02-28-15
Some people may be wondering why we are still at Vero Beach.
We say “Why not?” Although we do want to see other things south and east of
here, there is plenty to do in Vero and we love it more and more as time goes
by. Sometimes we plan to leave, but we are waiting for an important piece of
mail, or the weather isn’t great for traveling. Or we get tickets to see
something, or an invitation. Here are a few of the fun things we’ve done, to
help explain what’s so great about this place.
Vero Beach City
Ballet: One of the many things racing through my head as we made our way
back to Vero Beach from Ft Pierce in the dark, that cold and windy January night was,
“Maybe we’ll be able to go to the ballet now!” We had seen a sign for the Vero
Beach City Ballet performance “At Sixes and Sevens” the last time we stopped
for ice cream. On a Saturday, we rode our bikes to the performing arts building
next to the high school for the matinee performance, after stopping at
“Patisserie Vero Beach” for lunch
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| Lunch at Patisserie Vero Beach |
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| Our first manatee sighting was this day (better pictures will appear in a future post) |
We loved that the ballet performance included some very non-traditional elements. First, each dance
piece was preceded by a video about the making of the piece, and second, some
of the male dancers performed on toe in some of the pieces, flawlessly
imitating female dancers, which was both entertaining and amazing.
Since we could not take photos during the performance, here
are some views from the bridge as we rode home that afternoon.
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| This is the terrifyingly narrow passenger lane that we use to ride our bikes over the bridge. It wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the steep uphill and downhill portions. |
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| A beautiful scene of the ICW, from the bridge |
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| The Vero Beach City Marina, from the bridge. Note that you can see the Atlantic Ocean above the trees. We are on a narrow barrier island. |
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| The ICW, seen from the bridge |
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| The ICW, with the marina to the east |
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| Summer Wind is in the center of this photo of the marina. It is the white hulled boat which is rafted to a dark hulled boat, our friends on "Rockhopper" |
Riverside Theater:
We took in the performance of the musical “Crazy for you!” which was just
delightful, totally professional and received great reviews. (No photos allowed!)
Vero Beach Museum of
Art: Vero Beach has a wonderful art museum, with exhibits both inside and outside.
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| Vero Beach Museum of Art, atrium |
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| Vero Beach Museum of art, one of many outside sculptures |
In December we saw an exciting
installation of kinetic sculptures. These are sculptures that move smoothly and
continuously, in many different directions, and, although it does not seem
possible, don’t get all tangled up in themselves.
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| Kinetic Sculpture exhibit at Vero Beach Museum of Art |
You can search for youtube videos of
the sculptures moving. One is:
There were other exhibits as well. One of my favorite pieces
is this, which is perhaps a commentary on world
population.
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| "Oriente-Poniente" by Frederico Uribe |
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| Oriente-Poniente close up |
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| Vero Beach Museum of Art. The "Guard" is a sculpture, |
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| Horse sculpture cast in bronze, using twigs as molds, then painted to look like twigs. (....Why?...) |
We returned to the museum for free day, (I mean “Community
Day”), in February and saw a haunting exhibit of “Environmental Photography,”
which included photographs of scenes that look so perfectly ordinary, or even
pretty, but are in fact toxic waste dumps, as well as another exhibit
(“Embracing Space and Color: Art On and Off the Wall”) of art objects that
“break down the visual barrier between the viewer and the work of art”. Some of
these were participatory. From one point of view, the experience is entirely
different from that of another point of view.
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| This was one of a series of artworks in which the image on the wall, made of spools of thread, becomes clear (and right side up) only when viewed through the glass globe. Each one was a familiar work of art, this one was a self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci. |
McKee Gardens: We
were enticed to visit this landmark by a temporary “Lego Exhibit” of flowers,
insects and other garden inhabitants made of legos. While the lego exhibit was a
fun treasure hunt to find each of the pieces, and the pieces were all well
placed within the gardens, the gardens themselves are infinitely more
interesting than anything made of plastic. Here are a few photos. Some are real things and some are made of Legos.
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| Entrance |
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| Lego Flower and Hummingbird |
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| Lego Mower |
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| This table in the "Hall of Giants" is 35 ft long and is the largest single plank mahogany table in the world. The man at the right later took the very last photo in this blog post. |
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| Flower phone: You can actually talk into one flower and (someone else can) hear it in the other. |
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| Reclining Tree. It was damaged in a storm and continued to grow |
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| Lily pads, the very large ones are Legos, the others are real |
Writing about Vero Beach has been a challenge, since there
are so many things to include. As a result, I decided to break the topic into pieces.
This piece was exhibits, performances and other cultural activities. Another
will be food and restaurants. Another will be people that we’ve seen and met.
Maybe another will be “Other Activities”. Stay Tuned!
Sandy & Chuck
on s/v Summer Wind
P.S.
Do you have the address of our blog? It is
Please consider saving it to your favorites.
It's hard for me to keep up with the blog. I'm backfilling
with pieces that I didn't get to write while we were living them. So please
keep reviewing the contents list to make sure you've seen everything. I change
the "posted" dates so the posts remain in chronological order.
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