Our goal one day last week was to chip away at the list of art that we missed during the fray of Art Week. Our trek took Constant Companion and me to the Faena District on the beach to see the final No Vacancy installation. Along the way, we found art that we sought out and so much. In addition, some memories of the past were awakened.

Our first goal was local artist Magnus Sodamin’s entry into the annual No Vacancy show. Not knowing in which building to find it, we searched high and low in the Faena Hotel. In the courtyard of the hotel, there was a handler with this magnificent Harris hawk, native of Latin America.

I was reminded of the long-ago day at an Archeology Fair at the Deering Estate. A local falconer was on hand to demonstrate his birds. Just as he was about to launch the hawk, a bald eagle dove sharply into the bay in search of lunch. What a memorable and breathtaking sight.

Another feature in the courtyard that cannot be missed is the Damian Hurst’ gold Mammoth.

We ventured into the hotel library where this beautiful flag from 2019 created by Myrlande Constante filled one wall. Constante is known for her flags, based on the tradition of vodou flags; her works are both contemporary art works and sacred objects.

As we walked across the street, in front of the Faena Forum we admired the Tree of Life, an imaginative eight-meter-tall tree, created by Studio Job for the opening of the District in 2016.

The sculpture is modeled on a European oak tree. The trunk of the tree splits around a globe, topped with a castle hidden in its leafy branches. A golden jug pouring milk over a cowboy’s hat that covers a brain and a rainbow tops the sculpture. What does it all mean?

Magnus Sodamin’s No Vacancy contribution, “Reflections of Florida Wild,” filled the gracious Mediterranean interior atrium of Casa Faena, a neighboring property, with a vibrant exploration of nature’s beauty.

Leaping dolphins, lazing manatees, soaring birds, palms and seashells are among the cutouts making up Sodamin’s installation.

Casa Faena, more recently the Claridge Hotel, began its life in 1928 as El Paraiso Apartments, designed by local architect, Martin L. Hampton. Constant Companion’s memory is much better than mine. He remembered that some years ago we spent a relaxing weekend in this historic hotel thanks to a raffle I won!

Murals painted by Brazilian artist João Incerti transform the hotel’s dining room and entrance hallway into a tropical oasis, bringing the exteriors inside. The walls and ceilings are covered with palm trees and corals in reds and pinks.

Looking for art in the Faena District took me back to 2016, when the district exuberantly entered into the Miami Beach scene with a colorful and lively parade.

Several of us made our way to Collins Avenue to join the crowds and take in the results of the two-year collaboration with more than thirty South Florida cultural institutions and hundreds of participants.

The performance joyfully moved along the district’s four-block span. Floats paid homage to the wealth of foods in Florida.

Faena’s long-time restoration of the historic Versailles Hotel on Collins Avenue remains a scaffold- covered skeleton with a mysterious tower by the beach. Someday, it will become yet more over-priced Miami Beach condos.

When I looked up information about the Versailles, I was reminded of the amazingly beautiful 90-foot-long, Modernist glass-mosaic mural of Apollo pulling a gleaming chariot of the sun across the sky that at one time decorated the building’s façade. It was added to the 1940 building in the mid-1950s by artist Jack Stewart. The on-line images sparked my memory of admiring this mural whenever we drove by. Supposedly it is in storage somewhere.

Constant Companion did not have the opportunity to see the Great Elephant Migration while it was in town. So we walked over to the beachfront to see if anything remained. The final three sculptures seemed so lonely after two weeks with the large herd of 100 figures.

They were patiently waiting to be loaded for their next destination, Houston, Texas, where I imagine many, many others will be enchanted by them as were many in Miami.

Goodbye elephants, goodbye Art Week, hello wonderful memories.