lucktraveler57 2.0

 Oh, oh, oh, one last thing! The day before we returned my niece announced on Facebook that she's pregnant, due in late November. I'll be a grand uncle for the 3rd time. At least I have a little while to go shopping in the kid's department before the little tyke makes her debut.

 We had fun, no getting around that, however, amid the impressive and inventive modern architecture of the seafront highrises and generally good food, I had questions.  Why would one take a place with the surface temperature of the planet Mercury and cover everything with heat radiating asphalt?Why bother to designate a lane to bicycles only to have motorists completely disregard it? Why is the U.S. so autocentric? At times it seemed we were almost obliged too drive to our rental car. One, of many, things that keep me in Chicago is it's wealth of culture. When we were checking in the woman behind the desk was speaking to another woman, both of them from New York. They were bemoaning the lack of culture in Florida. They, as I, are spoiled by music, theatre, dance and museums at one's fingertips. All seemed in short supply, at least in the area I visited.  And one last point, the heat. Someone online commented that at least I was going before the summer heat set in. I thoug...

Adjacent to our condo was a fairly large shopping center which included several restaurants. Apparently the area where we stayed is sometimes referred to as the Russian Riviera. At dinner one night this came home when we found ourselves among a large number of swarthy individuals talking at various tables about God only knows what. At one table two carried on a conversation which seemed, through volume and gestures between them, to indicate that future events would not end well for someone they were acquainted with. Huge bodybuilders, leaving the gym in the center, swaggered by with a "nice place you got here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it" demeanor, spoken in Russian of course. The group behind us was celebrating something, champagne was being downed in a rapid fashion, and their table groaned under the weight of the abundance of food. I dined on a wonderful creamy pasta with a generous amount of shrimp garnished with parsley sprigs, shaved parmesan cheese ...

 At the condo complex where we stayed bikes can be borrowed, although ridable they are old, rickety and poorly maintained. Despite this we took off one morning to explore a nearby state park. It sits along a riverbank which is somehow connected to the ocean but I have no idea how. The system of channels and inlets was a mystery to me the entire trip no matter how often my patient condo mate attempted to explain it to me. It was a tranquil oasis. Birds sang and lizards scuttled among the rocks letting the sun warm their cold blood. A bright green one rested on a stone, it's brilliant hue on full display. We chatted with a leanly built fisherman casting his line along a shoreline of protected coral reef. Cityscapes loomed in the distance over the emerald foliage which grew in profusion. As we left two large green lizards, black stripes wrapped around their verdant tails, raced across the bike path.  We stopped by the condo before riding to meet the other 3 members of our group a...

 One thing I had looked forward to was experiencing the Art Deco section of Miami. I'm an architecture buff. If you live in Chicago this is almost mandatory as it contains an abundance of the finest examples of construction dating from the late 19th, clear to the 21st century. After 40 years I still come across treasures and surprises I have not seen before.  I had seen photos of the district but these did not indicate scale. One of Chicago's premier pieces of Art Deco is the Carbon and Carbide building, a green and black, gold trimmed tower that stands tall on Michigan Avenue. While there are a couple of examples of taller structures in Miami most are of a more modest, human scale giving a quaint, approachable feel to the streets. Mixed among them are examples of Colonial Revival architecture inspired by styles prevalent in 16th century southern European and Central and South American traditions.  The most dense part of the collection sits along Ocean Drive, which runs a...

 One of the incentives to booking the condo complex we did was the free parking. A car in that area of Florida is almost a necessity. There were moments when I thought we would have to drive to our rental car. We could scarcely believe our luck when we discovered our reserved parking space was just steps to the lobby of the building where we would be staying.  Upon returning from our trip to Ft. Lauderdale, at 11 p.m., we discovered a car parked in our space. Imagine our chagrin. We parked near the building office and reported the scofflaw bright and early the following morning. The woman at the desk assured us that the trespassers would be promptly towed.  Upon returning from our thrifting expedition we witnessed the same car pulling into our spot just as we were about to. My condo mate politely explained to the driver the she had parked in the space reserved for us. She politely replied that she had not, and had just returned from retrieving her towed car.  As it h...

 Rain had been predicted for Monday. Waking up in the wee hours I wandered into the living room and looked out the glass doors which opened out onto the small balcony. The rain poured. No wind, just a fierce multitude of vertical lines of water streaming down. We made the best of it. Spent time at the gym working out and enjoying the warm, soothing water of the whirlpool there. Watched the rain, through the large windows, continue in varying degrees of intensity. Went thrifting in the afternoon. As I perused the racks and shelves I was taken back to the hours I spent in my younger days seeking out vintage pieces for my store, a 400 square foot emporium of past fashion. It was my first foray into the retail arena that would keep me housed and fed, in one manner and another, throughout the majority of my working years. A place where I experienced the mistakes and successes necessary to learning my trade.  Returning from our expedition we discovered a lovely, small fountain datin...