Looking north from our cruise ship as we passed under the Key Bridge. The key bridge carries the beltway (I-695) across the Patapsco River to complete the circuitous route around the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The bridge was opened in March 1977 and is named for the author of the Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key. History scholars believe the span crosses within 100 yards (91 m) of the site, marked in the water off the bridge by a stars and striped painted buoy, where Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry on the evening of September 12, 1814.
The span is 1,200 feet (366 m) long and carries an estimated 11.5 million vehicles annually. It is a long span steel truss bridge with a suspended deck. The structure combines the behaviors of an arch, truss and cantilever. With no expansion joints, this bridge (at the time of this writing) is the second longest continuous steel truss bridge in the United States and the third longest in the world.
More information about this bridge can be found on Wikipedia and An Engineer's Guide to Baltimore.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Mavi
Per a suggestion from my good friend Eneida, Pam and I tried Mavi when we were in San Juan, PR. I asked the waiter at the restaurant if they had it and unfortunately he said no, but he did confirm that it was a local drink and that I could probably find some at one of the restaurants down near the port.
Well, while we did see it elsewhere before getting back on our cruise ship, the stand in this picture is the first place we saw it. Pam didn't like it so much, so as it turned out, I drank hers and mine.
For those out of the know: Mavi is a tree bark-based beverage grown, and widely consumed, in the Caribbean. It is made with sugar and the bark and/or fruit of certain species in the Colubrina genus including Colubrina elliptica (also called behuco indio) and Colubrina arborescens, a small tree native to the northern Caribbean and south Florida. Its taste is initially sweet, somewhat like root beer, but changes to a prolonged, but not astringent bitter aftertaste.
Well, while we did see it elsewhere before getting back on our cruise ship, the stand in this picture is the first place we saw it. Pam didn't like it so much, so as it turned out, I drank hers and mine.
For those out of the know: Mavi is a tree bark-based beverage grown, and widely consumed, in the Caribbean. It is made with sugar and the bark and/or fruit of certain species in the Colubrina genus including Colubrina elliptica (also called behuco indio) and Colubrina arborescens, a small tree native to the northern Caribbean and south Florida. Its taste is initially sweet, somewhat like root beer, but changes to a prolonged, but not astringent bitter aftertaste.
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