Kevin Ups The Ante

Maybe it is something we do that we are just not very aware. This is our housemate from NH, Kevin. He had not been in Miami Beach for even 12 hours and this …occurred.

We had just dropped Bob off at the airport earlier in the day. Janice and Gini decided that the condo needed some ‘sprucing up’ so we planned to head to the mainland and tour Target’s, Marshall’s, et al in search of spruce.

These plans were a bit delayed when Kevin called at 11:00 AM to tell us that the sub zero temps in Manchester were still giving his 7:00 plane problems with freezing fluids. Gini went into travel-agent mode and verified that he was ‘protected’ for a 3PM out of Atlanta. So shopping-ho! First a lamp for the bedside ($12) to sit on the new plastic bedside table ($7) and what wonderful fold out chairs for the balcony ($8.95 apiece)!

Kevin’s new (first for him) cellphone allowed us to eventually find him outside Arrivals. The trip home (7 miles) took 90 minutes. As some of you may know, two Miami police were shot and killed last week. Well the funeral cortege was a little behind schedule and backed up traffic most of the day.

Having left -13 degrees to bask in 70 degrees, Kevin could care less about delays and traffic. Upon arrival martinis magically appeared and soon we were wending down West Ave towards Oliver’s Restaurant, a local haunt. After two carafes of Pinot Grigio Kevin anonymously paid for dinner. We took to the streets and soon Kevin was in the embrace of that banyan tree. Through careful instructions of Flamingo Park security we were able to extract him without any permanent marks.

Coffee at the Van Dyke on Lincoln Road ‘calmed’ everyone down and we managed to survive his arrival.

The next day, we walked to the ocean to verify its existence and wandered through the fresh under construction James Ave area that Janice and Bill came very close to putting in an offer. At the Albion Hotel we walked along the side of the bottom of the hotel pool and looked through the portholes in the walls with Kevin pleading for nude bathers.

The big excitement for the evening was to head to Lincoln Road for the opening of Soundscape Park and its Exostage outside the New World Center. The park would open Tuesday night with the concert hall opening the next night for its resident orchestra the New World Symphony.

The building was state of the art with the park intended for people gathering in the park to enjoy the sounds of the live interior performances along with video projected across the 7000 foot screen on the outside wall. It was a Spielberg moment:



This projector provided the video as we enjoyed its first emissions:



Notice along the left what looks to be some columns with a header. These were the left speakers (the whole column) that matched another set on the right. Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess filled the night – cool.

The whole project for the park from design to this evening was about a year. The benefactors wanted the cultural experience of the symphony to be a community experience. Pergola were designed to emulate the puffy clouds of Miami Beach and were seeded to be covered with bougainvillea (soon to come):



So as not to let the elite be the only one to experience live music we were soon koochee-koocheeing to a Cuban salsa band:



We had never heard Guantanamera played with such intensity, speed and rhythm. Yeah baby.

So tonight we will try and be good and stay home and Chris will cook spaghetti carbonara for Kevin, Janice, Paul and Gregg. The guys’ apartment is being painted, among other projects, and would appreciate benefiting from someone else’s kitchen.

So What Did You Do Next?

We got your Vizcaya heah – kinda like Venice ya know!

Brother Bob will attest that Vizcaya is a special place (Feb 2010-So What Do You Think of Miami Beach?) but this time it was the special Moonlit Garden Tour. We met Paul and Gregg at the gardens and proceeded to bask in the ambiance of a cloudless Miami night.

Here are some of our heroes enjoying a moon over Miami:

Paul and Gregg

The Baroness and the Baron

Gini wants you to know that the Baron is having a good time despite his aversion to posing for photos.

Chamber music splendiferously filled the central atrium of the villa as we entered. We then proceeded to wander lazily and wondrously through the property:





Bob is slowly being conditioned to the South Beach experience. Having left zero temps and an appreciable accumulation of snow his first priority was acclimating to a t-shirt and shorts. He is struggling but making progress.

He definitely likes the walking excursions in the morning. Even the Baron has acquiesced to participating in the perambulating parade. Yesterday’s reward was gelato on Ocean Drive.

As this is written Gini and Bob are heading for a nighttime swim in the heated of the two pools here at the Flamingo. Perhaps they will resolve the competitive activity of this afternoon’s pool table skirmishes. They were rather rowdy I am told.

Chris had opted for the movies once again. The list started with True Grit, then the Tourist followed by The Fighter (great Lowell ambiance). Today was the best so far, The King’s Speech. Colin Firth once again, with the estimable help of Geoffrey Rush, transfixed. (Last year’s A Single Man was incredibly powerful but too much to be seen twice - like Sophie’s Choice). This movie was interesting because of the historical situation of Edward VII abdicating the English throne because of his desire to marry Wallace Simpson and the subsequent coronation of his stuttering brother Bertie.

Chris also did a full tour of the Venetian Islands on his bike today while Gini and Bob explored Espanola Way and South Pointe Park. Tomorrow is more walking and laundry.

As for settling in to the apartment there have been some rough spots. Parking was tough. Last year a parking spot was included after much gnashing of teeth but this year they have foregone the gnashing and charged us $160 to park two towers over.

The dining room light did not work. This was not discovered until the second night when Gini had cooked a great dinner and we had retired to the dining table. However the management company was right on it the next day and Chris was able to dust off some Spanish as the staff person repaired the lamp.

With Kevin, our tenant and major sport nut arriving on Monday, we were a bit disappointed to find that basic cable meant we could follow the weather, watch Jeopardy and practice our Spanish a bit more. Gini is going through HGTV withdrawal but is handling it well. Chris is another story. Since the Patriots lost he is inconsolable and needs a good golf tournament to bring him out of it.

So tomorrow night is dinner at the restaurant at Paul and Gregg’s condo building. They have promised bacon wrapped fillets as a treat. Martinis will have to be libated along with mirth and merriment slated for coalescence.

And So We Continue To Continue

Greetings:

Beautiful bridge – no? Well we had other thoughts as we headed for Charleston from Rick and Hanna’s.

Once again we were weathering the new winter in the south. It was snowing (since the top of the page) when we left Murrell’s Inlet. The storm was heading north and it looked like rain the rest of the way to Florida but temps looked to be in the upper 30’s to low 40’s. Well some unfortunate motorist slid into the wall on this bridge (Ravenel Bridge over the Cooper River in Charleston SC). Given the fact that everyone in the Carolinas was in denial that this weather was even happening this bridge and any others crossing this river were closed until they could find some trucks loaded with salted sand. This search and subsequent dispersal took the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon. Foolish New Englanders, we, who did not even suspect that this would bring traffic to a standstill.

Well it afforded another trip to 5 Guys and eventual trekking through downpours in Georgia and northern Florida. We arrived safely at Mary’s (Gini’s step-mom) in Winter Park, suburb of Orlando. She was more than pleased to see us and several bottles of Perrier-Jouet Champagne (quite excellent) were dispatched over the next few days.

Some of the visit was ritualistic – a visit to Mary’s friend Saul’s Mexican restaurant where we were treated as honored guests; a movie (The Tourist – could not resist the Venetian ambiance); lunch in Winter Park (French and fanciful); and visit with Nadine and Frank whose son Chris was one of our Miami Beach cohorts until he went and became a resident doctor in Pittsburgh this past year.

A new wrinkle in the festivities was Gini joined Chris for 9 holes at Winter Park Country Club and proceeded to outdo him by four shots on a par 3 by chipping in for a par! This course is the second oldest in Central Florida and is in the heart of Winter Park. Last year Chris had gotten to know some of the nearby residents and transient motorists from his errant links wizardry.

Mary was eventually bid farewell and Miami Beach soon loomed ahead on I 95. Paul and Gregg were ready with martinis and open arms. They were fresh from hosting Gregg’s life long friend from high school in Poland but were still graciously offering to share their beautiful apartment on Belle Isle with us for a few nights until we checked in to the Flamingo. For those who do not remember or have not seen this view it is spectacular:



We were also able to hook up with another friend, Rick, who harkens back to Lowell days.

And then the Flamingo:



Our wonderful balcony view:


As a tolerant gesture we turned off the air conditioning.

We Be Off

Greetings All:

Gini and I are actually well into our winter sojourn. It has mostly been visiting friends and family, some whom we have not seen for several years.

Our Christmas was a bit different. We were quite pleased to have Chip home for the holidays but we were not so sure he enjoyed it as much. At the age of 25 he had his tonsils removed and it took well over a week before his familiar smile returned.


Tom and Michele Wolfson were able to join us, my brother Tom and tenant Kevin in welcoming in the new year. After all had left we spent a day emptying and cleaning the refrigerator; draining pipes and packing the car. Somehow we exited Bailey Road relatively close to our planned ETD on Jan 4.

Our first stop was at Linda and Arthur’s. These are friends we met through Gini’s sister Janice many decades ago. We are probably talking double digits in years since we had crossed paths. They live in Montgomery Village, MD and graciously put us up for a night as we drove through the DC area. Linda served a ‘regular’ meal as we enjoyed steak filets, potatoes and vegetables along with some good wine. She reveled in demonstrating her skills on an induction stove and confidently placed her hands on the active ‘burners’. We were duly impressed and placed it on the fantasy list for our future, mythical and somewhat legend-to-be condo in Miami Beach.

Conversation settled quickly into the rhythm of former times. Children were, of course, the leading topic. Their Amanda had just recently graduated from College Park and was now hoping for the economy to begin embracing our educated youth. Linda continues to work the intricacies of medical grants and Arthur works on the internet proffering automobile purchases.

In exchange we discussed retirement, Gini’s part-time job at Dressers Unlimited and Chip’s imminent completion of his MFA in Chicago. We had pictures of his Urban Quiet final project. It was only during the holidays Chip had finally convinced Gini to view these pictures since the weather had become too cold to pursue any more footage. The project consists of photos and videos of Chip crawling up Chicago building facades and along the underbellies of skeletal bridge structures.


May the universe allow a safe pursuit.

We had only the one evening with Linda and Arthur and headed the next morning to Murrell’s Inlet in South Carolina. Waiting for us there were Rick and Hanna who we had spent New Year’s with at the beginning of our trip last year and had visited at their New York home this past summer for the fraternity reunion. They had just bought a new house close to the place they had for the past few years. (hmm, weren’t we moving furniture last year at this time with them?). They arrived just a day or two before us and had efficiently organized the move so that we were welcomed into a fabulous home ready for their first guests (an honor).

Rick and Chris, of course, headed for the TPC at Myrtle Beach once again (see last year’s blog). This time the weather was a bit more forgiving. Hanna and Gini continued to shop for the finishing items for the new residence and we all managed to partake of martinis and fresh oysters while line dancers regaled us to a live band.

We also went back to BrookGreen Gardens where we had seen so many wonderful sculptures last year (Jan 2010 – Happy New Year! Is the Furniture Here Yet?). Hanna and Rick wanted us to learn about the ‘Silent Cities’ there. And once again we did our part to confuse South Carolinians about global warming:



The gardens were created in the twentieth century by an artist (Ann Hyatt Huntington, sculptor) and had a previous history as four rice plantations. Our tour guide indicated the boundaries of the old estates and had us envision the land from centuries ago as most traces had been covered over. The focus of the tour were the cemeteries (the silent cities). The contrast between the burial styles of the owners versus the slaves was dramatic. The planters used the European style of above ground structures:



The slaves from that era do not have many above-ground remnants save a few headstones provided by the owners. Their African beliefs had the bodies buried facing to the Atlantic and in natural settings. Markers were of small stones, cement, iron objects, all of which were lost to the natural terrain. However their descendants have requested to be buried there and have since added headstones and other interesting markers:





Thankfully there was hot cider at the refreshment area after our excursion.

Our last evening in Murrell’s Inlet was having dinner with Rick and Hanna and Hanna’s parents who we enjoyed very much last year and once again this year. We love their stories about their life in Poland, Brooklyn and New Jersey before coming to Myrtle Beach.

Orlando is next.