Today was the day that we did our last "field trip" of the semester. We drove 30 minutes out to the beach and found the dead end road that leads to Mantanzas Pass and the historic Estero Cottage. The cottage wasn't what I was expecting, it was a little house built of pine that now houses historical images and facts. It was kind of a downer, I was expecting something else I think. I do have to admit it was cool that something 90 years old has been kept up and maintained for so long.
After we left the cottage, we walked under the huge wooden arch toward the trail and started our adventure. Once we got passed the two tour groups ahead of us, we got to experience the trail silently and feel the calmness surrounding the area. There were no birds and no major insect problems... yet. When we got to the overlook, my friends and I sat on the benches and felt the beautiful breeze and watched the boats pass quietly through the channel. It was so peaceful that we could have stayed there forever but we pressed on anyway. The three of us were trying to make our way quickly through the trail because the morning sun was rising and the temperature at 10:30 had risen to 88 degrees. Then we started to notice that we took the wrong turn and we were taking the long way around, the beauty of the trail would have been enough to make this okay, if it hadn't been for the damn mosquitoes. To make this story short, we ran the last mile out of the trail trying to avoid crab holes while we went. As of now all of us are now covered in bites and are sitting around my living room miserable. That overlook we sat and relaxed at for almost 20 minutes, kind of makes these itchy welts okay with me though.
Areas like this are being preserved by the government and by people who are willing to work at it everyday. I truly don't know how they do it, but they're doing a great job with the little land that there is left. There is a sign in the beginning of the trail that shows the amount of land there was in this particular area with the development of that time, over a certain amount of years the land has shrunk immensely because of constant new development for the growing population.
The area that I grew up, in St.Petersburg, FL, hasn't changed at all since I was younger. New buildings have been built, the Tampa Bay Rays moved into the downtown area and the Tampa Bay Lightning moved 35 miles up the coast, and businesses have come and gone but not significantly changing anything. The amount of community in my city has become very large, at least on the Northside (the Southside is a whole different world). The community feeling grew not because of development but because of the death of three of our officers within a one month period of time. Buildings don't do what these three men have to a community, it's sad that that's how it happened but its truly a beautiful sight to see what can happen to an otherwise distant group of people.
If a developer were to come into my childhood home and offer me a great amount of money, I might take it. My childhood home is worth much a great amount more than my parents originally paid for it, especially since the area has turned from a ghetto and racist neighborhood, to a peaceful and loving senior citizen and gay community. I have no more connection to that home, but I know that the neighborhood is now full of loving families. My decision would not be my own, I would have to include my neighbors in this hard decision. If I had to chose without the help of those around me I wouldn't take the money, high rises come a dime a dozen and that's just plain boring.
Today was the day that we did our last "field trip" of the semester. We drove 30 minutes out to the beach and found the dead end road that leads to Mantanzas Pass and the historic Estero Cottage. The cottage wasn't what I was expecting, it was a little house built of pine that now houses historical images and facts. It was kind of a downer, I was expecting something else I think. I do have to admit it was cool that something 90 years old has been kept up and maintained for so long.
After we left the cottage, we walked under the huge wooden arch toward the trail and started our adventure. Once we got passed the two tour groups ahead of us, we got to experience the trail silently and feel the calmness surrounding the area. There were no birds and no major insect problems... yet. When we got to the overlook, my friends and I sat on the benches and felt the beautiful breeze and watched the boats pass quietly through the channel. It was so peaceful that we could have stayed there forever but we pressed on anyway. The three of us were trying to make our way quickly through the trail because the morning sun was rising and the temperature at 10:30 had risen to 88 degrees. Then we started to notice that we took the wrong turn and we were taking the long way around, the beauty of the trail would have been enough to make this okay, if it hadn't been for the damn mosquitoes. To make this story short, we ran the last mile out of the trail trying to avoid crab holes while we went. As of now all of us are now covered in bites and are sitting around my living room miserable. That overlook we sat and relaxed at for almost 20 minutes, kind of makes these itchy welts okay with me though.
Areas like this are being preserved by the government and by people who are willing to work at it everyday. I truly don't know how they do it, but they're doing a great job with the little land that there is left. There is a sign in the beginning of the trail that shows the amount of land there was in this particular area with the development of that time, over a certain amount of years the land has shrunk immensely because of constant new development for the growing population.
If a developer were to come into my childhood home and offer me a great amount of money, I might take it. My childhood home is worth much a great amount more than my parents originally paid for it, especially since the area has turned from a ghetto and racist neighborhood, to a peaceful and loving senior citizen and gay community. I have no more connection to that home, but I know that the neighborhood is now full of loving families. My decision would not be my own, I would have to include my neighbors in this hard decision. If I had to chose without the help of those around me I wouldn't take the money, high rises come a dime a dozen and that's just plain boring.
No comments:
Post a Comment