When You Travel for Hours, but Never Get Far from Home

I had thought I would be writing about seeing artist Judy Chicago in person at the Miami Beach Convention Center yesterday.  I knew it was Art Basel week-end, so we left several hours early, but in my head, I thought we'd get there and get parked and still have time for lunch before her 2:30 talk.

I got my first glimmering of the coming snafu when my friend was late to my house.  Still, it wasn't Art Basel traffic in our county, and I thought we should give it a try--after all, my friend had already spent an hour on this project, and I didn't want to cancel prematurely. 

We went on Highway 1, a more scenic, less stressful route.  My friend, who has lived in South Florida as long as I have, over 20 years, kept marveling, "I have never been here before."  We cut across to Miami Beach and sat in a long line of traffic waiting to go south to Art Basel.

I said, "You know, we could just forget this and head north and find some place interesting for lunch."  She didn't have to take any time to think about it.  She said, "That would be fine with me."  I cut into the northbound lane, and we made our way back north on A1A, a much more beautiful route than any other.

We are both fans of the T.V. show Check Please, where regular people choose their favorite restaurant and the 3 person team goes individually and reviews.  We were able to eat at The Tipsy Boar, which had been reviewed that very week.  And because it was after the regular lunch hour, it wasn't as noisy, and we could sit outside.

It was not the day I thought we would have, but it was a very fine day.  Because we were in the car, we had lots of uninterrupted time to talk--and it had been a very long time since we had that kind of time.  We had a great lunch.  And did I mention how wonderful it was to have time to talk?

When I felt stuck in South Carolina in the 90's, I would dream of where I would rather live.  I wanted culture.  I wanted some place to go every hour of the day if I felt like it.  I knew I wouldn't waste those opportunities.

Maybe in New York I would be able to go, go, go, but here where I have a job that requires much of me and a house that wants to consume every hour left, it's hard to make myself partake.  And so yesterday I felt a bit of guilt at abandoning an opportunity.  But it was a good call.  We wouldn't have been able to find a parking place that was close, and my friend is not able to walk as far as she once was.  Judging by the traffic, we might not have found a parking space at all, and that would have been very annoying to wait in that traffic only not to be able to see Judy Chicago at all.

We didn't get to hear Judy Chicago speak, but we still have several months to see her art; go here for details.  I plan to take some time during the holidays to make my way back to Miami for an art experience.