These photos were taken on 21/o2/2oo9. In case you were curious...
This statue, Unconditional Surrender, is based on Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photo of a solider and a nurse celebrating the end of WWII with the Kiss. It's one of the more famous Sarasota landmarks.
Below is me going in for a dip in the somewhat chilly 17 degree waters...
The rest of the photos are all taken at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art which is actually a multi-building complex on a 66 acre estate. John Ringling not only built this massive estate, but much of Sarasota as well as his pet project of running a circus.
A bit of the gardens:
One of the highlights is the Circus Museum, celebrating all the mystique surrounding circus life, with little acknowledgement of the animal rights abuses and hardships that performers and workers endured... don't get me wrong though. Even though its one-sided, its still pretty fun to see!
This circus in miniature was built over more than a 50 year period by one very devoted Howard Tibbals. I kinda wish I would've taken more photos of this display. The attention to detail is quite phenomenal.
This is the Venetian-style Mansion that John and his wife once lived in. On the terrace, once a month (just in time for my visit) there is a band, food and drink. It's well worth hanging out to watch the sunset.
My father is evil.
I'm not sure if ya'll knew that or not, but I thought I should let you know. When he and his wife first mentioned coming down to Sarasota to visit them while they were on their Florida winter vacation, I was like... "... uhhh... I don't think I can do that... living on a student budget now and all." But from day they arrived he sent me text messages almost every day telling me how warm and sunny it was. "Beautiful day today. 26 and sunny". Meanwhile, I was trying to deal with my first full-time Canadian winter in three years. It was cold and snowy in Toronto and it didn't take too long before my fiscal responsibility protests melted away under the idea of a warm Florida sun. Of course, Kelly's offer of getting me to NYC for $5 was the first step that made my USA vacation possible.
And so, I found myself in Sarasota for 4 days. Here's a bit of what I saw:
(One of the beautiful bridges between Tampa and Sarasota)
A whole bunch of photos from Myakka River Sate Park:
We took the air boat tour of the river, which seemed like a great way to see some wildlife, but sadly high winds chased almost all the animals away. Well, except for this guy:
Wild Boar
Sunset on the golf course near Dad & Rosemarie's condo:
My love of flying is my most guilty unenvironmentally-friendly pleasure. I think I was almost as excited for my flights on this trip as I was for the places I was going.
Photos from February 17th's flight from NY's LaGuardia to Tampa, Florida.
...to bring you actual photos from the present.
That's right, I've taken advantage of reading week to go on a little trip through the USA. Part 1 of the trip is NYC. My lovely friend Kelly (yes, my Thailand and Hong Kong travel buddy) very kindly got me a bus ticket for next to nothing to the Big Apple and my four short day there turned out better than I could've possibly imagined.
The first set of photos were taken from the lovely hotel room I had the incredible good luck of crashing through a friend of a friend... First a night photo...
The next 4 are from the daytime view.
The hotel is at 44th and 7th, in case you were curious, and my location was the 49th floor.
Aer Lingus non-stop flight EI144 from Los Angeles to Dublin. Flight time: 10 hours
Desni's fabulous friend Amy very kindly offered to allow me to tag along with her and comrades on the daily hike in the hills. So for my last day in LA (April 21st, in case your were curious), I woke up super early, borrowed a tracksuit from Des and headed into the hills with the gang.
I'm dividing the Getty Center photos into three entries. This entry focuses on the built structures, the next on the gardens and the third is the lovely view.
The Getty Center is funded by the trust of John Paul Getty and designed by the contemporary American architect Richard Meier. The Center was created to become the cultural heart of Los Angeles, which is why it is a center housing many buildings rather than just a museum. Meier came up with the design while sitting in the hills that would become the home for the Getty Center. His designs rely heavily on the landscape that surrounded him and you can see patterns from the hills and the city repeating in the architecture. Actually all the design aspects repeat throughout the different buildings that make up the Getty Center so thoroughly that all squares blocks that make up the walkways, walls and frames would all match up in a perfectly divisible ratio, should you wish to take the time to do the math.
Some of the community had concerns about the new massive Center that about to move into the neighbourhood. One of their concerns came from one of Meier's signature design elements, the brilliant white that he colours his creations. He is so married to this specific bright white, that the hue has been named after him, "Meier White". The community was very concerned that this luminous white under the bright California sun would become an eyesore, and so thankfully, he relented and painted the Center a much softer off-white. It was quite bright enough up there with the sun reflecting off the paving stones and the buildings, if he had gone with the Meier White I think it may have been a bit unbearable in the midday sun.
Another way in which the Trust was able to work with the community was by building the helicopter landing pad below. The base is filled with water so that firefighters can easily land and fill up their water tanks to fight fires in the dry fire-prone neighbouring hills.
Below we see another example of of the symmetry that Meier worked so hard to incorporate. At the back end of the Center is a matching round structure, but instead of being used as a landing pad, this one is used as a garden.
I thought about putting the next two photos in the upcoming Gardens entry, but these trees are such a good example of the kind of precision and thought that went into the design element that I had to include it here. You can see from the first photo that there are several trees in this line. but take one step to the side and you can see only one tree. Meier managed to created many different spots to test your perspective.
My friend Desni has been living in the States with her boyfriend for just over two years now. She has asked me to come and visit on numerous occasions and I had always been very disappointed that with all of my own travelling, I've been unable to. So, I was thrilled when I discovered that between seat sales on Aer Lingus and Continental, I could get to LA and then to Dublin for the same price as getting myself from Toronto to Dublin. With the promise of a free place to stay, a couple of dinners in swishy restaurants, the opportunity to finally meet Desni's illusive boyfriend, and the chance to eat Desni's amazing cooking, who could honestly resist? I didn't have long in LA (two and a half days was the most I could sacrifice from days when I could be working) but it was just long enough to do a few amazing things and get to spend time some much missed time with a friend.
I love the flight into LA. There are so many different types of landscapes to see in such a short period of time.
On the ground:
I had been wanting to visit the much lauded Getty Center for years. Luckily for me Desni was kind enough to take me there.
What I really wanted to do at the Getty was take the architecture tour, and I did, but I'm going to put the photos of the buildings in another entry. For now, Here's a few pieces of art work that you will find around the center:
This in not Getty Center artwork, but Desni and Carlos' adorable dog, Angus.
P.S. When I go back through my entries days, weeks and month after publishing them I often find a zillion little errors. Typos, grammar errors, spelking (tee hee hee) mistakes, etc., etc. So, if you see any of these please feel free to let me know. I would love to hire my own editor, but as I can't afford one, I'll have to use my readers instead.
Thanks!
