Port of the Islands, A perfect area for a Boat Tour
Running boat tours into the Ten Thousand Islands has become one of my favorite things in the world to do. Not only do I have the luxury of spending my day in a pristine, raw environment, but I get to show and teach people at the same time. Starting out of the Port of the Islands Marina, we make our way through the 1.5-mile manatee sanctuary. During this idle to the islands, we can find countless bird species, search for the elusive west indies manatee, and take our time to talk about some of the history and wildlife this area has to offer. Starting our boat tour in this brackish water paradise allows us to find animal species that we may not typically find throughout the outer islands, where the water is much saltier. One animal, in particular, being the American alligator. Alligators are a freshwater species that can tolerate certain salinity levels for limited periods, making the Fakaunion Canal a perfect area for the alligator to call home. Just north of the bridge and among the ponds throughout the Port of the Islands, they have consistent year-round access to freshwater, which is essential in the later months of the dry season as we tend to see increase salinity levels in the canal.
During our winter months, the manatees like to push further up the canal, seeking warmer water. This gives our boat tour guests a perfect opportunity to spot manatees before we even leave the canal. During the summer months, manatees are spread throughout Florida’s coastlines, making sightings a little more difficult but always possible. Once we make our way out of the canal and into the islands, we snake our way through literally thousands of barrier islands between the mainland Everglades and the Gulf of Mexico. During our boat ride through the islands, we make numerous stops to observe feeding birds, dolphins, and on super-rare occasions, bobcats and black bears.
The main attraction, however, is still yet to come. Taking a boat tour out of Port of the Islands allows us to make a beach stop at some of the most secluded and beautiful white sandy beaches Florida has to offer. Here guests can get out, stretch their legs, and go for a walk down a totally isolated beach outside of the madness a typical public beach can offer. This gives people such a better feeling for what our coastlines may have looked like hundreds of years before the human-influenced coastlines, which many people are used to exploring. Regardless of when you book your boat tour, the amount of wildlife and scenery this tour has to offer is second to none. A Port of the Islands boat tour will have you leaving with a whole new sense of what the Florida Everglades has to offer, and it will demonstrate the magnificence of a proper wilderness area if left undisturbed by mankind.
The Port of the Islands is a quick drive southeast from Naples and Marco Island.
Capt. Logan Hannan
Real time design tools
Just the other day I happened to wake up early. That is unusual for an engineering student. After a long time I could witness the sunrise. I could feel the sun rays falling on my body. Usual morning is followed by hustle to make it to college on time. This morning was just another morning yet seemed different.
Witnessing calm and quiet atmosphere, clear and fresh air seemed like a miracle to me. I wanted this time to last longer since I was not sure if I would be able to witness it again, knowing my habit of succumbing to schedule. There was this unusual serenity that comforted my mind. It dawned on me, how distant I had been from nature. Standing near the compound’s gate, feeling the moistness that the air carried, I thought about my life so far.
I was good at academics, so decisions of my life had been pretty simple and straight. Being pretty confident I would make it to the best junior college of my town in the first round itself, never made me consider any other option. I loved psychology since childhood, but engineering was the safest option. Being born in a middle class family, thinking of risking your career to make it to medical field was not sane. I grew up hearing ‘Only doctor’s children can afford that field’ and finally ended up believing it. No one around me believed in taking risks. Everyone worshiped security. I grew up doing the same.
This is what has happened to us. We want the things we have been doing forcefully to fail. And then maybe people around us would let us try something else or our dreams. We are accustomed to live by everyone else’s definition of success. We punish people for the things they are passionate about, just because we were unable to do the same at some point in our life.
I feel like these concrete buildings have sucked our desires and our dreams. We are so used to comfort that compromise seems like a taboo. We have lost faith in ourselves. If we can make through it right now, we can do the same in the days to come. You only need a desire to survive and nothing more- not money or cars or designer clothes.
Staying locked up in four walls have restricted our thinking. I feel like our limited thinking echoes through this wall. We are so used to schedules and predictable life that we have successfully suppressed our creative side.
When you step out of these four walls on a peaceful morning, you realize how much nature has to offer to you. Its boundless. Your thoughts, worries, deadlines won’t resonate here. Everything will flow away along with the wind. And you will realize every answer you had been looking for, was always known to you.
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Working from your home?
01. Wake up at the same time every day.
Naturally, my first impression of these headphones is based off of the look of them. They have a classic over-the-ear style that is highlighted by a blue LED light that indicates the power for the noise canceling. The padding on the ear pieces seems adequate for extended usage periods.
They are wired headphones, but the 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable is detachable. Something else I noticed right of the bat was the very nice carrying case that comes with them. It has a hard plastic exterior with a soft cloth interior that helps to protect the surface of the headphones from scratches. I never truly appreciated cases for headphones until I started carrying them from place-to-place. Now I can’t imagine not having a case.
It’s funny — the thing I feared would take away my “freedom” is the one thing that has allowed me to have it.
Joelle Steiniger
02. Have a routine when you wake up.
Once I gave the headphones a thorough once-over exam, I tried them on. As I mentioned, they have a classic over-the-ear style and just looking at them, the padding on the ear pieces seem adequate and the peak of the headband seemed to be a bit lacking, but you don’t really know comfort unless you try on the product. So, I slipped the headphones on and found them to be exquisitely comfortable. In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
I’d start my day by checking email, Twitter, Facebook. Reading the “news”. I’d look at my to-do list and start working on something.
03. Plan your workout time — stick to it.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
Distractions aside, there was no real rhyme or reason to my workflow. The not-so-fun (but necessary) stuff kept getting neglected.
04. Call it a night.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.