How to protect your digital camera at the beach

by Amy Chen on

If you’ll be tanning at the beach this summer, make sure your digital camera doesn’t also end up getting toasted. Though many camera manufacturers now make waterproof digital cameras or accessories, not everyone can afford to buy new gear just for a beach trip.

I checked in with Lindsay Silverman, Nikon‘s senior technical manager, for advice on how to protect your digital camera while at the beach.

Whether you own a SLR or a point-and-shoot, these five tips can help make sure your camera survives a day on the sand. Best of all, none of Silverman’s tips require buying a lot of fancy accessories.

What should you do if you get sand in the camera?

Use a blower device, like the ones that you would find in a pharmacy for getting mucus out of a baby’s or child’s nose. It works great for blowing off moderate amounts of sand. If the camera really took a “dusting,” send the camera in for servicing and let the experts take a look.

What do you do if the camera gets wet?
If it’s a moderate amount — let’s say from a drizzle of rain — I would just wipe the camera clean. If the camera has severe water damage, send it in for servicing.

What do you do if just the lens gets wet or gets sand on it? How do you wipe it without scratching anything?
Same as above; try using a blower to remove grains of sand.

Should you store your camera under the shade of a beach umbrella? What if you put it under a towel? Is that good because it’s out of direct sunlight, or will it overheat if it’s also in a bag?
Leaving the camera exposed on the beach can make the camera really hot. Not only will the camera get hot, the battery will also get very hot, so this is not a good idea.

Protect the camera as much as possible. What I like to do is bring a protective bag for the camera, and then I put it in a dry spot in my cooler. If you can’t do this, keep the camera in its case and put that under a towel — anything to keep it out of the sun and heat.

Should you leave your digital camera at home and take a cheaper one to the beach instead (or just use your camera phone)?
Leave a camera behind? Never! Just use common sense, and have a good time.

[Image Credit: Amy Chen]

Florida’s love bugs: Fact and fiction

by Leigh Caldwell on

Memorial Day weekend in Florida means crowded beaches, crowded theme parks, crowded roads, and crowds of love bugs. That’s right, love bugs. Those bugs are getting it on. Did you really think it was a sweet mama and baby photo?

Unless you have visited Florida during May or September, you may not have seen these weird creatures that even fly joined at the…well, you know.

Love Bugs, also known as March Flies, appear in certain Florida areas in droves — I mean, unbelievable swarms — twice a year. They annoy us for a few weeks, and then they are gone. We almost, almost, forget about them until they start showing up again.

And then, one day, they resume hitting our windshields in such copious numbers that they make it difficult to drive.

It’s even more difficult to get them off the car; the bug residue is almost impossible to remove. And the insects’ fatty tissue can eat away at car paint, though some modern paint finishes seem to be immune to the love bug’s bite.

Speaking of that, angry red thorax notwithstanding, these bugs don’t bite or sting. They simply annoy — to the point that outdoor workers in Florida sometimes refuse to work at the height of a love bug flight, according to the University of Florida.

Love Bug Legend

If you are traveling in Florida during a love bug flight, you’re likely to hear a love bug urban legend from a local. There’s a widespread belief here that love bugs are a creation of the University of Florida — a genetic experiment gone awry.The most common story is that the bugs were bred to control the Florida mosquito population (and don’t even get me started on Florida mosquitoes!). Depending on the storyteller, they were either accidentally or experimentally released into the wild.

But, it’s all false (or what I’m about to tell you is a giant cover-up). The university says the bugs are native to Central America, and they were likely stowaways on cargo ships that docked at the port in New Orleans. The bugs headed to Florida for vacation, and like many other Florida visitors, decided to stay.They were first recorded in the Florida Panhandle in the 1940s.

But what do they do?

An almost equally common urban legend is that love bugs serve no purpose. That’s false, too.

Because they are unseen for most of the year, and they’re so annoying when they are seen, many people consider these insects a pest. However, scientists deem them beneficial.

Female love bugs lay their eggs on the ground in decaying vegetation. The larvae help break it down further, enriching the soil.

One more freaky thing

If it’s not freaky enough to see swarms of sex-crazed bugs flying in tandem on your next Florida vacation, consider this fact I learned while researching this post: The male dies after mating.

And the female? The female keeps dragging that dead man’s body around with her, until she lays her eggs and dies.

Talk about letting a relationship weigh you down.

Affordable Beachy Day Trips from NYC

by Amy Chen on

Memorial Day weekend in New York City is either an excuse to barbecue or to hit the beach. From Manhattan, reaching a decent beach can become quite the odyssey, especially if you don’t have a car.

Even if you’re not lucky enough to summer in the Hamptons, you can leave the city and lounge on a beach without spending a fortune. Not all beaches around New York City, however, are created equal. Depending on your mood, here are four beaches that are within a day trip from Manhattan and accessible by public transportation.

Coney Island
Good for: Nathan’s hot dogs, a boardwalk with carnival games and rides (the new Luna Park opens Saturday, May 29), the New York Aquarium (the sea lion show is surprisingly fun), and the bone-rattling Cyclone wooden roller coaster.
Beach quality: Expect cigarette butts in the sand, virtually no waves, and murky water that’s OK for dipping in your toes. Come to think of it, I don’t know anyone who has actually jumped all the way into that water.
Cost from Manhattan: $4.50 for a round-trip subway card. Give yourself at least an hour in travel time by subway.

Fire Island
Good for: Relaxing on (comparatively) uncrowded beaches.
Beach quality: Rougher waves (beware of swimsuit malfunctions — wear a suit that can take the beating), but don’t expect too much in the way of amenities. Bring a beach umbrella because there’s little to no shade.
Cost from Manhattan: Long Island Rail Road train from Penn Station to Bay Shore (from $21.50 for an off-peak round-trip ticket) then a ferry (from $10 for a round-trip pass). Check the train and ferry schedules carefully, and make sure you don’t miss the last ferry back. For one-way travel times, allot two hours for the train and at least 20 minutes for the ferry.

Jones Beach
Good for: Summer music concerts, lots of junk-food concession stands, some picnic tables, and decent waves.
Beach quality: Serviceable but crowded with families. Beach umbrella rentals are available.
Cost from Manhattan: $16.50 for the MTA’s Jones Beach package with discounted one-day round-trip LIRR tickets to Freeport and a bus connection to the beach. This year’s service is available on weekends May 29-Sept. 12 plus Memorial Day (May 31); weekdays June 28-Sept. 6.

Atlantic City, NJ
Good for: Gambling, strolling the boardwalk, and people-watching.
Beach quality: Obviously not the Caribbean, but not bad for a quick getaway. Keep in mind that you can easily sit in three hours of traffic trying to get to the Hamptons.
Cost from Manhattan: The Atlantic City Express Service train from New York’s Penn Station is the fastest route by public transit. One-way tickets start at $29 for the 2.5-hour trip.

Having visited each of these beaches and mostly by public transportation, I feel obligated to share these seven seemingly obvious tips. Feel free to add your own.

[Image Credits: Amy Chen]

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Check the schedule. When traveling by train, bus, or ferry, double-check the schedule for any service changes or delays. This is especially important if you need to connect by bus or ferry to reach the beach.

Have a Plan B. If you know you’re the type to dawdle, aim to catch the second-to-last departure on the way home. That way, in the event you lose track of time, you have a buffer and won’t have to stress about finding your way back.

Do the math. Depending on the size of your group or if you’re traveling with a lot of kids or gear, it may be more cost-effective and easier to rent a car. In the New York area, car-sharing companies such as Zipcar and Connect by Hertz offer hourly rentals with gas and insurance included. (Expect to pay a membership fee and familiarize yourself with any mileage limits — I once exceeded the daily mileage limit with my Zipcar rental and paid a penalty that effectively doubled the price of the rental). Don’t forget to factor in any parking fees or tolls.

Lighten your load. Can you rent chairs or umbrellas at the beach? Then don’t bother schlepping all that gear on the subway, train, bus, or ferry.

Know the rules. Does the train, bus, or ferry allow coolers or glass bottles? What about the beach? If certain items are prohibited, you could find yourself dragging unnecessary stuff and then being forced to dump all of it.

Bring a cover-up and a change of clothes. If it took you two hours to get there, you’ll want to be comfortable on the ride back.

Oh, and don’t forget to wear sunblock.

America’s Top 10 Beaches: Coopers Beach in Southampton, NY takes the top spot in 2010

by Leigh Caldwell on

Coopers Beach, Southampton’s stretch of white sand on New York’s Long Island, has been named 2010’s best beach in the America by Dr. Stephen Leatherman.

“New York has world-class beaches, but I don’t think a lot of people in the United States know about them,” said Stephen Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research.

Leatherman cited the fine sand, availability of parking and amenities, and Southampton’s long history as a beach community in his announcement.

Leatherman, aka “Dr. Beach,” announced his Top 10 picks for this year just in time for Memorial Day weekend, as has been his tradition since 1991. The coastal scientist says he uses more than 50 criteria — including water quality, temperature, sand quality, cleanliness, safety and environmental management.

Dr. Beach listed two Florida beaches this year — Siesta Key Beach and Cape Florida State Park — despite the oil spill still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.

He told the Associated Press that Cape Florida State Park, near Key Biscayne, “doesn’t get the wave activity” that would encourage tar balls to wash ashore. As for Siesta Key, in Sarasota, Leatherman said he studied currents and does not believe the oil will reach the shores in Southwest Florida.

%Gallery-93850%Here are Dr. Beach’s Top 10 Beaches in America for 2010:

  • 1. Coopers Beach in Southampton, New York
  • 2. Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida
  • 3. Coronado Beach in San Diego, California
  • 4. Cape Hatteras on North Carolina’s Outer Banks
  • 5. Main Beach in East Hampton, New York
  • 6. Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
  • 7. Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts
  • 8. Beachwalker Park in Kiawah Island, South Carolina
  • 9. Hamoa Beach in Maui, Hawaii
  • 10. Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, Florida

%Poll-47218%

Where Swiss cheese lovers must go:

by Annie Scott on


Swiss cheese is not all full of big holes like the stuff you see in American grocery stores. That’s a specific regional cheese called Emmentaler (from Emmental). Despite its holey reputation, some of the hundreds of varieties of Swiss cheese have no holes at all.

Appenzeller cheese falls somewhere in the middle; it’s a cheese with a few small holes per wedge. The holes are controlled by the amount and type of bacteria used to make the cheese. This is just one of the things I didn’t know I didn’t know about cheese production when I visited the Appenzeller cheese dairy in Stein, Appenzellerland, Switzerland (above). It you’d like to visit yourself, click here to make arrangements. It makes a great outing for families or fromage-o-philes like myself — they have a full free exhibition you can walk through, a video presentation, a gift shop and restaurant and, of course, a cheese shop. And yes, that’s a giant, wooden wedge of cheese bigger than my NYC apartment out in front. You can go inside it.

Now, onto what you’ll learn about the 700 year old Appenzeller cheese, renowned as the “spiciest cheese from Switzerland:”

The milk.

The dairy guys get to work at about 4 AM to receive and test the milk brought in by local farmers. They test it to ensure that the cows ate nothing but hay and meadow grass. If farmers bring in bad milk once, they get a warning; twice and they are banned.

To create a consistent product, part of the milk is skimmed, then slowly re-added to the whole milk to ensure an exact fat content. This is a practice older than most cheese dairies. Some of the milk gets sent to another dairy to be made into “dairy butter,” a regular Swiss grocery store item, and the rest is divided into Bio and Regular. “Bio” is the word they use for free-range and organic in Switzerland. Here’s an interesting fact: free range cows have to have their horns (humanely) removed so that they don’t hurt each other. Also, the prize cow of the bunch gets to wear this ginormous bell (right).

%Gallery-93805%From here, you may know the basics: milk is poured into a copper kettle and stirred with lactic acid bacteria and then rennet (a natural curdling agent made from the stomach of calves), it curdles into granules which are then pressurized into cheese molds, then the molds dry and are given a salt bath. After that, it’s all about the aging and the mysterious rind.

The rind.

The rind, technically created by the salt bath, is treated with a secret marinade of white wine and herbs. Only two living people know the recipe for Appenzeller’s famously spicy brine.

Appenzeller makes an assortment of different cheeses, and the different flavors are determined by aging, fat content and the amount of the marinade used.

The cheese passport.

Every Appenzeller cheese wheel bears a unique passport, saying the place and date it was made. The date stamp doesn’t include the year, because you should definitely not be eating unpasteurized cheese (meaning the milk was never heated to 75 degrees Celsius) that wasn’t made within the year.

The cheese passport is a very serious business for the Appenzeller folks, as it’s one of the things that helps them protect the quality of their reputation. If one of the dairy guys accidentally breaks or loses a cheese passport, he has to pay about $30 for it. This is to prevent them from the temptations of trafficking counterfeit cheese — one could make a pretty penny labeling cheap cheese with the Appenzeller passports. Appenzeller not only makes their cheeses meticulously, but they only sell the very best ones.

What happens to the waste?

Part of the reason that Appenzeller cheese commands a good price is that it is guaranteed to be of extremely high quality. They test cheese from each batch rigorously, rating it on a number of different variances. Cheese that doesn’t score top marks gets made into grated cheese, packaged cheese or it gets sent off to be put into sauce mixes.

As for the waste created in making the cheese, it all gets made into pig slop — it’s actually quite good for the pigs. That’s the kind of eco-friendly practice that made as much sense 700 years ago as it does today.

Photos by Annie Scott.

My trip to Switzerland was sponsored by Switzerland Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are 100 percent my own.