Miami

Baseling in Miami

Baseling in Miami 1261 841 Keir Alexa

I love Miami because it’s a wild, crazy place where anything can happen.  And that’s especially true when Art Basel comes to town! It’s a huge art expo that draws 75,000 people in a year.  There are large art displays in public parks, performance art, and gallery installations all over the place.  You can see high end art pieces at the Convention Center or cool street art in Wynwood that will blow your mind.  I’ll be in Miami all week, so check out my Instagram and Snapchat for the creme de la creme of what Art Basel and Miami have to offer!

Free Fallin: 8 Minutes in Zero Gravity

Free Fallin: 8 Minutes in Zero Gravity 5760 3840 Keir Alexa

Have you ever wondered how movies that take place in outer space, like the classic Apollo 13, are filmed? How do they simulate floating around on zero gravity? And be honest, you’ve always wanted to see what feeling weightless is like, but you didn’t really want to go through the 10 years of astronaut training. Well, good news! The G-Force-One is the first commercial plane that offers passengers the ultimate weightless experience as if you were in space.

exclusive escape on 0 gravity plane with Keir Alexa

The technique of creating a nearly gravity-free experience was started by NASA in order to help astronauts get used to what being weightless feels like, as well as what it feels like to accelerate beyond Earth’s normal gravity.  It works fairly simple:  A specialized 727 jet called the G-FORCE ONE takes you up to about 24,000 feet and then begins to do aerobatic maneuvers called parabolas. A parabola is achieved by increasing the aircraft to a 45-degree angle to reach an altitude of 34,000 feet. Then, the plane dives down and this is where you  get experience 30 seconds of weightlessness.

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For the initial takeoff, you’re sitting in regular seats, and feels a lot like the first part of any good rollercoaster—you’re leaning back in your chair full of anticipation, wondering what weightlessness is going to feel like. Once you reach the FAA designated airspace that is approximately 100 miles long and ten miles wide, you head to the back of the plane which is called the “Play Area.” That’s because it is where you get to play like astronauts do. The whole area has padding, which makes it a little more comfortable when your body is being tossed around like a rag doll.

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When the plane goes into its first parabola, a crewmember starts by yelling “Martian gravity!” which is 1/3 your weight on Earth. Then you go into “Lunar gravity” which is 1/6 your weight. During this time you can do one-finger push-ups and feel like a macho man.

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Then, the fourth parabola, you go into complete zero gravity!!!!!

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The people that work there are really informative, and the experience really does make you feel like going to space, even down to the cool blue jumpsuits you wear. The plane only has a couple of windows, which is great because then you really can get into the sense that you’re on a space shuttle and not an airplane.

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You can do somersaults, let yourself just float, or pretend you are Superwoman (or Superman)!

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But once the thirty seconds are up, you flop on the floor…and wait for the next climb and drop into zero gravity.

All in all, they do this 15 times, so you get to experience 8 whole minutes of weightlessness, giving you lots of time to play around and get used to the feeling of being in space.

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The Zero G experience is one of those once-in-a-lifetime, amazing experiences that I’ll never forget. I could not stop laughing and smiling the whole time. I felt like a little kid going to Disneyland for the first time!

PRICE AND WHAT YOU GET:$4,950 + 5% tax: Weightless flight to include 15 parabolic maneuvers creating 20-30 seconds of weightlessness each. Includes ZERO-G merchandise, pre and post flight catering, professional photos of ZERO-G Experience®, video of weightless experience and certificate of weightless completion.”

South Africa Meets South Beach

South Africa Meets South Beach 923 441 Keir Alexa

Three years ago my boyfriend, Bob, decided that he wanted to build a house in Miami, which is whole new kind of adventure for him. He asked for my help so I did a bunch of research, looking for the best architect for the project. My standards for this search were pretty high, and I scoured the web (and the world) to find the right fit.

Luckily, I found SAOTA, a distinguished and award winning firm based in Cape Town, South Africa. They build beautiful homes all over the world. As opposed to other firms who seek to copy contemporary trends, Saota works with their clients to create the vision that they truly want—a house that tells the story of the people who live there.

As you might have guessed, Bob and I love to travel! As we thought about it, the designs of the places we love most all have water as a main element, which is good for us, because the house will be built right on the water in South Beach. Places like the Setai Hotel in South Beach, The Bulgari Hotel in Bali, and One and Only in the Maldives all give us a feeling of beauty and serenity whenever we’re there, and that is how we want to feel at home, too.

So, feeling inspired by the work we saw from Saota, off we went to South Africa, to meet with the architects and bring this vision to life!

Meeting Stefan, Phillip, and Mark of Saota was a great experience. You can tell that they really “get” it. Watching the three of them collaborate with Bob on a vision, especially one as personal as a home, was great to be a part of.

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After looking at the beautiful homes and spaces that they have designed over the years, I realized that architecture is truly an art form like no other.  Their homes are like paintings that you can walk through. I could envision being inside one of their homes and the feelings it would bring out in me—what a thrill!

 

Here is what Bob’s Mac Daddy crib is going to look like in 19-21 months!!!

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The main entrance of the house

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160 feet on the water

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Indoor/Outdoor living

 

Below are some more of Saota’s designs:

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Dakar- West Africa

UAE_PalmJumeirah_1-Ext04b_9200_PJ_9300_spaout_110221_gz_SAOTA_0

Palm Jumeirah- Dubai

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Cape Town- South Africa

HK_BBQGardens_9200_Pool_002_121214_01_ts_SAOTA_0

Siu Lam- Hong Kong

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St Anne Seychelles

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Phuket Thailand

 

 

 

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