Slowly making our way to Canada

After escaping the twin cities, we began to make our way to Canada with stops for fun along the way. Because it was an easy stop along the way, we stopped in Madison Wisconsin as we had enough miles in for the day.  Madison is only about 40 miles from Spring Green Wisconsin, site of Frank Lloyd Wrights second studio, Taliesin, which we had toured before. Because of that, there are many Frank Lloyd Wright designed structures in Madison.

Since we had seen all the Capitol sites on our last visit to Madison, we just made this a Frank Lloyd home tour. We managed to find the Eugene A. Gilmore House, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, the Robert Lamp House and the Walter Rudin House. While it wasn’t open for touring in the afternoon, we did find the First Unitarian Society building. All in all, we had a very enjoyable adventure.

We headed out to visit Indiana Dunes, what may be the newest National Park. It was on our bucket list for a long time as it was designated Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 1966, but it was designated the nation’s 61^st national park on February 15, 2019.

Not unlike the Western national parks, locals began the movement to preserve the dunes as early as 1899 as heavy industrial development along the lakeshore threatened the extinction of this unique environment. Even today, as we hiked out to the dune covered beaches along the shores of Lake Michigan, each section of the sensitive shoreline that is protected is sandwiched between immense steel mills. The beaches are beautiful, but the odd contrast clearly shows the tension between preservation and industrial development.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. We hiked out to each beach, we hiked to the top of the tallest dune you are allowed to hike on in the Park, we circled Mount Baldy, the tallest dune in the Park, but not open to hiking in order to preserve it. We did a bunch of geocaching, we hiked as many of the trails in the park we could find, we visited all the visitor centers, and we made sure to visit all 3 of the separated zones of the park. While we set out to do some birding, we never spotted anything new to us, but we did encounter some deer and one angry racoon who snarled at me as I opened the dumpster to add our trash bag. I hope he enjoyed it!

Since we were so close to Chicago, we couldn’t help but visit with nephew Jonathan and his family, Julie and Stella. But since we didn’t know exactly how long it would take, we decided to set out on another Frank Lloyd Wright adventure in Oak Park, a Western suburb. We visited and toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home and studio in Oak Park. We have now toured all 3 of his home/studio complexes, including Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Scottsdale Arizona.

Since Wright designed many homes in the area, we set out to see as many as we could. We visited the Frederick Robie House – designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We also managed to find Unity Temple, as well as the homes of Nathan G. Moore, Arthur Heurtley and F.F. Tomek. The unique features we see in most Wright homes we visit were prominent – very broad roof lines, art glass in most of the windows that bring sunlight into the home and lots of them. The only thing we saw here in Oak Park that we have not seen elsewhere are the garages. Most Wright homes we have visited only have a built-in covered car port.

After our Wright trek, we gathered at the Little Beet Table restaurant in downtown Chicago, meeting Jon, Julie and Stella. Due to his celiac diagnosis, Jon has to totally avoid gluten, and this restaurant guarantees it is gluten free throughout its entire menu, making it a go to for them. We caught up on all things Bougie, and learned that in a couple weeks, Stella would be turning 7. We ate Jon, Julie and Stella, but drank Devin, Liz, Maia and Mani – the chardonnay we sipped was from the Finger Lakes area of New York where they live. We enjoyed the time together, and can’t wait until the next opportunity. 

Talk to you soon.