Sunday at the Miami International Book Fair

It was another wonderful day at the Book Fair - and the weather was gorgeous! We had bright blue skies, sunshine, mid 70s and low humidity.

Thoughts, experiences and impressions of the day...

• instead of going alone as usual, I went with my best friend


• travel writers presentation, quote from Eric Weiner author of The Geography Bliss: "Happiness = Low Expectations"


• two cooking and food related presentations - great conversations about food, stories about culinary school, mushroom picking in Italy


• lunch at the Egypt pavilion - delicious Appetizer Sampler: Falaffel, Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Dolmades


• a performance by The Padura Girls, the beautiful and talented young woman in the picture above - they are the daughters of one one of my closest friends and I was literally at the hospital the day each of them were born 18 and 15 years ago, they've been performing since they were little and I still cry whenever I see them perform


• a crowded, crazy, loud and volatile presentation by Cuban author Zoe Valdes; proof once again that older generations of Cubans simply don't understand the concept of "Question and Answer" instead they do "Autobiographical Soliloquy/Political Opinion then Question then Answer then Rebut the Answer"; author was introduced by the tallest transvestite I've ever seen in person


• didn't want to deal with the crowds at the Vernon Jordan presentation, so I DVRd it on C-SPAN's Book TV and watched when I got home; what an eloquent, brilliant, attractive man; phrase (which I loved) that he used several times when discussing those who participated in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s: "Disturbors of Unjust Peace" - isn't that a great phrase?


• saw and congratulated Miami Dade College President and Founder of the Miami Book Fair Dr. Eduardo Padron

This was the 25th Anniversary of the book fair, of those 25 fairs I think I've missed two of them. This is without a doubt my favorite event of the year - I can't wait to see what the next 25 years bring!