A week in Sunny Florida!
Above is the alligator that lives in the pond right outside my aunt´s house!
We got off the cruise ship and picked up the large rental suv and drove straight to my Auntie
Stephie´s place in Sarasota, Florida. We enjoyed 4 lovely days with Stephie and Robin and got to see a lot of what Sarasota has to offer! Stephie and Robin´s winter home is absolutely gorgeous and it was very restful to stay there with such gracious hospitality!
Our first night we just took it easy and then the following day Robin had a baseball game to go to but the rest of us went down to a little town about half an hour south called Venice where they had a quaint outdoor art and crafts fair. There were many attractive things and we all found a few treasures to take home!
After a couple of hours of peering into stalls and examining all the arts, we had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe in Venice. The waiter told us that their beach is famous for little shark´s teeth that wash up on shore. It is too bad we found out too late to go to the beach and scavenge for some. The ladies were too bushed so we decided to head back to Sarasota.
When Stephie came to visit us in Brazil in August, Lygia cooked a dish called `Escondidinho de Carne Seca` which translates into `hidden meat`. Stephie LOVED it and thought Robin would too, so Lygia brought a vaccuum packed piece of carne seca (dried, jerked beef) from Brazil, and we went hunting for manjioca (also known as manioc or cassava or yucca root) and Lygia prepared the same meal for all of us to enjoy in Florida. It was a huge success and very tasty!
The next day Stephie had a golf tournament and Robin had his plans so the original four of us headed over to see the John and Mabel Ringling Estate. They were the family that had the Ringling Bros. Circus. The place is definitely worthwhile to see if you end up near Sarasota. The grounds include an art museum, a diverse circus memorobilia museum, a VERY impressive miniature reproduction of a circus, the family `summer home`which is very grand, and also many gardens and paths. Luckily, they have little golf carts to transport you from attraction to attraction.
This is the miniature Big Top. You have to see it to believe it. It is hard to fathom that the circus would be mounted in one day and be able to accommodate 15,000 spectators at one time and then they would dismantle the whole thing the same night and move on to the next town. Unimaginable today!!!
These banyan trees were all over the grounds. Very pretty!
The privately built art museum contains original Rubens, El Greco, Velazquez, Duchamp, Chagall and much more as well as an enormous bronze reproduction of Michaelangelo´s David (see in the background of this image above)
The photo above is the livingroom of their private home and the photo below is of the exterior. It really is beautiful and right on the water´s edge.
The following day we did some outlet shopping at a place called Bealls, but everyone who knows it calls it `Bells` and got some high quality discount pots and pans to bring back to Brazil to bang on during the protests! (just kidding)
Stephie and Robin treated us to a sunset dinner cruise abord a two storey yacht. We toured around Sarasota Bay and got to see many mansions that line the shore.
The highway back to Miami was so long and straight that at one point Cassio had the cruise control on so was not using his feet, and took his hands off the wheel for a good 30 seconds and the car kept on going straight as an arrow! It was over two hours of straight road across the everglade centre of the State.
Below here is one of the beaches of Miami. They have wide sandy `roads`, then dunes and then sand and water.
We did a lot of sightseeing by car and drove through downtown South Miami Beach area and then took a detour back up through some of the `housing`projects for contrast.
This picture above is about all we saw that represented any kind of outdoor market in the Little Haiti district. Aside from that, there were a few painted shops but not much more. It was kind of a disappointment.
On some side streets to the east of highway 1, also known as Biscayne Boulevard, there are some little, very pretty, historically preserved homes. They are for the most part only one storey, but have a fantastic Art Deco, Morrocan, Spanish architectural style that is really appealing.
Above and below is the view from the `backyard`of our airbnb apartment rental. We were sad to leave :(
Just a quick image of the airport in Miami to remember. All in all, this was a smooth and easy voyage and Cassio and I were very happy to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that his mum and her cousin had the best time ever! Where are we off to next? Who knows:)
