Airplanes

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A few favorites from a Children's Museum.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami Florida

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

The Main Entrance

James Deering a well to do man in the early 1900's longed for a unique winter home built in Miami Florida. Rather than hire a well known architect he instead hired three young men and relatively inexperienced men to create his estate. The planning and construction by the 3 men lasted from 1910 to 1922 and the end result was quite unique indeed. Modeled after an old Italian county villa Deering made many large scale purchases of European antiques and then designed the home and grounds to house them. Vizcaya has been described as "the finest private house ever built in America." 

If you are in the area it is definitely worth the trip. The landscaped gardens are beautiful and the home is so unique it is hard to believe that people lived there at one time. If visiting in the summer months I would recommend going early in the morning to try and beat the heat and humidity a little bit. For some reason when we visited it was very quite and serene. I believe we only found ourselves running into another small group or two. It made it nice to see everything and be able to take our time as we walked around. I noticed that the website for Vizcaya says no photos are allowed indoors. When I visited that was not the case so you will see some indoor pictures here. 

As we were walking the grounds I couldn't help but feel a bit of deja vu as if I had seen this place before even though this was my first visit to Miami. Toward the end of the morning I figured it out. Jim Carrey filmed part of Ace Ventura at this home. Which made me love the place all the more. Enjoy the photos. For more information on Vizcaya visit their site here.

One of the many intricate doorways.

Stained Glass Windows…. and me. :)

Entrance to the large court yard in the middle of the home.

Decorative Ceiling

Ceiling and doorway

Another indoor room. I love the ship on the ceiling.

Staircase from the top.

Front of the waterside property.

Little lizard friend. This was as close as I dared get to him. I was sure he would attack.

Another water view.

Entrance to the Gardens.

Color Entrance to the Gardens.

Those are my favorites from the trip. LOVED LOVED LOVED these pools at the end of the gardens. Maybe it was because I was hot and thirsty. They looked so refreshing. I almost wanted to dive in for a swim. More like a wade I guess. They don't look very deep.

Pearl Harbor HI

Had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor while in Hawaii. Definitely worth the trip. An interesting feeling there that is hard to describe. While on the Arizona Memorial you can look over both sides and see the oil still coming up from the ship below. Here are a few of my favorites of the USS Arizona Memorial.

The Rain Room Makes List of 52 Breathtaking Photos

Huffington Post has released their list of the 52 Most Breathtaking Photos from Around the World This Year. Many of the photos show world events, and war torn countries. Many are powerful images of humanity. Some are of simple events like the one pictured below. The 'Rain Room' exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan creates a field of falling water that stops in the area where patrons are walking through allowing them to remain dry in the midst of a rain storm. 

Amazing idea for an exhibit, makes for a breathtaking shot indeed, and makes people such as myself really want to visit. Should you have a moment to view the other 51 images I suggest you do so. Definitely a must read for the start of the new year! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/photos-of-the-year_n_4493077.html?utm_hp_ref=photography

 (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/photos-of-the-year_n_4493077.html?utm_hp_ref=photography

Glass Blowing

 Made another trip to see some glass blowing and took a few pictures of things that might not catch your eye at first glance. Hope you enjoy.

 Work in Progress

A glance through a glass window showing projects in the making. Not sure what they are working on here. But I liked the window frame.

 Art in the Floor

The Art Institute was a greenhouse before being used for art and glass blowing. The floors have drains and small concrete ditches running through them. Rather then cement over them the creative minds placed pieces of broken projects and strings of lights through the troughs in the floor and then covered them with glass or some type of hard plastic. The end result is quite fascinating. As you walk the rooms looking at art all around you and realize there is more in the floor it becomes a pleasant surprise!

 Starfish
I love the beach and nearly everything that goes with it. So when I spotted what could be viewed as a starfish on the shelf of unique and random projects I had to take a quick picture. From this angle it appears to be merely a star. If you move around you'll see it is on a stem and is a flower star. All made of glass. Beautiful.

 Glass Blowing
Last but surely not least. One of the resident glass blowers. He was doing a demonstration of how to make wine glasses. The glass is heated in the furnace then turned and blown several times until the desired shape is formed.

Glass Blowing

Power of Glass

While at my photography class today they had recently hung an enormous glass chandelier from the ceiling with hundreds of individual glass pieces connected together. I took some pictures from several different angles but this one was my favorite. If you are near the Art Institute check it out. They have a little window there where you can watch them blow glass. Quite an amazing process.