Friday, June 4, 2010

Weekend Destinations - continued

Then on to Bangkok .....

And Athens...

Okay - you know we didn't really go to any of those places either, but the Chicago area is a goldmine of a destination for those who love to eat..... and yes, we are that family!  The Thai food was enjoyed at an outside table at a nice little restaurant near E's house, however the mosquitoes enjoyed us as much as we did the food.  The Greek restaurant we found by accident after a  tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Oak Park.  A pleasant surprise on a rainy afternoon! 
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust operates tours of FLW's home and studio in Oak Park, IL.   As a birthday gift to her dad, E made reservations for Memorial Day.  This was a good time to travel to downtown Chicago as the traffic was light. We were early for the tour so walked around the surrounding historic area a little and took a few photographs.  
This is the main entrance view of the FLW home.  Not what one would think his home would look like, but this was built early in his architectural career and his signature styles were still developing.  The interior was quite unique though and some of his engineering techniques were unusual too.


These two homes were in the historic area and I'm pretty sure were on the walking tour. They are more typical of the Prairie style that made FLW famous.  Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain when we were done with the interior tour so we'll have to come back some day to learn more about the area.  We'd like to visit the Robie House sometime too.

The main reason we ventured north this past weekend was to attend the baptism of the littlest grandson, W.  J and J chose to have their second son baptized at the church that his mama attended while growing up in Wisconsin.  Since so many of her family was in town for another baptism and birthday party, it worked out well. 




Little J was lucky to spend some time with his oldest cousin.  He learned so many big boy things in their time together.  It was fun to watch him try to imitate appropriate church behavior! 
Little W was happy to enjoy the sun  at the picnic in the park while

Grandpa and little J inspected the creek from the bridge.  They(meaning the grandsons!) are both growing so fast!  The weekend went quickly and before long it was time to head home.  It was nice to spend some time driving around our old Wisconsin neighborhood and seeing how things have changed.  And it was great to see the kids and our DIL's family again.  It's convenient that E lives close by so we could drive up from her home and be able to attend the baptism and nice picnic afterwards.  And we always enjoy our visits to the Chicago area, it's just too bad that there's that city traffic to contend with or we could ride the Harley! 

3 comments:

Thimbleanna said...

You have the best adventures! Looks like you had a wonderful weekend -- the grandsons are all just adorable!!!

Lori said...

Sounds like a wonderful family weekend and I'm with you...there is no way we will ride our motorcycle into Chicago. However, our son who lives in the northern burbs does it all the time(cringe) but not on the expressways or so he says. Somethings are better if a mama doesn't know about it!

Linda said...

We visited the Frank Lloyd Wright School in Scottsdale, AZ a couple years ago. He was very ahead of his time. The grandsons are so cute! Thanks for sharing!