About Monday

Nancy and I could not have timed it better. We decided to do outside things on Monday. It was still a holiday so the "Green Line" train was mostly deserted which was pretty nice. Especially when we needed to figure out what way to ensert the card in the whatchamacallit to get on the deck... Well on a holiday people have the time to help you and so they did... Oh well, I am now a pro at inserting my card. Enough of that though. We had such an excellent day. First I had the best oatmeal ever at our hotel. Even the brown sugar was different. It looked like little tiny beads. Very pretty and hoooo so tasty!!! So with that energy filled breakfast I got to walk and observe and shoot pictures every 5 seconds until 2:30 pm. Our first stop was to the Garfield Park Conservatory. They are having a fabulous exhibit of some 34 sculptures. Those are bigger than life size and are so colorful and happy looking that everyone looking at them has a positive response. It is quite uplifting. Seeing so many of them in such an interesting setting was a real treat. Here is a little sample to make you want to look at the Artist Niki de Saint Phalle.

Of course the plants at the conservatory are really interesting and new to me. Have you ever seen ferns like those?

or plants like those?

What about a flowers growing on a trunk....?

This last one is actually the chocolate tree that makes the cocoa. Pretty amazing world we live in.

After we left the garden we headed to Oak Park a really nice little community of huge tree lined streets and a mix of victorian and mission style homes. Frank Lloyd Wright had his house there and studio and build few houses in his 'hood. So we had a nice italian lunch and we started meandering the streets. Arriving too late to take the inside tour of FLW's house we had a self guided tour which was pretty incredible. To see those houses in person. What a thrill! They are all recognizable has FLW but they have different shapes and character. Very interesting. Not every one was built with the same budget in mind too. There was the very cute small one up to the very large and expensive one on a grand lot. So here are few examples.

So we ended the day on a pretty nice note. Happy Hour at the hotel with Cheese Crackers and a nice Cabernet some jalapeno olives, oh and some yummy pistachio nuts. Nancy got to built her blog and I assisted by trying to calm her nerves when things were not cooperating with her Mac. Fun fun fun.