my phone. That’s not even including the ones on the big camera that I take traveling. I take a LOT of photographs. I think I may have an addiction. Second: In a huge percentage of the pictures, I’m with this girl, and I’m smiling like a fiend:

That’s because I have a great time with her. She’s the Bonnie to my Clyde, and I love her to bits. I don’t usually talk about her much here in great detail, but anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while has seen her name and her picture lots of times.

Last October, I came back to Florida. It wasn’t until I was with Amelie again that I was truly home.

So what have you been up to for the last twelve months?

So where were we? Oh, yes, Tampa Bay Comic Con!

On August 12, 2015 By StevenIn Florida4 Comments

For the last few months, it’s been increasingly more difficult to find the words for the little blank box of blogdom. The painful truth is that this blog has always been primarily a travel blog, and I’m not really traveling any more. Once I finish my photo sorting from Japan and I start those posts, I’m out of steam. I took nearly 2500 photos while I was in Japan, and I foolishly didn’t sort them as I went. Stupid, stupid Steven. I’m nearly through them now, but it’s been crazy.

I have about three Minnesota posts to get out, and a dozen or so Japan posts, and then I’m done. I have no travel planned in the near or distant future. For me, that’s almost unheard of, but I needed time to re-balance my life and fix the financial burn that traveling like a fiend for the last few years has caused.

The blog needs a retooling, and I’m still not really sure what to do with it. The people who came here for pretty pictures of faraway places won’t much enjoy me talking about the day to day grind of work-a-day life in South Florida. If I blogged more like an old LiveJournal and started to talk about things like my terrible sleep habits, South Florida traffic, and regular day to day fluff, would anyone still want to read it?

Other things have been happening which have kept me away from the blogosphere- On the bad side, things are happening with Mr. Company that make me more than a little uneasy. On the good side, I’ve been spending oodles of time with my Amelie, and there’s nothing that makes me blog less than having a lot of happy stuff to do away from power outlets and Internet connections. On the mixed side, my family is splintering again. After six or eight months being close to all my siblings, my sister has relocated to Orlando for a new job. Orlando is only a few hours away, but that really makes it difficult to continue our tradition of all four siblings getting together for dinner every few weeks. This picture from about two weeks ago was the last time that all of us were together:

That’s enough focus on the question of bloggery for right now, because I have lots of entertaining pictures! The weekend before last, Amelie and I were in Tampa for the Tampa Bay Comic Con. We just did one soggy day of the three-day event, choosing to visit only on Saturday. We suited up in the traditional questing garb of our people (translation: geeky t-shirts and jeans) and set out to enjoy the convention.

Here’s some of the neat stuff we saw! On our way in, we saw some great DC comics costumes, but it was a long line of people waiting to get into the building. As a result, this is more a sneaky candid than a good prepped and posed shot. I’m not sure whether this chap was Speedy or Red Arrow, but does it really matter? The weather was gorgeous for this part of the day, but it became an incredibly large monsoon-level storm system about an hour after this photo.

I cannot get away from Frozen. It’s everywhere.

A very good Cap. He loses points for using boot shams, though. For sham, sir, for sham! A real pair of boots would totally bring the whole costume together!

I want this jacket. I totally want this jacket.

More DC characters- Red Arrow, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and The Nefarious Frat Boy. It’s almost like there’s a hit show on the CW with these characters or something.

Miles Morales is a good father to his little princess.

Optimus Prime’s got hairy knees. This must be his summer look. Not pictured: The ridiculous Bermuda shorts visible from the back of the Autobot. If you’re going to wear a full body costume, would it kill you to wear something that covers your knee-pits?

Now this is what conventions are really for: wizard-on-wizard violence.

This was the first line-up for Carrie Fisher. Everyone in this photo was in a very long folding single-file line.

Carrie Fisher’s very short panel was great fun. Not pictured: Her little dog that goes everywhere with her now. Including, apparently, the set of Star Wars: Episode VII.

This girl’s Effie Trinket costume was kind of brilliantly done.

The cast of Inside Out: Sadness, Anger, Fear, Joy, and Homicidal Xenophobic Hatred.

What would happen if the Venom symbiote latched onto Tony Stark? Something like this, I guess.

Russell from Up! (Nice detail on the buttons, dude!)

The Freema Agyeman panel was interesting, but not as interesting as Carrie Fisher’s panel. On the bright side, I finally learned how to pronounce “Freema Agyeman.” On a side note, the dude at the podium was an insufferable twit who made me want to kick him in the shins.

I call this photo “Break room On The Watchtower.”

We kept seeing this Avenger couple in lines for various panels. I’m very impressed with their getup. Bonus points: not a boot sham in sight!

Every convention has its contingent of bizarre Deadpool costumes, but this one had a Dogpool puppet! (Yes, Dogpool is a real thing in Marvel continuity. Really.)

They spook easily, but they’ll soon be back, and in greater numbers.

This is one of the most interesting and innovative group costumes I’ve ever seen. Amelie and I both especially dug these intrepid post-apocalyptic Muppet hunters.

Agent Venom and probably-Scream. They’re getting a lot of mileage with the original black costume these days

Meanwhile, at Al Harrington’s Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tubeman Emporium and Warehouse in Weekapaug, Rhode Island…

Captain Spider-merica? Spider-Cap? American Spider? Red White And Blue Bug? What do you even call this mash-up? (Cool reflective silver eyes, though. And nice job on the shield.)

There were surprisingly few Harley Quinns at Tampa Bay Comic Con. Megacon in Orlando was just lousy with ’em.

I didn’t have the good camera with me for the Jena Malone panel.

After the day’s geekiness, Amelie and I ate dinner at Columbia House, and then walked around a bit. We did manage to find the fabled Tampa Bay Lightning. Shocking!