"We should have rented a boat and sailed around Miami," Jonny lamented, after we finished our two weekends with Jenny and him. That's one treat saved for next time, but there were many, many more we tasted this time. After Church on Sunday, March 6, 2016, Jonny took Dave and me on a tour of the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. We also filled waffle cones at the best ice cream shop in Little Havana. Before flying out of Ft. Lauderdale on Monday afternoon, we spent several hours at Flamingo Gardens with Jenny, Sam, and Henry.
The Biltmore was built in the 1920s in Spanish Colonial style, just before the big shift in Florida to Art Deco. During WWII, it was a Navy hospital, with its swimming pool cemented over to hold more beds and wheelchairs. The city of Coral Gables bought the rundown Biltmore in the 1950s and restored it to luxury.
There are Grecian statues by the pool, Renaissance ceilings over the ballrooms, and Corinthian columns lining the portico and the lobby.
Our guide was nearly as stylish as the building. I want to look like her.
Next stop was Domino Square in Little Havana, where dominos games continue all day.
Across the street is the best Cuban ice cream store in the city. Its specialty is Abuela Maria, with guava paste, Cuban cookie crumbs, and cream cheese.
We drove to Miami's port district, where we could see the city's skyscrapers in one direction and cruise ships leaving the harbor in the other. Jonny and Dave relaxed on the porch while I made a quick run-through of the Perez Museum, with Miami's best collection of modern art. A display by a Dominican Republic feminist artist, superimposing drawings of sensual Latinas on symbols of male power (gavels, newspapers, stock market print-outs) brought out the feminist in me, as well.
The Perez Museum is an architectural gem, with unique hanging gardens.
Dave always has a few calls to the kids to fit in.
Miami's Design District, down the road, had a different feel from anywhere else we visited. It is an ultra high end art, entertainment, and shopping area, with huge street sculptures and stores like Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, and Lladro.
We paused to watch a young woman pose among the bright orange pillars, as her friend took photos on a cell phone.
Jonny and Dave relaxed on ultra-stylish wire swings.
On Monday morning, we hugged Jonny goodbye as he left for work. We then followed Jenny to Flamingo Gardens, which is near the Ft. Lauderdale Airport where we flew out on Monday afternoon. We felt deja vu at the lovely Flamingo Gardens, since we had enjoyed them with Lisa and her children when she lived in Ft. Lauderdale in 2003 and 2004.
I thought about Jonny's comment that Sam's favorite things about zoos are not the animals, as I watched him enjoy a popsicle and pose inside a fake gorilla.
Flamingo Gardens is lower key than Zoo Miami, with fewer animals and a relaxed, old time Florida feel. Peacocks and ibises roam freely through the gardens, and rangers take guests on a tram tour through forests and farmland filled with tropical plants--bananas, "tourist tree" (with flaking red bark), oranges and limes.
There are ponds with flamingos, with the water piped in from the Everglades to avoid the chemicals in city water.
There are turtles and tortoises and a walk-in aviary with pelicans relaxing by the pond.
There are also huge banyan trees. Sam crawled into, onto, and over the roots.
We ate lunch and a popsicle before saying goodbye. Jonny and Jenny will be back in SLC for two weeks in May, so we will not have to pine away for them for too long.
1 comment:
Fun times with fun people
Post a Comment