NORTH AMERICA

Good Morning South Florida! We dedicated this beautiful early April Sunday to you, Miami. After picking up our friend and ex-World Airways colleague, Paul, from his place in North Miami, we drove straight to South Beach. Sunday afternoon is not the easiest time to find parking in South Beach. After hunting for a while for an outside parking space that never came our way,  we eventually parked in a multilevel garage near Lincoln Road, where I used to park long ago. Prices are good and finding a spot is much easier. Lincoln Road is the best location for starting your walk through this animated place. It is a street with no automobile traffic, full of stores and restaurants and a lot of outdoor eating areas. A beautiful place to walk, watch people, find a nice meal and have a drink. After taking some pictures with Paul in front of a restaurant with the same name, we found a nearby park and had a nice picnic, sitting on the soft green grass in the shade. The weather was perfect and we relaxed while talking and munching on the fresh bread from the outside market and the salads we had prepared and packed ahead. South Beach is not an inexpensive place and frugal is the best way to be while here – or anywhere for that matter, if you prefer to extend your travels and experience longer vacations. From Lincoln Road we slowly made our way towards the beach, admiring the art deco buildings and the colorfully dressed happy people. Once we reached Ocean Drive our pace became even slower on the side with the buildings, as the restaurants lined up tables along the sidewalk and people were walking in both directions through the narrow path that remained. Music and entertainment was part of the ambiance. We stopped from place to place to see what was going on and to listen to some of the entertainers that attracted big crowds. We made our way past a guard into an outside area with live music, good looking young dancers, body painting, drinks, dancing and a pool. It took a while to figure out if the girl in the picture was wearing a corset or if  it was a body paint job. The second option seemed to be the case and we admired the artist’s talent. Slowly we made our way to the Beacon Hotel, the first place I was employed after moving to the United States. I was a Night Auditor at the Beacon Hotel for six months, until the hotel changed hands and my rental lease was finished. I moved to Hollywood, FL soon after. The hotel is now remodeled and beautiful and the people at the front desk were super friendly. I made a new friend from Peru here and we talked about the wonderful places in his country. As ahistoric art deco building, the Beacon Hotel cannot be structurally changed. I was very pleased to find not only the same façade intact, but the same old floors and entrance doors, as well as the interior hallway with the semicircular balcony. We took pictures in the clean, modernly decorated hallway, posing as stars. Our next stop was just for a quick look at the wide beach and the huge cruise ship in the far distance. Soon after we found another nice park with soft green grass, where in the shade of exotic trees we enjoyed a poppy seed pie. We enjoyed nice conversation (about aliens- goes with the kind of pie we had –LOL) and relaxed in great company, feeling good about being in this marvelous place and having such great friends. Back to walking on the sidewalk near the beach we admired more of the view of South Beach and its art deco style, with all types of cars in site. On this day there were just a few antique cars to match the age of the buildings but none the less, we had the past, the present and the future in view with a variety of vehicles around. Another popular site for tourists on Ocean Drive is the Versace Mansion where the famous designer was shot on the stairs. Most of us still remember where we were the day we heard the news and all of the follow-up stories in the search for his killer. I was here, near Miami Beach, just leaving for a short trip to the Keys. I was in the car driving when the news came out. I think that during all those months working in the hotel I never even knew that Versace lived nearby. Now his house became even more famous by this sad news. Another moment we enjoyed was talking to one of the artists selling jewelry on the street. She has lived in Kenya as well as other countries and met many amazing people in her life. She had a pleasant accent, a sweet smile, beautiful features, lovely hair style and a great attitude. Yvonne, Paul and I left South Beach at dusk and drove over the bridges, passing by the small islands with their impressive gated mansions. We passed through downtown Miami in a driving tour guided by Paul. Darkness fell over the city by the time we reached the upscale area of Coral Gables. Reaching the area of Little Havana we stopped for a Cuban coffee and ended up eating entire meals. The food was inexpensive, the restaurant clean, the walls uniquely decorated and the waitress was as friendly and as nice as ever. The place is called El Pub, located at 1548 SW 8th St, Miami (305) 642-9942   Good Night South Florida! Good Night beautiful Miami!

As the weather cools and autumn sets in the Orlando fall festivals begin, much like spring time in a northern state. Beginning mid-September the outdoor concerts, food and wine, and Oktoberfest type festivals commence. Some free, some not, Orlando fall festivals large and small continue nearly every weekend, merging in a seamless transition to holiday festivals through year end. While the 2013 WMMO Downtown Concert Series wound to a close, it could be said the final concert of the year sort of kicked off the festival season. Still a little warm, the last concert with Eddie Money on September 21st had a full crowd singing along with I Wanna Go Back and many other well-known favorites. The following weekend spawned a pattern of fall festivals throughout Orlando and the Central Florida region that continue into the Spring. September 28th hosted one of the earlier Oktoberfest celebrations of the season at the Bahia Shrine Fairgrounds in Orlando, while Real Radio 104.1 simultaneously held their Monsters Beertoberfest  at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford. Multiple versions of Oktoberfest celebrations ensued, sponsored by communities, local businesses, and/or organizations. The German American Society organized two celebrations, one on October 5th (also Oktoberfest at Wall Street Plaza) and again on the 26th. Sanford held their Oktoberfest on Thursday, October 11, and there were many others. Following the Monsters Beertoberfest came Baconfest October 5th, celebrating everything bacon: Bacon beer, bacon covered chocolate, bacon ice cream . . you name it, someone baconed it. Then, combining the theme of two popular calorie packed festivals into one for a balanced combination of protein, fat, and carbs, a Beer and Bacon Festival followed on November 2nd. On the lighter side of the calories looking to things different, the Church Street District Jazz Festival was held the same evening, November 2nd. The 43rd Annual Fall Festival in the Park at Lake Eola also took place November 1-2. The 40th Annual Winter Park Autumn Arts Festival was in full swing the weekend of October 12-13. For those who may be unaware, Winter Park has been expanding its brick street, old style lantern ambiance. In one part of the “extended” section of Winter Park named Hannibal Square it is a little easier to find parking, and provides a nice setting to wind down the day at one of the restaurants. Or enjoy a gelato and coffee at the italia euro café and gelato, said by many to be the only gelato in the area resembling that which they had in Italy.  November 8th to 10th combined the Disney’s Festival of the Masters  with the House of Blues Folk Art Festival at Downtown Disney. Back to Winter Park November 10th, the streets were packed with people and cars for the Concours d’Elegance. A little north, the 30th Annual Mount Dora Craft Fair took place over the weekend of October 25-26. Deland held it’s Craft Beer Festival November 22nd, followed immediately on the 23rd and 24th by the DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, noted on their website as being voted Best Florida Outdoor Fine Arts Festival by Florida Living. Several fall festivals take place through the cooler season in Orlando and throughout all of Central Florida – too many to mention without simply providing a long, long list. From city and community sponsored events to smaller organizations,  niche groups and churches, new to established, from large to small, welcoming all. For example the Armenian Food Fest & Bazarre on November 16th. put on by the church with a public invitation to everyone, or the Loch Haven Park 3rd Annual Pottery Festival. The Loch Haven Park 3rd Annual Orlando Pottery Festival was a smaller, one day affair housed primarily in a community center banquet room on Saturday, December 2nd. Smaller events with a lighter crowd provide a better opportunity to meet the local artists and learn about their work than those the size of the Winter Park or Disney festivals. Simply walking past the colorful crafts amisdst the crowds associated with the larger festivals, interesting nuances and styles are surely missed. For example one local artist, Fabian, owner of Fabu Pottery, was able to take the time and explain his unique works to small groups without alienating anyone. Passing by one would notice Fabian’s works are decorative and unique, as are most artist’s works on display. However in speaking with him he explains the dishes are oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe and can be used for cooking, made with organic non-toxic material safe for food. Additionally, he creates custom designs and patterns with a unique tie to something personal. Bring him that doily from your grandmother and he will carefully imprint the pattern into the piece, without damaging the doily. The potters wrapped it up at 5 pm,  just in time for festival goers to make their way downtown and grab a bite during the Holiday Lights Orlando (which comes just the day after the Friday, December 6 official lighting of the Orlando Christmas Tree at Lake Eola). Beginning with the Orlando fall festivals kicking into gear around mid-September, they continue well into spring with something to do outdoors almost every weekend and many weeknights. Humidity levels are lower, temperatures are down, the days are more comfortable, and the evening mosquito population reduces their attack. Afternoons and early evenings often reveal the feint smell of a charcoal grills, and those favorite long sleeved shirts can come out of the closet. Some like it hot, some like it cool. It’s the fall and winter weather in Orlando that reiterates to transplant Floridians why they followed Mother Nature and migrated south like the birds.  While northerners prepare to bundle up and enjoy the snow or hunker down, Floridians take their turn outside enjoying the many festivals season(s).

Vistors to Italy will remark that finding gelato with the same texture and flavor outside of Italy is a rare treat, not so easy to find. Lucky for Orlando area residents and visitors there exists italia euro café and gelato, said to hit the mark. Located in Hannibal Square at the corner of Hannibal and New England Avenue in Winter Park, FL, patrons regularly claim italia euro café and gelato makes the only gelato they have found that accurately replicates this frozen treat they had in Italy. Gelato is different than ice cream, different than yogurt, and not as easily duplicated. Gelato has a unique, creamy texture and flavor “intensely flavored and gently frozen.” Described by La Cucina Italian Magazine’s The Scoop About Gelato, it is the result of “a careful balance of sugar, fat, solids and liquids claculated by weight… Perfect consistency, with the absence of fat, depends on a precise percentage of total sugar… Gelato doesn’t travel well and is at its very best when freshly made, sold within hours of production…All gelato made on-site in Italy is defined, by law, as artigianale (artisanal)…” While the texture of gelato may be slightly different throughout regions of Italy, the history, rules, and origins of gelato artisans dates back centuries, finding deep roots in the island of Sicily. (See travelswithmiha post Italian Cooking Class… to read about a favorite gelateria in Taormina she frequented while spending a month in Sicily). The gelato at  italia euro café and gelato is made by an artisan (gelato chef) originally from Milan. 200 flavors are made by the chef on a machine in Miami and brought in to rotate through the menu weekly. Although not hand made on-site in Winter Park as in the traditional sense, the gelato is the product of an expensive machine that accurately imitates the traditional process, noted to be one of only 7 in the world in use today, and one of only 2 in the US. italia euro café and gelato makes a wonderfully creamy and flavorful variety of vegan gelatos from fruits such as mango, blueberry, pineapple and banana. Dairy based gelato flavors such as coconut cream, pistaccio, dulce de leche and blueberry cheesecake are examples of some that move through the menu. In addition, a variety of uniquely Italian favorites will be found certain days, such as Cassata Siciliana, made with ricotta and marzipan dotted with dried fruit and a little chocolate chip. One such uniquely Italian favorite, labeled “Best Seller” on the italia euro café and gelato menu is the Affogato, and old tradition of gelato with a shot of espresso poured over it (the cappuccino gelato actually works quite well with the espresso over it). Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week are Date Night at the italia euro café and gelato, whereby Italian coffee based drinks are, for the most part, approximately two for the price of one. For example, Macchiato for two on Date Night is currently on the menu for $2.89. So for those in the Orlando area missing the traditional gelato of  Italy, having a hankering for Italian cakes or coffee – or for those who have never been to Italy and want to “warm up” to that someday trip, head to Winter Park. Located at 470 W New England Avenue, Winter Park, FL (corner of New England and Hannibal)  italia euro café and gelato serves up that rare treat not so easy to find: Gelato with the correct flavor and texture of that found in Italy.