|
        |
We use a campground locator to find campgrounds, as I have mentioned before. The directory editors visit each campground, and rank them on a scale of 1-10 in 3 categories: overall campground facilities offered, restroom cleanliness, and scenery/ambiance. The latter measure essentially tells us how picturesque the place is: 4 or below means it is a pit, 5 and 6 mean questionable, 7 and 8 mean OK, and 9-10 is beautiful. We had selected the Windy City Campground and Beach because it was close to Chicago, and was rated 6/8/6. Boy, were we disappointed. It was horrible -- about 30 yards from I-80 with constant screaming truck noise, no shade trees in our section of the campground, and very small sites that were very close together. Also, the 'beach' was some brown sand dumped next to a pond that was full of floating algae. Yum. The truly amazing thing was that some people knew about the condition of this park, and still chose to stay here. A 'family' of weekenders immediately behind us, who had their trailer parked there for the season, actually had a keg of beer strapped to the back of their rig. We called them 'the hillbillies'. Another person -- informing us of the best places for Chicago-style pizza -- proudly made margarine for a living on the night shift. It was a different reality, I'll tell you. We tried to imagine a life where 'camping' in such a manner would be fun and restful -- and failed. We gritted our teeth, and set up shop in our new digs. To get a change of scenery (and out of the traffic noise), first thing the next day we went into Oak Park, a small suburb very near downtown Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright made Oak Park his home for years, and his house and architectural studio were preserved there. Within an easy walk were another dozen or so Wright-designed home. After bumbling around a bit, we found parking, and got directions to the home and studio from a fast-food place. You would think that Oak Park would insure that there were clear signs indicating where the Wright home was located, but we found only one, and its intent was difficult to discern. We got to the home and signed up for a 4:00 PM tour, which gave us 90 minutes or so to take a walking tour of the Wright homes in the neighborhood. We found the sign below on the front of his studio. The logo at the bottom right is Wright's logo.
This is a shot of the studio, from the exterior on Chicago Avenue. Not very striking, I know, but that is due to my poor photography, not the design. Built in the late 1800s, the Wright home and studio must have looked like alien spaceships -- everything else built at this time was Victorian. Although not in the Prairie style that Wright invented, the home and studio have Prairie elements in them.
I will not give you a play-by-play photo journal of the homes we saw on our walk -- just the high spots. Still pre-prairie, but really interesting. Note the windows: they are in a horizontal line, which gives an interior visitor a grand view of the outside and nature.
Also not Prairie -- this was a remodel, where Wright re-worked an existing home. Note the long rectangular chimneys, and the ornate woodwork around the windows. Jordan is listening to the audio guide we rented to help us "see" some of the details and design elements in the houses.
This is a detail from the house above -- this is the rear of the home.
This is a 'real' Prairie style home -- low, with the lines running horizontally, and a large fireplace and chimney in the center of the house. Note again the bank of windows seen just below the roofline.
I am not sure if this is Prairie style, but it is certainly quintessentially Wright. He was strongly influenced by Japanese styles, very apparent in this home.
If you saw pictures of Fallingwater, you will see similarities here; this house predates Fallingwater, but the horizontal pans will look familiar.
One of the mainstay features of Wright's architecture was offsetting the front entry, mostly so it was not seen from the front of the house. The entry way below is visible, but offset. These homes were all built or remodeled before 1910 and were VERY modern.
Note the "art glass" in the windows. This is another common element in Wright homes. The houses he designed had huge amounts of crafted materials made especially for each home. Besides the windows, homes might have built in furniture, moldings, light fixtures, cabinets, etc. all hand crafted, but all designed by Wright.
Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture of a neighboring house to give a contrast as to how different these homes were for their time. Wrights studio looks like it could have been built 5 years ago. The prairie-style houses reflected the flatness of the country around them, and the banks of windows let in loads of light.
The walking tour was very nice. We could go at our own pace which always works for us. The house/studio tour were really interesting, too. In Wright's house (which he did while working for someone else and led to his going out on his own) he designed some very cool things for his family. The children's play room, for example, had a baby grand piano in it, but the body of it hung out over the back stairway. From inside the room, the piano looked like a spinet. The windows in his bedroom were designed to be in the shape of a kimono. Actually, there were a million unique touches. The guy was brilliant. He was also arrogant as hell. As an older man he actually said something like "with 15 more years I could change the face of America", and that it had been said of him that he was the greatest architect ever -- which he felt would not be incorrect. His childhood was unique also, for a variety of reasons: his mother, while pregnant with him, determined that he would become a great architect. When he was born, she hung pictures of the great cathedrals in the nursery to inspire him, and gave him special geometrically shaped blocks to play with. This influence you can readily see in a Wright design; his works are often composed of intricately arranged simple geometrical shapes. Look again at his logo, which is only a circle and some rectangles.
That evening, we visited with my cousin Dionne, who I had not seen in 20 or more years. She is my maternal Grandmother's sister's youngest daughter, and is about my age. She moved to the Chicago area while I was in college, and we had missed seeing her on any of her visits out west. We took Dionne and her son Zach out to dinner, where we all got caught up a bit on each other's lives. It was really great to reconnect with her after all these years. Sadly, we did not get a picture. In addition to Zach, her 14 year old youngest son, Dionne's other children are Shawn, a 19 year old student at Wesleyan, and Jana, a 17 year old daughter. Dionne movingly described her trials with Jana, who it seems is unreachable; she told Dionne that Dionne was required by law to feed and cloth her, but that Jana was going to do whatever she wanted in the meantime. Jana had already spent a year in a substance abuse center. The next step for Dionne was to meet with the District Attorney to see if she had any options. In the face of such defiance, we had little to offer Dionne except our ears. We felt for her.
The next day we visited the Windy City. We parked near Soldier Field (the Cubs stadium, I think), right on the lake. Jordan really wanted to tour the Shedd Aquarium, so that's what we started with. And so, appropriately, Jordan selected, processed and laid out the pictures included in this section, learning the basics of the program I use to create and maintain this web site in the process. Here is a view of the downtown skyline from the aquarium.
Here we are at the entrance, mugging.
We were impressed by this aquarium. Lots of fun new things to see, including this 12 foot long anaconda. It was completely underwater when this was taken.
We don't generally care much for animal tricks, but the Beluga whales and white-sided dolphins were amazing. The trainers told us that the behaviors we were seeing were all natural to the animals; they had simply been taught to do the behaviors on demand.
This dolphin got some serious air.
The grand finale.
There was also a fabulous seahorse exhibit. Sadly, the few pictures we have are mostly blurry, but interesting enough that we included them anyway. This is a shot of a pipefish. Seahorses and pipefish are closely related.
Another pipefish, with coral at left.
And this is a seahorse. The leafy 'growths' on it are not attached plants, but are part of the seahorse. The seahorse's head is at the lower right.
If you look carefully, you can see some tiny -- but fully grown -- seahorses clinging to the plants at center right.
There were also penguins. Many were molting, which accounts for the fuzz you can see.
After the aquarium, we took a small drive along Lakeshore Drive, towards the North end of Chicago, after which we zig-zagged back through the city in search of a suitable restaurant. I managed to get us into "the projects" -- publicly supported low income housing -- in the process, which did not make Jody very happy. It looked like a 3rd world country there -- right inside one of America's great cities. Weird. We did finally manage to find a nice Italian spot, where we found that wine was to be had only if you brought it with you or had some delivered -- BYOB, basically. Our waiter brought over the wine list from a nearby pharmacy, which delivered until 10 PM within 4 minutes of the order. Also weird, although our waiter assured us it was quite common out here. On the way back to our lovely and inviting campsite, we encountered a humongous accident that tied us up for 30 or so mintues, which Jody photographed, below. See the red lights?
|
