Today is my last day in Florida. We went to Morakami Gardens & museum—Japanese gardens. A nice mellow visit. In the evening we attended a comedy show at the clubhouse in this 55+ community. Interesting to compare it with my community.
I’ll close out this trip’s blog. It was only a week long but seemed longer as we packed a lot into each day.
Merle’s husband picked up some matzoh ball soup for us to have for lunch.Yum.
In the evening we went to Boca Raton to a regional theatre to see “Joseph and the amazing technicolor Dreamcoat.” It is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. I knew the music but had never seen the show. It was an outstanding production. I especially loved the choreography and dancing. Some very talented performers. You can see in the pic above that Jane had all her favorite things!
The weather here finally became what I expected Florida to be but wasn’t all week.
This was the entrance to the restrooms at the theatre:
I was looking forward to this morning‘s presentation about the history of Cuban exiles in Miami. The speaker is a Cuban-American and professor of sociology at Florida international University. I chatted with him for a few minutes before the lecture and he explained how academic freedom has been taken away from professors in Florida. He said several things that were quite shocking to me. I had heard about it before, but hearing it directly from a professor was incredible.
His presentation was very detailed and informative. He explained the different periods of immigration, the circumstances of people coming and what their life was like after they moved here. We all learned a great deal not only about Cuba, but about the US as well.
Following the presentation, we took our coach to the Cuban Memorial Park in Little Havana, This part of the city is really a Cuban enclave and we had to keep reminding ourselves we were still in the US. People can go all day and all week speaking nothing but Spanish and dealing with nothing but Cuban businesses. We had a walking exploration of little Havana with a local expert.
Lunch was at a Cuban restaurant El Cristo followed by a salsa dancing lesson! Fun!
We returned to the hotel for the farewell dinner at a very nice restaurant called Motek. This has been a friendly group and we have enjoyed everyone.
Our guide, Jose, has been excellent. He also does tours in Cuba and several of us said it made us curious to possibly go there. He took group pictures of us and will post them for us to see after the tour. I hope I can download and post some.
So Miami is of course a busy city. What is shocking is the number of high-rise buildings and more and more under construction. The traffic is insane. It was gridlock everywhere and it didn’t matter day or night. Fortunately we didn’t have to drive around in town much. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to move here.
So tomorrow, Merle and I return to her home for the weekend.
Adios Miami.
Our day began with a lecture by 3 black Miami residents talking about Miami’s black history. They have started a nonprofit to research and share information about the role of blacks in Miami’s history. They felt that people —both black and white —knew nothing about the role blacks played in the founding and development of Miami.I found it interesting.
We then went by bus to South Beach and had a local expert tell us about the art deco architecture of South Beach. It was fun for me to see South Beach for the first time. Definitely has a beach vibe. Merle and I walked down to the beach when we had a bit of free time. I’m glad we got to do that. The group had a nice lunch at a restaurant called Naked taco in South Beach.
In the afternoon we went to the Wolfsonian Museum which is connected to Florida Intl University. The main exhibit was a stained glass work by Irishman Harry Clarke.
After returning to our hotel, Merle and I went to the nearby food court for pasta ( ugh—what was I thinking?) & a sweet crêpe (yum).
We knew this was a short tour but it’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day with the group! It has been a very pleasant group —of 30 people. Although it is quite large, it didn’t feel burdensome. On Friday I will go back to Merle’s for two nights.
Miami is a nice place to visit, but I don’t think I want to spend much time here. Our tour guide also leads Road Scholar trips to Cuba. Merle and I discussed that possibility.
( I just got a copy of a picture of the two of us yesterday at the Wynwood walls).
In the afternoon, we went to the neighborhood called Wynwood, an area that used to suffer urban blight, but has become a popular artist destination. We visited Wynwood Walls, which was mostly an outdoor exhibit of murals and street art. Most of us in the group agreed it was an eye-opening experience and quite different from graffiti!
I took lots of pictures today so I will attach some.
Dinner tonight was at a delicious Cuban restaurant Marabu. The best meal since we got here.
There is a small free monorail called Metromover which we took to go to dinner. However on our return, the train was running so late that we ended up walking back to the hotel. And on the way walking, we crossed the river when suddenly the bridge guard rail came down and the bridge opened to let a boat pass under. In the morning we had been in one of those boats and now we were on top ! Quite laughable. All part of the adventure.
Finally we had a long stay to explore Vizcaya estate & gardens which is a which is a national historic landmark built in the early 1900s. Our guide first explained it as a Florida version of Hearst Castle and after visiting, I think that is a fair comparison. The owner collected furniture and fixtures from around the world, especially Europe. So the house and gardens were quite spectacular. I will attach a few pictures. I had trouble editing and posting using this Wi-Fi so I’m sorry the pictures aren’t perfect.
This region is experiencing a very unusual cold spell. Wouldn’t you know it?. So I bought a sweatshirt! Next week it will be back in the 80s
Today we had a driver take us to our Miami hotel. We had a couple of hours free so we walked to a nearby street fair. Our group met at 5:00 for our orientation followed by dinner. Our tour guide is Jose who is a Cuban American. He’s a lovely man and we enjoyed learning from him already. Our group has 30 people! That’s pretty large, but they seem very congenial. We walked to a Peruvian restaurant nearby and had a delicious and unique dinner.
The tour focuses on the history, cultures, and cuisine of Miami. The itinerary looks interesting and varied. The tour is only five days after which I will return to Merle’s house for a couple nights.
Attached are a few pictures of Merle’s house.
