Contigo En La Distancia by César Portillo De La Luz, Recorded 1/5/17 in Yellow House Studio by Laura.
Central and Southern Florida! Joe and I spent a week over the holidays in the Orlando area, Miami, and Key Largo.
We kicked off the trip with a visit to Joe’s family in Titusville where we spent a beautiful day at the beach and another day meandering through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge amongst alligators, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and Green Herons.
In Miami, we side strolled down the stylish art deco styled South Beach. Wall to wall activity includes bustling sidewalk cafés, posh shops, sandy beaches, and Cuban music blasting in the background. We also visited little Havana and enjoyed a traditional Cuban meal near our hotel.
My favorite outing was to the Viscaya Museum and Gardens, built in 1914-1916 by the wealthy James Deering. The mansion and gardens, situated on a 180 acre estate, resemble the Italian Renaissance and Baroque villas Deering visited in his travels. I was fascinated by the ornate details of the huge mansion including a massive open indoor/outdoor courtyard and the sprawling gardens. On the day we visited, teenage beauties posed for quinceañera photos. Each girl had an entourage in tow including photographers, assistants, make up artists, mothers, aunts, friends, and sisters juggling water, granola bars, curling irons, dresses, shoes, and cell phones.
Our final adventure (not including driving on Florida’s fast moving highways) was a day trip to Key Largo for an afternoon of snorkeling in the Atlantic. We took a boat 45 minutes out to sea to Grecian Reef where we enjoyed an hour and a half of snorkeling with a huge variety of tropical fish in blues, greens, yellows, and pinks, including several large and teethy barracuda!
