The walk was an easy one, with the terrain very level and nice sidewalks, but the homes were
all very elegant, whether they were Wright homes or not. One thing that surprised us was
that, on this very flat walk, we passed a sign indicating that we were crossing a continental
divide. The natural flow of the water to the east of that sign was into the Great Lakes, the
St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Atlantic. To the west of the sign the natural flow was into
the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. (The rerouting of the Chicago River has modified
this, but that is another story.) I have always thought of just one continental divide in the
Rocky Mountains, but it makes sense that every drainage basin has a fixed boundary. In
areas that are not hilly, that boundary cannot be along prominent ridge-line.
All of that has nothing to do with the walk and the homes that we have saw. We walked by
Wright’s home and studio, and about fifteen or twenty of the homes that he designed from about 1890
until about 1913. In addition nearly all of the other homes were very elegant, and many of
them that were not Wright designs, but others in the same time frame had very clear Frank
Lloyd Wright influences. There is no doubt about the importance that he has had on
architecture in America.
We left Chicago on Monday Afternoon (4/24) and went to Milwaukee to see my cousin Jeanni. After getting ourselves hopelessly lost and calling Jeanni to come and get us, we got to her place for a very delightful visit. Linda and Jeanni got along famously, and it was great to make contact with her again.
In Muskatine, we got together with
Linda’s cousin, Sylvia. We went out to dinner with Sylvia, her daughter, Sandy,
granddaughter, Jessica, and Linda’s Aunt Millie (Sylvia’s mother). This was the first time
Linda has seen Sylvia or Aunt Millie since she was seven years old (and the first time she
ever saw Sandy or Jessica). It was another pleasant time in getting to know people.
On Tuesday, the three of us went up to Port
Washington by way of the Milwaukee botanical garden and a short tour of Milwaukee. In
addition to the formal gardens, the botanical was rife with tulips and daffodils. It brings to
mind that, when Linda and I got to California in the first week of February, we encountered
the first daffodils of the season. Since that time, we have seen daffodils at nearly every
place we have visited. We are going through the longest spring that we have ever had.
The tour of Milwaukee, both on the way up to and back from Port Washington were
delightful. We saw some of the really expensive homes on the Lake Michigan shore just
north of the downtown area, and the cleanup that has been done in downtown area.
Milwaukee is a very pretty, and, it appears, livable city.
On Wednesday, Jeanni led us to where she works and we made one last homage to Frank
Lloyd Wright, as the Greek Orthodox Church that he designed is right next to Luther
Manor where she works. From there we left, headed for Muskatine, Iowa, but only after we
a stop in a factory outlet mall just off the highway.
