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.