Florida

The first thing that always comes to my mind when someone mentions Florida is Flora Sutherland. Flora was a neighbour who taught in the one-room school house in Greenwich for many, many years. With the consolidation of schools in the 1960s, she retired, but occasionally did some substitute teaching in the newly established elementary school in St. Peters Bay. When she did get called in to substitute, she always came on the school bus that was driven by my Dad. When David was in grade one, he came home one day, busted through the door, and said to my Mother, “Guess what? I got to sit on the bus today with Florida!” Henceforth, Flora became “Florida” in our house and David became a favourite of Floras.

The second thing that comes to mind with respect to Florida is of course Disneyland. I can honestly say that as a kid, I never really thought – or dreamed – much about going. The opportunity arrived, however, when I lived in Japan. Some girlfriends decided that going to Tokyo Disneyland would be fun way to celebrate my 29^th birthday and subsequent departure from Japan, which occurred a month later. It *was* fun – a lot of fun. And it is something I wish everyone could experience once in their lifetime. In saying that though, it is something I don’t need to experience twice!

Between not seeing the need to go to Disneyland more than once and with me hating the heat, I therefore saw no need to ever go to Florida. A good friend, however, recently got posted (Foreign Service) to Miami. She expressed difficulty in making friends locally, was lonely, and asked me to go for a visit. So I found myself booking a ticket for a long weekend in Miami – South Beach to be more specific.

My Toronto BFF and her husband love South Beach. They have attended Art Deco weekends and perfected the local shopping route. The first piece of advice they had for me was to go to the Wolfsonian. Located in the heart of the Art Deco district, the Wolsonian, in its own words, the Wolsonian:

“...is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. It encourages people to see the world in new ways, and to learn from the past as they shape the present and influence the future.”

I love small museums such as this. I’ve been to the Louvre and Hermitage and big museums can be exhausting. We were able to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant, visit a local South Beach art gallery, tour the Wolfsonian (and have drinks in the museum lounge – 2 for 1 margaritas!) and go to a club – all in one evening. And we did it all without being the least bit rushed.  Here are some photos from the Wolfsonian, starting with my favourite object I saw – this table:

We then spent an entire day at the Sawgrass Mills outlet. Never had I shopped or spent so much in one outing in all my life. I had a blast. I purchased shoes, pants, tops, a jean jacket, Nine West purses, and a lot of nice cool summer dresses. I did visit the Coach outlet but didn’t see anything I loved. After everything was said and done, we were both exhausted. The next day we spread out all our purchases and accessed the damage. I was grateful I had brought an empty suitcase with me.

The hotels along "the strip" in South Beach are gorgeous. Beth said the hotels are actually pretty minimal inside, but the exterior is stunning. The majority have the art deco detailing South Beach is famous for mixed with relaxing beach tones. The beach itself is nothing to write home about. The sand is very coarse and uncomfortable to walk on without shoes, it is crowded, and stinking hot. I realized while I was there that I am a beach snob. Growing up on PEI, we grew up on beautiful sandy, clean and pristine beaches. In South Beach, the beaches are even closed at night, which was bewildering for me.

Beth is a bird lover and owner of two exotic birds. I was actually thrilled to go with her to her “bird club” monthly meeting. When else would I have a chance to get to do this? There were some beautiful birds there and I found the outing very interesting. We also stopped by a pelican rescue shelter that she volunteers at. I had never seen a pelican up close – they are such interesting creatures.

That is my Florida experience in a nutshell. On that note, I’ll leave you with some Will Smith.

Spring

I realize it is summer - barely. This past spring was wonderful. I had lots of visitors and a few trips and I just realized I haven’t written about any of it. I am taking a break this evening from my working on my latest book and my online shop projects. It’s time to watch Oprah’s life class and do some fun writing and reminiscing.

Mom was my first visitor last spring. Now that she is retired, she can come for longer visits, although ten to twelve days seems to be the limit as to how long Dad functions okay without her. So ten to twelve days it is. I’ll take what I can get.

Since I am seldom home to celebrate Mother’s Day with Mom, I decided to celebrate with her a little early here in Toronto. Arriving in my apartment, Mom walked into my living room and said, “Ohhhhhh, somebody got flowers??” I said “Yes, *you* did!” The look on her face was priceless and we both broke into a fit of laughter. The next Mother’s Day present was high tea. There are several places where you can do this in the city, some stuffier and more formal than others. I didn’t want to subject her to something stuffy or formal because it is not what either of us is about. So I took her to T-buds on Yonge Street for High Tea. I had gone in January to celebrate a friend’s birthday and loved it. I also knew immediately I would take Mom. The selection of tea is incredible and the homemade scones are heavenly.

I love exploring the city with Mom. This past trip we explored Young Street shops for the first time. We saw the Wizard of Oz at the Ed Mirvish Theatre. We had our regular gathering with the Baldwin family, Brian Miller and Mom cooked a few dinners for friends who came over after work. We (Mom, Dee, and I) also went for our traditional mani/pedi and Greek feast on the Danforth.    

Next to come were David and Karen. Dave was in town for a week of meetings and arrived the day that Mom left. The three of us actually got together for lunch at YYZ. Karen flew in on that Friday to spend a long weekend in the city. I had that Friday off so I headed downtown, contributed to the hotel, and spent the weekend with them. We stayed at the Cambridge Suites Inn off Yonge Street. It is a fabulous hotel. It literally is a suite. The main bedroom was closed off from the living room/dining room area. I slept on the pull out and David and Karen took the bedroom. It was like a vacation for me too as when I go downtown it is always for a specific reason. It was nice to have time to do some exploring and I think David was happy I could take Karen and go shopping – something men never seem to enjoy? We went to the Eaton’s Centre as well as new Marshall’s store. Being an avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I took Karen down to the Air Canada Centre, which was hopping because the play-offs were on. There was a tail gate party happening and Karen seemed to really enjoy it. It was my first time to be there in the midst of such activity and therefore a memorable outing. The one thing David did want to do is tour the Hockey Hall of Fame. I’ve been before with Dad and Doug Baldwin, but there is so much to see and do, I didn’t mind going again. It really is such a fascinating place. And getting to get your photo with Lord Stanley’s cup, well, it is such a cool Canadian thing to do.

Then it was time for the Bluenosers to arrive. My Acadia pal Laura came for a long weekend with her husband David and two boys, Daniel and Thomas. It was the first time for the boys to fly and make a long trip with their parents so it was a bit of a test run for Laura and David. And I am grateful all went well. Doug and Patty took them to the Science Centre and a few other attractions and we all got together for a Sunday gathering at High Park. We had lunch together at the Grenadier Cafe and the kids enjoyed the small petting zoo and the playground (rebuilt recently by Mike Holmes).

The next spring event was a quick trip to Miami. Stay tuned!