In the Sky

Leaving the beautiful skies and humidity of Orlando.

Smog over Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan (Brooklyn Bridge is the lower bridge).

Crossing the Long Island Sound to land at LaGuardia Airport. Sun rays filtering through smog created this effect.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 11 in Orlando

As I depart today for the grime and intensity of New York, I leave my viewers with images of Kayla, who tolerated my harassment last night.

Then she got tired and ignored me.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 10 in Winter Park

The dogs (human and non-human) of downtown Winter Park, Florida.

Wendy taking in a breeze at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, situated on a lake.

I command Kayla to enter the light of the setting sun. She does not listen. Notice a red dot on the tile above my index finger.

At the Drunken Monkey, one of a few excellent vegan friendly dining spots in Orlando, Wendy and I tried the Southern Fried Jesus, left, and the Vegan Monster Truck. The former won out.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 9 in Longwood

Jamie helped Ruby find shells while we took a break.

She found one.

Jamie helped tug our boats over shallow waters.

A stranger's dog tried to jump out of their boat when it saw us.

Kayaking with friends in the Wekiva River near Orlando, Florida.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 8 in Orlando

I spy a transient who befriends birds.

I spy backyard banana trees.

I spy Michael.

I spy Olive.

I spy mulch. My host joked I would be made to move it to the backyard as part of the couchsurfing deal.

I spy ducks in a downtown Orlando park.

I spy a Southern forest and pond.

I spy a sunset over an Orlando lake.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 7 in Orlando

How do you molest an alligator?

A palm at Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida.

Leaf imprints.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 6 in Perdido Key

Many canceled hotel rooms on the Gulf coast of Alabama and Florida despite seemingly beautiful beaches and clear water.

This vendor sold two beers in four hours. The Flora-Bama, right, a beach bar in Perdido Key, Florida, had a handful of patrons. Cars filled up to the third level of the usually packed garage, which is on the Alabama side.

A few workers disembarked a cart after a day's work. Oil had made landfall a week and a half ago.

Off in the distance, a shrimping boat works as an oil skimmer while a boom rig, left, separates oil from water instead of drilling for oil or catching bottom-feeding fish.

Sunset over Perdido Key on the Alabama side.

I stepped on an oil blob, which squished and crumbled like Play-Doh. I found many of these on the beach at Gulfport, Mississippi, but I had no idea at the time what they were until someone educated me in Perdido Key, Florida.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 5 in Mobile and Pensacola

Riding in a Greyhound bus on Interstate 10 in Mississippi Friday evening

Oil in Mobile Bay?

Torrential rainstorm in Pensacola, Florida

I unfortunately didn't take any photos in Mobile, Alabama. That means I have to go back, right? One of these days...

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 4 in Gulfport

Gulfport, Mississippi has two casinos and a beach.

A lone crab. The only creature I saw in two hours on the beach.

Workers trained on this beach to prepare for an oil-spill cleanup if it makes landfall.

The water in the Mississippi Sound -- which is between mainland Mississippi and barrier islands that abut the Gulf of Mexico -- looks strikingly yellow. A local told me muddy water is normal.

A thunderstorm looms ahead.

Can you spot a typo? -- U.S. Route 90

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 3 in New Orleans

The Mississippi River as seen from the French Quarter

Hot sauce for tourists?

After a rainstorm -- Canal Street

The Big Easy isn't all depressing. And I'm finally pronouncing it like a local: New OR-linz.

Gulf of Mexico Tour: Day 2 in New Orleans

Lower Ninth Ward

Garbage -- seen in front of this Lower Ninth Ward house -- is commonly discarded on sidewalks in New Orleans. Recycling has recently been instituted for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.

Lower Ninth Ward

I asked him why he sat behind a locked gate. He mumbled shyly, "I like it." -- Garden District

Lower Ninth Ward

I spent some time this morning documenting the Lower Ninth Ward. Much is abandoned on Saint Claude Avenue, a main thoroughfare. Barely any people walked the streets. Only one bus goes through it, despite New Orleans' good public transit system.