Thursday, December 29, 2016

Thursday, December 29, 2016


Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2003. Mattie went to Los Angeles to spend the holidays with my parents. He had his own miniature Christmas tree and what I loved about this photo was I captured him opening presents. In many ways, Mattie loved the wrapping and boxes almost as much or maybe more than the toys and items inside the boxes. I simply love how Mattie was studying and examining the paper in this photo. To me it was priceless. 






Quote of the day: Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas. ~ Dale Evans

We drove about 40 minutes today to the Vizcaya Museum and Garden. Vizcaya was previously known as Villa Vizcaya. It is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. The early 20th century Vizcaya estate also includes: extensive Italian Renaissance gardens; native woodland landscape; and a historic village outbuildings compound. The landscape and architecture were influenced by Veneto and Tuscan Italian Renaissance models and designed in the Mediterranean Revival architecture style, with Baroque elements. 

I would like to say we actually got inside and on the property but there was over a two hour wait in the hot sun. So we left. Which is a shame since this truly looks like an incredible historic sight to visit. However, I would say everyone and his cousin is in Southern Florida for the holidays and traffic is truly on par with Los Angeles and Washington, DC. 

Since we were unable to tour Vizcaya, we drove to Miami Beach and South Beach. I have heard how amazing South Beach is for many years, so we all wanted to see it for ourselves. 

There are aspects of South Beach that remind me of Hollywood, CA. Not in architecture, but in hype. Everyone who comes to California wants to see Hollywood. Once you see it, it is a total let down, because Hollywood in my opinion is fringe. There is no magic there, as the film industry would like to evoke. South Beach has this same feeling, or at least it did for me. 

In the 1930s, an architectural revolution came to South Beach, bringing Art Deco and Streamline Moderne (architectural style emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements) architecture to the Beach. South Beach claims to be the world's largest collection of Streamline Moderne Art Deco architecture. 

The architecture was noteworthy and therefore worth the drive to see and explore. But despite the old world architecture, the town is bustling with people and noise. Everywhere!!! Along with bars/nightclubs... so you get a distinct feeling that it has a VERY busy night life. 

This afternoon we took a four mile walk about the A1A boardwalk. You can't tell from this photo, but there were people everywhere and all around us. Not to mention traffic!!! 

My mom and I posed in front of the Florida snowmen! Rather funny, no?

Peter pointed out this iguana to me! This was a sight Mattie would have LOVED! Mattie was intrigued by anything that was creepy and crawled and got a kick out of the fact that I did not share his same enthusiasm. 

Peter and I on the boardwalk!