Beach of the Beach (Miami)

As I said last time, there was two reasons for going to Miami, the heat and The Heat.

And what is better place to enjoy the heat than the beach. I'm not much as a sunbather myself, so there is no pictures of me laying in the sand. Instead we found a another activity to do: biking. Our hotel (Tradewinds Apartment Hotel) loaned bikes for free to the guests so we decided to pick up on that and go for a ride along the beach. As the weather was not particularly sunny (for tanning purposes) biking was an excellent alternative.

And what can I say. Miami Beach's beach is beautiful.

The main attraction, basketball (Miami continues)

Yeap. I'm going to post all the Miami related things in following weeks.

So here is the main reasons why we chose to go to Miami this time: sun and The Heat. And by the heat I don't refer to the weather, but to the basketball team, which happens to be my little brother's favorite. For sure, AAA-stadium was not my idea of perfect destination. But it happened to be guite cool. Although our seats were way too high and I have terrrrible fear of height and vertigo. In spite of that I gathered once again that sports in the States are more than just sports, they're whole package shows and great entertainment. Even when the teams just had a short time-out, something happened. Videos, games, lotteries and Miami Heat Dancers. I found myself enjoying the game quite a lot.

So I think this could become my USA trip tradition: always trying a new sport to watch. I think next up is American football, since I have covered baseball and basketball now. And I also have a awful penkkiurheilu -fever (I have no idea how to translate penkkiurheilu, I think the closest is "spectator sport", something I rather watch than participate in). So next up in my sport list is to go and watch here in Finland my favorite sport, volleyball.

So here are some pictures from the Miami Heat game and the Miami Hurricanes game:

MaybeI'll slowly develop an ability to follow sports. Or not.

Every holiday needs little art (Miami)

I wouldn't say that Miami is the place to go if seeking for great museums and a lot of art. At least compared to some of the places I have travelled, such as Rome or New York. But there are still some cool art stuff to see even in Miami Beach. And although our agenda for this trip was not art (but more like the basketball) we still came across some pretty cool art and history.

Mostly I would say that Miami Beach itself is a "art museum" with all its Art Deco buildings. But besides that we also visited The Wolfsonian FIU museum, which portrays a lot of sort of "propaganda" art and such. I think the mission statement of the museum says it all:
The Wolfsonian uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, political, and technological changes that have transformed our world. It encourages people to see the world in new ways, and to learn from the past as they shape the present and influence the future.

For some reason I always find propaganda posters really fascinating. Two of my favorites in Wolfsonian

We also walked in a gallery in Lincoln Road, which actually happened to be the ArtCenter South Florida. Inside the center you could see the unfinished paintings of the artists working there as well as their finished work and even them as they were working on a piece. I wished we would have known about this place little sooner and got there when more artists were working. However, it was still a great experience. Especially if the process of making art interest you, as it does interest me. Somehow unfinished works seem to be the most interesting ones usually. Anyhow, I could have been there forever, but as said we weren't there for the art, but for the sun and basketball.

  Artist's workplace Wish I could have seen the space of this artist, unfortunately she was not there at the moment

One of my personal favorites at the ArtCenter. The light in live was really amazing. 

Little pieces of art will also in Miami come across you if you just keep your eyes open. Bear in a museum park near our hotel and downtown Miami street art (details were really amazing in those graffitis)

Merry Christmas from Miami!