Playground day after almost 5 months of Covid!

This summer Thursday started with a typical Canadian breakfast at the AirBnB. 

Lots of protein to face the outdoor play day. 

We started walking along the Avon River, by the tourism information centre - closed at the moment.

The trio in the morning: full of energy.

This place is so beautiful and peaceful. 

Perhaps it is a bit calmer than normal due to Covid, since the theatre festival was cancelled this year.  

We walked along Lakeside Drive, enjoying the presence of many ducks, geese and swans on Lake Victoria. 

It's absolutely gorgeous!

The houses are unbelievably beautiful and canoes make the place even more magical.

Ducks parking lot.

We were incredibly lucky to encounter this mama - or papa? -  swan with FOUR baby swans. 

Simply adorable.

The highlight of the day was definitely the playground! 

After walking for about a hour, the girls could see it from across the lake and went bananas. 

It's been almost five months since they been allowed to play in play structures - they were simply not opened in Toronto. But Stratford has been in phase three for a while. 

They were absolutely in heaven!

PARK GOSSIP ABOUT JUSTIN BIEBER

Funny gossip from the park...

While the girls made friends at the park, I talked to another mom. 

I was curious to hear what locals thought about their most notorious celebrity: Justin Bieber. 

This mom - who I have no idea what her name is - wasn't too impressed to hear about Bieber. 

She said: "oh yeah, I used to babysit him." And continued: "he was a hand full as a child."

She assured me that he is "a very talented person," but made sure to say too that locals in Stratford are not THAT impressed with his stardom. 

The girls were just happy to know they were hanging out with Justin Bieber's former babysitter's daughters. hahahaha. 

It didn't take us that long to find our six degrees of separation! :)

After a couple of hours, we left the playground and walked back to downtown on the other side of the lake, through this beautiful trail. We got to see huge and gorgeous houses.

And bunnies happily hopping around.

From downtown we headed back to the other side of the river to the Upper Queens Park - another extension of the park, with a different "orange playground."

Again, the kids were extremely happy and played there for hours. 

 Right beside the park is the Stratford Festival Theatre. 

The festival was canceled this year, but  here is the website: https://www.stratfordfestival.ca for video performances during Covid.

WILLIAN SHAKESPEARE Statue

FROM WIKIPEDIA: 

The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

The festival's primary focus is to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays, but it also runs a wide variety of theatre from Greek tragedy to Broadway-style musicals and contemporary works. In the early years of the festival, Shakespeare's works typically represented about a third of the offerings in the largest venue, the Festival Theatre. By 2017, however, only three of the 14 productions were Shakespeare's works.

The success of the festival changed Stratford into a city where arts and tourism play important roles in the economy. The festival attracts many tourists from outside Canada, most notably British and American visitors.

Everywhere you look around here there is an amazing and well kept garden. 

It's either in public spaces or in the houses' front yards. 

I think, after theatre, gardening must be the main attraction in Stratford. 

This is a Yellow Water Lily flower from one of those public Gardens. 

End of the day and dad joined us from work.

Dinner was at Mercer Kitchen, back on Ontario Street. 

https://www.mercerhall.ca

The place - which is also a hotel - offers delicious burgers and a variety of beers. 

I had the best day with these two. 

Covid Vacation: Stratford, Ontario

Covid -19 forced us to cancel our already booked trip to California back in March. It was upsetting at the time and we still don't know when we'll get on a plane to go to places.

 Therefore, we had to be creative and look closer for vacation ideas. That's when Stratford was caught by our travelling radar. This small town is  probably most famous for being Justin Bieber's hometown, but is also known for hosting Canada's most famous theatre festival. 

Our vacation is here, only two hours away from Toronto, but feeling like we are having a proper get away!

We booked this charming airbnb, right on the Main Street - Ontario Street - for five nights. 

I was impressed about how clean and organized the place is. 

They also had a complementary box of masks and hand sanitizer available. 

It's an one room apartment, but it can sleep up to five people. It's extremely comfortable. 

After getting settled and getting some groceries for breakfast, we headed out to explore the Main Street downtown. Ontario Street is a short strip with restaurants, boutiques and art stores. 

From Wikipedia:

Stratford is a city on the Avon River within Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2016 population of 31,465 in a land area of 28.28 square kilometres. Stratford is the seat of Perth County which was settled by English, Irish, Scottish and German immigrants, in almost equal numbers, starting in the 1820s but primarily in the 1830s and 1840s. Most became farmers, and even today, the area around Stratford is known for mixed farming, dairying and hog production.

The land on which the area exists is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg people. When the area which is now Stratford was first settled in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Stratford was incorporated as a town in 1859 and as a city in 1886. The first mayor was John Corry Wilson Daly and the current mayor is Dan Mathieson. The swan has become a symbol of the city. Each year twenty-four white swans are released into the Avon River. 

The town is well known for being the home of the Stratford Festival previously known as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival; while Shakespeare's plays are still produced, theatre in a wide range of genres is offered each year, from May to October.

Pizzeria Pazzo - on Ontario Street - was our pick of the day for dinner, suggested by our friend and neighbour Erosia, back in Toronto. 

Hanging out at the park across the street while the food was getting prepared.

We sat outside because of the Covid. 

The restaurant put tables in the alley behind the building, and it was quite a pleasant atmosphere. 

It felt like being in the alleys in Italy.

Dinner - pizza, arugula sala and mussels - was delicious!

This interesting old building is in the back of the alley. 

I love the "mother-in-law" type of door on the top left. We learned about that on our trip to Newfoundland years ago - from our lovely friend Blanche. It's quiet a funny name!

Let's see what this town will have to offer us over the next five days. 

More art & goodbye

Another early day. Another bike ride... this time to the north of the island.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Miami_Beach,_Florida

North Miami Beach is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Originally named Fulford-by-the-Sea in 1926 after Captain William H. Fulford of the United States Coast Guard, the city was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The population was 41,523 at the 2010 census.

It was sad to say goodbye to the beach.

The north of the island looks different from the south with its big condominiums. 

More newer and taller buildings.

The only thing left to do in my list was the Perez Art Museum Miami, so I made sure I left my last afternoon in Miami to see this well known art place.

The astonishing building was designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

(https://www.herzogdemeuron.com)

FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pérez_Art_Museum_Miami

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary artmuseum that relocated in 2013 to the Museum Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Center for the Fine Arts, it became known as the Miami Art Museum from 1996 until it was renamed in 2013 upon the opening its new building designed by Herzog & de Meuron at 1103 Biscayne Boulevard. PAMM, along with the $275 million Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science and a city park which are being built in the area with completion in 2017, is part of the 20-acre Museum Park (formerly Bicentennial Park).

In 2014, the museum's permanent collection contained over 1,800 works, particularly 20th- and 21st-century art from the Americas, Western Europeand Africa. In 2016, the museum's collection contained nearly 2,000 works.

Since the opening of the new museum building at Museum Park, the museum has seen record attendance levels with over 150,000 visitors in its first four months. The museum had originally anticipated over 200,000 visitors in its first year at the new location. At its former location on Flagler Street, the museum received on average about 60,000 visitors annually.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is directly served by rapid transit at Museum Park Metromover station.

The vertical gardens - designed by Patrick Blanc - are the signature of the museum. 

People might not remember its name, but will say "that museum with the trees hanging."

I got a chance to have fun swinging like a kid in one of the many swings as part of an installation named Netscape by Konstantin Grcic, outside of the museum. 

The artist has created a calm and relaxing atmosphere, on the shade, facing the water. If you are visiting the Perez Museum, plan at least half an hour to enjoy a swing or one of the Muskoka chairs outside.   

Moving inside...

This was my absolutely favourite piece in the whole museum. Unfortunately a photo is never the same as looking at it right in front of you. The scale, the colours, the texture, the look... It really touched me. 

Artist: Firelei Baez

Art: Sans-Souci

FROM: https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/firelei-baez-joy-out-of-fire-1348094

“When I was I was growing up, I’d be the one who’d be drawing the paper dolls for everyone in the neighborhood,” the artist Firelei Báez explains to me over refreshing San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa drinks in her live/work atelier in upper Manhattan. “Like these really gorgeous gowns—Aretha would’ve been proud.”

Báez’s space has the cool colors of the Caribbean flowing sweetly throughout: Sunny yellows, soft pinks, and watery sea greens permeate both the canvases on the walls and the decor of her home. On a hot early August afternoon, in the artist’s multi-room abode on a quiet block in Inwood, we discuss her artistic roots and the many prolific projects she is currently juggling.

Báez was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, in 1981, to a Dominican mother and father of Haitian descent. She remembers her upbringing as involving “busy moms who have like 3,000 jobs. I was there with my abuelas and my tias.”

She was raised in Dajabón, a market city close to the Haitian border. “My idea of landscape and sunlight, everything came from growing up there,” she says. Her family moved frequently, with the future artist attending a different school every year in the Dominican Republic and then Miami, where she moved when she was nine.

The main exhibition call Elemental was by Teresita Fernandez,  an American artist born in Miami, with a Cuban background.

FROM: http://www.artnet.com/artists/teresita-fernández/

Teresita Fernández is a contemporary American artist best known for her large-scale public sculptures and her innovative use of materials. Throughout her practice, Fernández focuses on natural science phenomena and altering the viewer’s perception through changing the light or space of the gallery or location in a direct way. Born on May 2, 1968 in Miami, FL to a Cuban immigrant family, she went on to study at Florida International University and then at Virginia Commonwealth University where she received her MFA in 1992. During a residency in Japan, Fernández was struck by the elegance and utility of the traditional Japanese lifestyle and architecture, an experience which left a profound impact on her artistic process and work. The artist was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005. Her work can be found in many collections worldwide, and has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., among others. Fernández lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Here are other pieces that caught my attention at the PAMM:

Artist: Derek Fordjour

Art: Worst to Be First (2019)

FROM https://www.artsy.net/artwork/derek-fordjour-worst-to-be-first-ii

Derek Fordjour is an interdisciplinary artist whose work grappes with race, political insubordination, inequality, and American society. Fordjour explores these complex themes through imagery from carnivals, parades, and other celebratory settings.

Goodbye, PAMM!

Right beside the Perez Museum its the Frost Science, a science center in this magnificent building. Unfortunately I didn't go inside, but I enjoyed walking around it. 

I would've definitely brought the girls to visit this science museum, if they were here.  

FROM:www.frostscience.org

The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science is a leading science museum dedicated to sharing the power of science, sparking wonder and investigation, and fueling innovation for the future. Located in Downtown Miami’s waterfront Museum Park, Frost Science is divided into four buildings: the Frost Planetarium, Aquarium, and North and West Wings. Here, guests can learn about the core science behind living systems, the solar system and known universe, the physics of flight, light and lasers, the biology of the human body and mind, and much more. Guests can explore the world of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in an experiential setting with interactive exhibitions and unique shows. Frost Science is also dedicated to education, earning national awards for its summer camps and after-school programs.

Solar trees.

Going back to the hotel...

One thing that really made me confused here was to see all these motorcyclists WITHOUT a helmet. I knew the use of helmets is not mandatory for everyone in Florida, still it blows my mind to see people riding potential danger machines with hardly ANY protection. I feel uncomfortable riding my bicycle without a helmet, never mind a motorcycle! 

Basically, if you are over 21 years old and have some money for a decent insurance, you can get hurt!!

"Riders over the age of 21 can ride a motorcycle without a helmet if they can prove they are covered by a $10,000 medical insurance policy to cover any injuries that may arise as a result of a crash."

Oh well... I guess it's nice to feel the ocean breeze going 100 km/hour. 

There goes the day. 

There goes the trip. 

Here I am waiting for my ride to take me to the airport to catch a flight back home. 

I have mixed feelings. I miss the girls and Mike, but I also wish my trip didn't end so soon. I had fabulous five days exploring a new city, as much as I was learning about myself. Myself different than the "Gabi backpacker" that used to travel alone two decades ago. I have to say that I still have the same drive and curiosity for different places and cultures as I used to have when I was much younger. 

Practically, I actually liked to make my own decisions and not have to compromise with anyone else. I liked the fact that I was moving faster, and also that I did 100% what I wanted to do. 

The downside of it is not having anyone to socialize at a bar or restaurant. I think my 20 years old version would've done a much better job about that. But lets be honest... I felt like being in bed by 10 or 11pm, anyway. 

Over all, it all went as planed. 

I feel much more energized and happy.