Travel

This building collapse in Surfside, FL is next door to the place my wife and I stayed for a week in January 2020. Absolutely crazy. Hard to think of a worse time of day for something like this to happen.

So curious to HOW this happened... I know Florida has big problems with sink holes, so that could be a possibility... But this is just so weird that an entire corner of a building collapsed.

If I had to guess it starts with, "A Florida man...".

I've been wracking my mind to come up with a plausible reason it could suddenly collapse as well. Sink hole is a good one.

You'd think structural issues would show themselves before a sudden collapse. cracked floors/walls/windows. Loud bangs of materials settling.

One possibility is that they were doing roof work. That opens the possibility that either something was unintentionally weakened, or that too much weight/strain was placed in some area of the roof, causing that to collapse, when then drops to the next floor all the way down.

EDIT: They WERE doing roof work, the possibility is what I mention after.

There is some video out there of the collapse if you look around. Really scary how quickly one wing basically disappears.

There's reports that the building had been built on reclaimed wetlands and had been sinking since the 90s.

From NBC, a nearby surveillance camera that shows it:

https://www.msnbc.com/hallie-jackson/watch/florida-building-collapse-caught-on-surveillance-video-115393605751

The first responders are true heroes. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be to safely go through all that rubble.

First vacation/airplane trip in 2 years. A couple of observations.

-- Every worker we encountered at the airport/airlines were nothing short of super pleasant. I'm sure they take a good deal of crap enforcing the mask mandates.

-- I would say about 40% of the stores @ MSP were not open. ( we were there in the middle of the day) I'm guessing worker shortage in most cases

-- Hotel we stayed at in Nashville showed no signs of worker storage. It is a new hotel, only open about a month.

-- Bars in Nashville definitely showed of worker shortages. Service was slow, as not enough staff. Most rooftops you had to go to the bar to get your drinks.

-- Beer prices have gone up pretty good since our last visit, as one could expect.

-- Stayed in the Cities for a couple of days when we flew back in. Stayed at a hotel on the 494 strip. It is our normal one we stay at when we come for hockey. Medium priced hotel. No room cleaning until day 3 of your stay. If you want towels, you need to get new ones at the desk. Breakfast was non existent. Didn't mind any of this really, but am concerned that with less employees for up keep, this place could easily go down hill.

-- My biggest pet peeve from the trip is that there was no free wifi on our flight back. No way that any airline, airport, major hotel, or any large place that you are spending significant time at should not have free wifi. I just expect it now. I guess I'm spoiled.

-- Pet peeve #2 was all of those stupid scooters that were just left all over the sidewalks in downtown Nashville.

1. We flew last Labor Day and the percentage of closed stores was a lot higher. Most of the fast food type places were closed. Only certain sit down restaurants and some fast casual type places were open and all had HUGE lines. I was recommending to anyone who was travelling to either eat before they got to the airport or to allow extra time to wait in line at the places that were open.

2. Totally agree with you. Scooters are EVERYWHERE in Nashville. I found this article from May 2021 about scooter accidents in Nashville.

https://www.wsmv.com/news/ut-studies-electric-scooter-crashes-in-nashville/article_7cd7ed34-af1f-11eb-9526-87be9c34ff87.html

From the article:

The research found that most riders involved in a crash were local and lived outside of the Nashville city center.

Most crashes occurred as people were coming off of sidewalks into driveways or crosswalks.

The study focused on 52 reports of E-scooter crashes in Nashville over two years.

Another interesting note: when looking at those crashes, they found that alcohol was not a factor in most of them, and that most occurred during the day.

Lots of people do not know how to handle 2 wheel powered vehicles. It ain't like riding a bike. Then given the diameter of scooter wheels, poor suspensions, and how quick the combination of these factors make scooters very quick to respond to handlebar inputs.

I'm not looking forward to the sticker shock once I make it back in August. Not that I eat fast food that much, but as a reference point it's now $10+ for a McD meal?

The eldest got his dorm assignment finally - Comstock E. I honestly don't remember if that's good or bad.

Slap Shot wrote:

I'm not looking forward to the sticker shock once I make it back in August. Not that I eat fast food that much, but as a reference point it's now $10+ for a McD meal?

Tuesday AM I drove into Ham Lake early AM to help youngest on a home improvement project.

Micky Ds in Mora breakfast McMuffin meal, no coffee but a small OJ. $10.02

Slap Shot wrote:

I'm not looking forward to the sticker shock once I make it back in August. Not that I eat fast food that much, but as a reference point it's now $10+ for a McD meal?

The eldest got his dorm assignment finally - Comstock E. I honestly don't remember if that's good or bad.

Any dorm not called Territorial sucks

We just got home earlier from our trip out to Utah. We joked it was a National Parks 'sampler' tour because we spent 8 days out there and saw all 5 national parks in the state. We basically only drove through Capitol Reef (we were going from Moab to Springdale and the hiking here isn't too kid friendly) and did a one hour flyover tour of Canyonlands. Canyonlands is so remote that I'm really glad we chose to see the park this way because we saw a lot of things that would require days of hiking to get out to.

[mention]Armadillo[/mention] can attest to Arches being a pretty cool place because he was there a few days before we got out there, but it was probably my 3rd favorite of the parks. I really enjoyed Zion, but Bryce Canyon blew me away in terms of how beautiful it is. Hiking down in the Ampitheater was unbelievable and the nighttime stargazing (it's considered once of the darkest places in the US) made me wish we had spent another day or two there.

If you're ever in the Moab area and are looking for a nice place to stay we found a place called Red Cliffs Lodge. It's about 20 minutes outside of town and our cabin was right on the Colorado River. The lodging was great, the horseback riding was a lot of fun (although I wish it had been longer), and the restaurant had some top notch food. I can't recommend it enough if you don't want to camp while you're out there.

Had similar feelings about our Utah trip a couple years ago. But Cassidy Arch in Capitol Reef was an AWESOME trail. Bryce Canyon was a favorite park, Capitol Reef 2nd Fav. (for us anyway).

We made a last minute decision to drive through Capitol Reef. We had lunch there and drove the scenic route, so if we get back out there I'll have to keep that trail in mind.

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands is something to see. I got some great pics at Sunrise.

My yearly Trip to Hawaii might have to change destination, they have a lot of problems in Honolulu due to Covid might have to go to Scottsdale AZ next spring

We were thinking Hawaii also. Would be a Spring trip and our first time there. We'll have to wait and see how they cope with Covid before finalizing.

We are going to Hawaii in March 2022, so hoping things open a bit more.

We saw it from the air. I bet it would be pretty at sunrise given the terrain

We saw the moon rise at Arches. It was only a day or two past full but I’d never seen it come up like that before

The star gazing at Bryce canyon (we were very lucky to get a clear sky and a new moon), was incredible. It felt fake, like there was a dome they were projecting images onto.

Some of my photos have these large streaks of moving lights together. Apparently those are SpaceX or StarLink or something like that. There are several groups of them visible in a few photos, and apparently only going to get much worse - so that is somewhat disappointing.

I have some of those two from the two nights I went out. I need to look through the photos but I think the second night (when I was trying to photograph the Milky Way and amphitheater together) was so dark my camera wasn’t focusing well.

That said I think I got some cool night shots both there and at our lodge outside Moab.

I’ve heard the governor has urged folks not to come to the islands.

This better be over by 2024, that’s when we are planning to try again after the 2020 fail.

Arches was amazing (shocking take, I know), but we were unable to do any stargazing due to the thunderstorms that came through both nights we were there. Oh well, gives us a reason to go back.

Driving from Moab to Breckenridge stunk, owing to a 2.5-hour detour up to Steamboat Springs because of flash flooding on I-70 east of Grand Junction caused by a burn scar.

Armadillo wrote:

Arches was amazing (shocking take, I know), but we were unable to do any stargazing due to the thunderstorms that came through both nights we were there. Oh well, gives us a reason to go back.

Driving from Moab to Breckenridge stunk, owing to a 2.5-hour detour up to Steamboat Springs because of flash flooding on I-70 east of Grand Junction caused by a burn scar.

And they had the Interstate open through Glenwood Canyon when we headed out so we didn’t have to deal with that. Judging by the damage I saw driving west through there it looked really bad

I was reading online that to book a Hawaiian vacation there outrageous resort fees $2000.00~30000.00 for hotels

I’m sorry but “reading online” where? Unless you’re going to provide some actual facts, this is just posting nonsense.

If you were making a joke you forgot the proper emoji.

Never been to Boulder and been a while to Denver. Any recommendations? Looking for breweries, maybe a nicer dinner place and some hikes. We will have a car and staying in Denver.

I’m afraid we haven’t been there since the FF, but I remember downtown as very lively, lots of restaurants and we hit several breweries. Hopefully they’re still around or new ones for you to discover. For up to date info I’d search local eateries and breweries, especially since some now require a reservation for limited dining.

Denver does have a terrific DT light rail that we used many times. It’s quite easy to use and then you can park once and still get around.

Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park is great if you've got the time. And Estes Park is one of the prettiest towns in America.

Unfortunately won't have time to make it up there. We are staying in Denver in Lohi and going to Boulder for the game on Saturday

We live in Highlands, just west of Federal.....

Breweries to check out in LoHi would be Zuni & Denver Beer Co......in RiNo (not far away) Ratio, Epic, Great Divide, Odell, 14'er.....little further away, near Sloans Lake, Joyride, Odell, Little Machine......mountain/city views at Joyride & Odell (at Sloan's Lake) are pretty cool

so much great food near where you at staying ......Cart Driver, Park Burger, Bartaco, Happy Camper, Tacos Tequila Whiskey, Avanti is a massive indoor food/bar with all sorts of food under one roof & on their roof top.....tough to go wrong.....

Hope you enjoy Denver ......we love it here!

Go Gophers - Beat CU!

looking back your post......a little more info for you.....

hiking, I'd go out to red rocks or golden......they're not far away from where you are staying......red rocks has trails around the amphitheater & golden has trails everywhere ......north and south table hikes are very popular and not that difficult......also, the flatirons near boulder are also a good choice......kinda want to be a little careful with altitude and those hikes aren't crazy high......there are also some cool hikes near Georgetown (you'll be right near the Divide) & Evergreen but those are further out of Denver

remember to drink and bring h2o

if you head out to red rocks or golden to hike, hit new frontier brewery in golden as a reward.....

better restaurants in denver? I'd suggest work & class (RiNo), senor bear (highlands), linger (LoHi)

RMNP might still be under a reservation system, if you plan to go check ahead.

EDIT: yep:

https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/permitsandreservations.htm

If you are looking for a really beautiful hike that is very moderate try Chief Mountain. We take most of our visiting guests there. Very easy switchback mountain. Depending on where you are staying in Denver its about 45 minutes to an hour away near Genesee Park/Evergreen. When you get to the top, if it is a nice out, you get views of Pikes Peak to the south, Mt Evans directly to the west and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park to the north. The smoke from the CA and OR fires has pretty much cleared out so it is worth the drive. Just bring and drink lots of water as the elevation is about 12,000 feet.

and a cannister of oxygen.

I forget how far away it is from Denver but Estes Park is immensely beautiful, there is rafting nearby, horse back riding, etc.

According to a JD Power survey, MSP Airport is the third best airport in the US of the "mega" airports. O'Hare is last.

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2021-north-america-airport-satisfaction-study.

Of the "large" airports, New Orleans is first and Philadelphia is last. (Maybe greater minds can tell me why Philadelphia is a "large" airport but MSP is "Mega".

Maybe because of it being a major hub?

I have no idea but if I had to guess it would be total # of gates.

Looks to be passengers served. At least according to what I found on Google.

I wouldn’t have guessed a city so much bigger than Twin Cities would have an airport “smaller” than ours.

That is probably where being a Delta hub comes in, along with geographic location.

Looks like PHL snuck over 33 million in 2019. Not sure how often they adjust those lists. And I suspect Karlsson has it right on why MSP has such a high passenger count. I suspect part of it is that a lot of the business travel for people into/out of Philadelphia is by train (about a 90 minute Amtrak trip to NYC)

Philly was a hub for US Air before it was bought out by American. I wonder if it lost traffic after the merger. That said, there are a lot of airports near Philly so that likely accounts for less traffic.

I’d have to say the ranking of PHL last in airport rankings is well deserved. It’s always been a dump. Small/cramped gate areas, electrical outlets that don’t work, dirty stained carpet. The maintenance budget for passenger areas must be about $17.

I love coming to Bayfield in the Fall for the annual Apple Festival but it just hasn’t felt like Fall. I’ve been wearing shorts for two days.

This morning it’s 55 and overcast with the occasional raindrops and it feels so much more like what Fall up here should be like

I recently moved here, ask me anything ?