Nothing gets you in a Christmas state of mind more than when you see a bunch of poinsettias grouped together in a festive display and no place on Earth puts out better floral displays than the Mouse House during the Christmas events at Disney World.

Disney goes all out when decorating for the Holidays, if it doesn’t move you can bet they’ll be something festive stuck to it or hung from it and their flower beds are no exception. Poinsettias are the most common holiday flower displayed and why not they are beautiful, colorful and extremely festive.

Poinsettias are truly the flowers of Christmas in Florida. Poinsettias come in several different varieties such as these white and pink.

These are a mix of both colors.

The familiar red of these beautiful poinsettias say ‘Christmas’, no matter what language you speak.

These poinsettias aren’t quite mature yet, but are still just as beautiful.

Alligators are everywhere in the Everglades National Park, I photographed this seven footer on the Anhinga Trail.

I don’t like the way this Shark Valley alligator is looking at me, even though he’s one of smaller gators I saw in the Florida Everglades.

This little fellow is only about six inches long, I photographed him while taking an airboat ride at Gator Park.

I’m lucky to have been able to participate in the Space Shuttle Program through a minor support role while working at CCAFS. I’ve also been very fortunate to be able to photograph the last three shuttles, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis when I shot these photos just before the STS-125 mission.

During STS-125 mission, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on May 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Since its first launch on 10/3/85, Space Shuttle Atlantis has logged 32 missions with 191 crew members, spent over 293 days in space, orbited the earth 4,648 times and traveled 120,650,907 miles. Atlantis will be the last space shuttle launch and is currently scheduled for early July.

I’ve always loved shrimp boats even before Forrest Gump was a “shrimpin’ boat captain” cause I guess I’ve always loved shrimp.

I was recently in Daytona Beach at DJ’s Deck, where I shot these photos, doing a blog post for Spring Break in Daytona Beach where I saw these shrimp boats.

Why do I love shrimp? Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.

A shot of the MacArthur Causeway is one of the most famous shots in Miami Beach, it has been featured in many movies and TV shows about Miami Beach. From Miami Vice to Dexter, it’s a staple of the cinematic world.

As you get close to South Beach Miami you’ll see this skyline to the north with high rise offices, condos and resort hotels visible. The light pastel colors are a pleasant break from the concrete and steel of some other cities skylines.

The Bentley Bay Tower is a residential skyscraper in Miami Beach, located directly on Biscayne Bay near the Macarthur Causeway and the Miami Beach Marina. They opened in 2005 with two towers each over 20 floors tall, 16 different floor-plans and a panoramic view of Biscayne Bay.

The Miami Beach Marina has been dubbed “Gateway to the Caribbean in the heart of South Beach”. It’s adjacent to Government Cut, has fixed bridges, and is one of the deepest inlets in Florida. There are 400 boat slips with plenty of dock space for vessels up to 250 feet.

Throwing spray is a term widely used by lots of water sports like surfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding and skimboarding. The surfer above is throwing awesome spray on Cocoa Beach during Hurricane Earl.

Kiteboarding is possibly the fastest growing water sport in Florida. This kiteboarder was at Cape Canaveral and was throwing spray like a pro.

Skimboarding is also a popular sport, especially among the younger crowd. I used to skimboard as a teenager, but somehow falling shoulder first into a shell packed beach doesn’t seem as fun as it used to be.

When you find yourself surrounded by water and you’re looking for things to do in Florida, just get out and Throw Some Spray.

Central Florida is home to Port Canaveral, one of the more popular cruise ports in Florida. What many cruise tourist may not know is, Port Canaveral is also home to a large scale cargo operation shipping citrus, aggregates, fuel and other products.

Pictured above is the cargo ship TRANQUIL ACE.

Fuel is an important commodity at the Port, above is a picture of the INDIAN RIVER Tug Boat at a fuel berth.

Pilot Boats ferry the harbor pilots to any ship including cruise ships that enter Port Canaveral.

Many Florida Inlets are beautiful, natural passes, some with stabilizing jetties and some without. Many are difficult to navigate especially during outgoing tide with swift currents that build ocean swells into a real white knuckle experience. Port Canaveral isn’t such a place. Port Canaveral is a wide inlet with locks that that separate it from the Banana River which reduces tidal effects in the port’s basin.

Thunder Alley at Daytona International Speedway was the place to be during Biketoberfest. The size of the crowd outside Turn 4 appeared a little light, it may have had something to do with the track being repaved and no access to the infield.

This nice custom chopper is from G. Smith Motorsports.

Another nice bike from G. Smith Motorsports.

Nice chrome job by Chromemasters.

I have many more pictures of Biketoberfest 2010 including photos of bikes and bikers, beer girls and even a wet-t shirt contest at Dirty Harry’s.

The Flagler Memorial Island is an artificial spoil island and one of the Venetian Islands located in Biscayne Bay.

The island is uninhabited, the only way to get there is by boat but it’s a favorite spot for families in nearby Miami Beach to spend the day having a picnic. There is also a clearing in the center of the island where visitors play volleyball and light bonfires.

What makes the island so distinctly recognizable is the 110-foot high obelisk with allegorical sculptures at its base. It was built as a monument to Miami pioneer Henry M. Flagler and can be clearly seen from the Venetian causeway that passes over the Bay.

I went commercial kingfishing two weeks ago with a couple of buddies of mine, two brothers from Jupiter, FL who had been fishing schoolie kingfish off Jupiter Inlet. They still practice the art of catching kingfish by hook and line and use live bait, similar to most sport fishermen, by drifting in 80-90 feet of water. These guys really love fishing, earlier in the week they released a sailfish and also caught a 45 lb wahoo. Kingfish are popular sport fish caught off many Florida Inlets.

Usually they drift, catch a few fish, gut and ice the fish when the fishing slows, then they motor back to the edge of the school and do it over again. On the drift pictured above, the fishing was so hot, we were literally walking on fish as triple hookups were common. The kingfish were skyrocketing everywhere and you could barely get a bait in the water before getting your thumb smoked.

The fishing lasted about five hours, to get legal 75 fish limit, plus about half as many bonitas. The bait, Spanish sardines and cigar minnows, took about half as long to catch, as they like to have about 400 hook caught baits before they start fishing. The total weight of the kingfish was about 840 lbs, we only had two bigger fish of about 20 lbs, but the small fish is what they want anyway.

Their boat is a really old offshore racing hull design with twin 225s. It ain’t pretty or fancy, but it’s really fast. Every trip I fish with these guys is a trip of a lifetime and a lot more fun than fishing with a few people I know who are afraid to get a little blood in their boat.