The Robie House...

The Robie House, another house designed by Frank Lloyd wright, is the greatest example of the prairie style...and the greatest disappointment! I was so excited to go see this because this house is so famous we talk about it in my classes all the time and it the best example of Wright's Prairie style, so you can see why I was really looking forward to seeing it.

I wasn't able to take pictures of the inside, which I already new from the tour of Wright's home, but even if I was able to I probably wouldn't because there was nothing inside!! The house was totally gutted because they are in the middle of renovation and really the only thing that we were able to see were the decorative glass windows, which were beautiful; more beautiful than in pictures so that was cool. But even the walls had none of the original coloring, they had paint swatches on a board in one room to show what the colors will look like, and they had covered all the floors with either rugs or pieces of linoleum, ghetto. Then in each room they had a black and white picture of what it looked like when the Robie's lived there, and some rooms had a chair or a table, but none of the pieces were original they were all reproductions, and not very good ones at that, they looked cheap, it was lame; which was so disappointing because one of the other reasons the Robie House is so famous is because of the furnishings that Wright designed specifically for the house.

Not only was the house a disappointment but so was the tour guide. She looked about twelve and had to read the tour from cue-cards, so whenever anyone asked her a question that wasn't in the cards, she couldn't answer it. After the presentation one lady was talking to the guide and asked her if she was an architect major at the university (right down the street, by the way, it was an amazing university in an old part of Chicago, tons of really awesome buildings, Weber sucks) and she said no! She was some other wacky major, I was like and why are you here giving us a tour again??? Glad I saw it, but wouldn't waste the money to see it again even when the renovation is finished.

YEA, Company!!

My mother in law, Cindy, was here the past few days, and I forgot what is was like to hang out with a real person during the day instead of the dogs! It was great! She came on sunday and because that is Cort's day off we were able to hang out together with her. We picked her up from the airport and then took her to downtown Chicago, where we were going to go on the skydeck of Sears tower, but decided against it after we found out it was an hour and a half wait! We decided to take the water taxi to Navy Pier, which I heard really good things about but was ultimately disappointed, becuase it was a really big tourist attraction so there was a lot of just little kiosks and dumb little shops, but we walked to the end and looked out over Lake Michigan and say the city from a distance which was pretty cool.

On monday Cort went back to work and Cindy and I went downtown. We were going to ride the metra down there but decided against that after I found out it would take an hour and a half, whats with that time limit? weird. Anyways we walked around millenium park and took some pictures and then rented some bikes and rode down to the John Hancock building, where Oprah lives, hoping we would see her as we ate lunch outside in the Cheesecake factory. But sadly, no Oprah today, maybe another time, stay tuned for pictures if I ever see her!! I loved riding the bikes down there it was way fun, on the way down to the building we rode on the sidewalk, but on the way back when we realized that our parking meter was TWO HOURS over, we decided to venture out and ride back through the street so we could get there faster and avoid a ticket. It was a little scary because there was no bike lanes and the drivers are crazy, as you may have realized from my previous post, but it was really fun, we were laughing the whole way back!

I had to take her back to the airport on wednesday morning, it was sad to see her go, I loved having her here, it was so much fun! Anyone else that wants to come out and keep me company I would be happy to have!!

P.S. You would be glad to know that I did NOT get a parking ticket, I was shocked!

"My name's John Dillinger, I rob banks"

After seeing the movie Public Enemy, by myself might I add, it was a little weird, I found out that I was moving to Chicago. Probably not the best movie to see, having just found that out, but oh well. When I FINALLY, got here, I saw that there was a self guided "gangster tour", that gave you three locations to drive to and see the places where events in the movie took place. I liked the movie so I decided to go on the tour.
The first place I went was Al Capone's grave site. It was at a cemetery called Mont Clare Cemetery about five minuets away from our house. Its was a really cool cemetery, there were tons of old gravestones and a lot of them were the big elaborate ones, it was really cool to see. It was a lot better than the bountiful cemetery, which I am used to so after wondering around for about and hour I finally found the Capone grave site. It was just really cool to stand there and see the grave of such an icon, it was a little freaky to be honest!

The second place I went was the Biograph theatre, where they finally caught John Dillinger as he was coming out of a movie and shot him as he walked down the sidewalk (you'll have to see the movie its really good). The theatre is actually still open to the public and running, it shows artsy films now though and the neighborhood surrounding it is very artsy and upscale, a lot different than how it was in the movie, but cool to see.

The last place I was suppose to go was the Union Station in the heart of downtown Chicago, were a lot of deals and trafficking happened. Unfortunately, after I almost got in three wrecks and there was no parking I decided to ride the train down another day and see it then. Stay posted for pictures from it though.

It was a cool experience to be able to stand right above Al Capone and to walk in the street where John Dillinger walked.

Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio Tour

Today I had the greatest opportunity, I was able to take a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park,IL. I have read so much about Wright and his designs and I finally got to see some of his designs in real life, it was amazing! Although I wasn't able to take pictures of the interior of his home or studio I was able to take a few pictures of the exterior.

Frank Lloyd Wright, for those of you who don't know, is one of the most famous, designers and architects from the United States. He has designed so many famous and influential residential homes and commercial landmarks. He is the father of the prairie style of design and architecture; which is characterised by the aspects of nature. Prairie style,is a lot like "green design" which is what we have today; when the structure or home is blended with nature to seem as though it is part of nature. Frank Lloyd Wright has such a great appreciate for nature that he actually credits all his inspiration's for his designs and creativity to it. It was interesting in the tour, when she was telling us a little about Wright, she said that he only went to college for two semesters before he dropped out and he doesn't tell people he went to college at all because he says that he doesn't credit any of his creativity or designs to what he learned in his short time there; which I thought was interesting and maybe a little discouraging to hear while I am in my fifth and final year of school...

This house I visited today was where Wright lived with his first wife, Catherine, and their six children, before he abandoned them and moved away with his mistress. The house started out being a little over 2,000 square feet and after all the renovations and the addition of his studio, it ended up being over 6,000 square feet!Wright's attention to detail and the materials he used in his designs were truly amazing, his own home being one of his first designs before he was extremely famous made it even more amazing. I am so glad that I was able to see it while I was here. I posted the few pictures that I took of the exterior of the home, and on Monday I will be visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's "Robbie House" which is one of his most famous houses.

Welcome to the not so Windy City...

In our first year of marriage Cort and I have moved THREE times already!! Cort has started selling alarms this summer for Pinnacle Security and he is doing great, he is the number one sales man in our office and is working towards being the number one sales man in the company!

We started out the summer in Costa Mesa California and where there for approximately one month. I LOVED Costa Mesa it was such a nice area and our apartment was not to mention GORGEOUS but we were with in walking distance from the best mall in Costa Mesa, my dream! It was like shopping in Vegas, they had everything from Prada to Forever 21! Through an unfortunate scooter accident I had to move home to get medical attention (look at the pictures on our Picasa Web link if you dare!). While I was home our office in California was shut down and moved to San Antonio... I moved back to San Antonio after fully recovering. If hell was in the United States, it would be called San Antonio. Not only was it blistering hot but it had a high humidity. It was so hot some days I didn't even want to walk to the mailbox! I was so proud of Cort for being able to walk around in that heat all day, because for those of you that know him well, he pretty much lets the heat run his life, as I always say, he HATES the heat!

Due to the heat and the lack of English speaking home owners in Texas we packed our things once again and moved to Chicago, IL! I was a little bit nervous about this move but anything that got me out of Texas was fine with me. After the 24 hour drive we finally made it here on Sunday, July 5Th, and we love it here! We live in a town house in a northern suburb of Chicago called Downers grove, located about 25 min. from downtown Chicago. We are so excited to be here, and I am excited to explore the downtown area! Check out all our pictures on our Picasa web link. Miss you all!!