Checking off the must-sees

Everyone who knew we were heading for Minneapolis told us we should visit the Art Institute.  So, this morning, we did.

It’s a huge place, chock full of every kind of art from all over the world.  Name an artist and there’s surely at least one of their works here.  What’s more, it’s free! 

The hard part was finding our way around.  For some reason, the map was particularly tricky to interpret.  So, we just jumped in and followed our instinct.

We saw classical sculpture – this is The Lost Pleiad by the American sculptor Randolph Rogers.

When we arrived, I asked one of the volunteers at the desk which particular exhibit was a “must see”.  She replied that there was a piece in the modern art collection that was so horrible, we’d recognise it immediately.  That was the one we really should see.

Here it is.  Yes it’s horrible – the more so because it’s a posthumous portrait of the artist’s mother!  (by the American artist Morris Kantor)  Maybe it’s as well she never got to see it?

I enjoyed the modern installations, particularly this one by American street artist Swoon, called Alixa and Naima.  I liked the way the textures interact with one another and the composition of the collage as a whole.

And we all loved the Magritte “Promenades of Euclid” which played with our brains so! 

I must have been particularly receptive to collage today, because this piece made of driftwood from Lake Superior, by George Morrison, hit all the buttons for me.

There’s just something really satisfying about the neat patterns, the blend of colours and those lovely textures too.  Love it!

But actually, there were two truly memorable exhibits which left us all thinking.  The first began with these small figures on the landing and continued into an extended exhibition of work in the next few rooms.

I’d not come across Mark Mothersbaugh before.  The title, Myopia refers to his own shortsightedness and refers to this mixed media exhibition of his work.

The first room was filled with a musical instrument made of a strange collection of tubes and frames which soon sprang into action, playing the weirdest, most kooky music imaginable.  Difficult to describe but suffice to say, everyone was walking around with a smile!

The adjacent room contained a collection of 30 000 postcards created by the artist who draws at least one postcard a day.  Hmm.  Dodger friends, are you listening?  I mean, if we all kept up this habit, what would we do with such a collection? 

Another room was concerned with symmetry and yes, of course we loved the car .  So, Mark Mothersbaugh, we need to know more about you and your work!

The other exhibit which touched us all was the recently discovered office of the first curator of the MIA, Barton Kestle.  Full of a curious collection of bits and pieces, the office had been locked closed following the mysterious disappearance of the man during the McCarthy era.

The story was outlined on a nearby panel and explained how the office and its contents had been rediscovered recently, bringing the tale of the curator and the mystery of his disappearance to the fore once again.  Sitting in the cafe later, we decided we wanted to know more about this brilliant young man – we googled and came across this

So, time to go, by means of the 1950s Otis Lift, another exhibit really but this time, a working one.  What a great place to spend a morning – well, of course, we could have spent the week here, but we thought we’d quit whilst we were hungry!

We’d intended to pay a visit to the Minnesota State Capitol whilst we were here, but our plans were thwarted – renovations until 2017, we understand, so the place is closed.  Never mind, we still hit the road to St Paul and made alternative plans.

Just around the corner from St Paul’s Cathedral was Summit Avenue, which was – is – the place to live in this city.

On Summit Drive, there is the largest of houses.  Not only the largest in the city but the largest house in the state of Minnesota – The Hill House, built by the railway baron James J Hill.

James Hill and his family lived here in considerable style and we looked forward to taking a look around the mansion.  We booked our places on a tour and waited the half hour in Mr Hill’s art gallery – formerly the home of many old masters but now, used for temporary exhibitions.

Right now it’s a show of H’mong quilts – right up my alley!

Beautiful contemporary examples of the traditional H’mong embroidery techniques were to be found here, including this one, which brought back memories of a small elderly H’mong lady working on her indigo resist patterns high above the Mekong River in Laos…

No worries about waiting for our tour with such lovely things to see.

When the time came for our tour, we were delighted to find the chatty lady in the reception was our tour guide – first class!

So, if my favourite room in the house is the lavish entrance hall, perhaps my least favourite was the laundry.  Actually, the house was a beautiful design on a human scale and most of us could imagine living here rather well!

OK, we’d like to have the help of staff, just as Mr Hill had

OK, enough culture then, let’s hit the shops!

Fawbush’s had popped up on my Pinterest page a couple of times and knowing we were headed for Minneapolis I noted the address.  Mary and I left with couple of purchases each, aided and abetted by my hero who was simply looking forward to supper.

A good job Good Earth was right next door, then.

The Road to Minneapolis

We set out immediately after breakfast for what was going to be a fairly long drive to Minneapolis.  We’d identified a couple of highlights along our route however and we hoped that these would prove interesting enough to avoid any use of Roadside America!

The Wisconsin countryside continued in the lush, green style and a callout alerted me to this particularly pretty quilt barn.  Isn’t that a fine apple tree block?

Shortly afterwards, as I was craning my neck to catch a first glimpse of the great Mississippi River, we followed a signpost to “Lock and Dam #5A”, to what Mary described as “some kind of water operation, I expect”.

There didn’t appear to be much to see, apart from boys’ stuff – statistics about the dam and the lock and…

a huge train with two engines all fired up and ready but for the moment, just puttering there with a couple of miles of wagons behind them.  Every so often, there’d be a whoosh of air as the brakes were released but for now, these engines were going nowhere.

But just in case, we didn’t walk over the crossing but used the underpass, as recommended.

Our reward was an unimpeded view of the dam.

And a huge, but dead, dragonfly on the steps – the wingspan was easily four inches and those lace wings were so pretty.

Time to move on, driving alongside the railroad and passing several stationary trains, each one a mile or more long.  Why none were moving, we had no idea, but someone was glad to see them and have a small diversion from the straight road ahead.

Not quite a quilt on this barn but interesting nevertheless.

Another dam.

More straight road, through the big woods.  Can you guess where we are heading?

I must say, the signs didn’t bode well, but here we were in Pepin, birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the nearest town to the “Little House in the Big Woods”, the first book in the series Mary and I have been enjoying recently.

Actually, there’s not a great deal here, since the books were written many years after Laura and her family moved away from Pepin, taking their belongings with them.  But the town features in the first book and clearly, the place of her birth warrants some commemoration.

I’m just not sure this does her justice, however.

Perhaps it’s a “work in progress”?  This information panel suggests that someone is working on some changes.

But I think that post it notes are possibly not the most visitor friendly way of imparting information – and of course, none of these things are original or particularly historically accurate.

Oh my.  Here’s hoping that changes are afoot and that someone can do something better here, sooner rather than later. 

Having said that, I’m not sure the exhibits at the train museum are that great either!

Anyway, here we are by the historic marker, a little further along the road.

Where a clearer, more attractive information board summarised the life of Pepin’s famous daughter and gave directions to the Little House Wayside, about seven miles from here.

It’s along the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, needless to say.

The historic marker and the cabin are situated on the land owned by Charles Ingalls, but it’s not the original cabin and it’s not necessarily in the exact place either.

But hey, it’s a Little House in the Big Woods!

Yes, of course we went inside to take a look – and to try to remember how it was described in the book.  We both recalled how the family had gone into Pepin just before Christmas to choose presents from the General Store – that would have been quite a journey.

And as we drove back towards the river – which opens out to become Lake Pepin here – we drove through the Big Woods again and recalled the words of one of the guides at Old World Wisconsin the other day: She explained how settlers would be dropped off in a patch of native woodland like this with an axe and a spade and just have to manage.  First, a well to be dug.  Then the trees to be cleared and the stumps taken out before seeds could be sown for the first crops.  All of that needed to be done if they were to survive the first year.  And those big woods were not neatly planted rows of tall conifers, but these smallish, scrubby deciduous trees and bushes which were so dense it’s impossible to walk amongst or between them.

They must have been tough souls.

We are nothing of the kind and we were getting hungry.  The information board in Pepin had suggested that Stockholm, the next town along the road could be a good bet for something to eat, so we parked up and went in search of a bakery or similar.

We spotted another Statue of Liberty too!

My hero’s eyes were elsewhere though…the magic word, PIE!

Looks promising…

The Stockholm Pie and General Store was perfect!  Great sandwiches for two of us and a chicken pot pie for the driver.  Delicious.

What a lucky find!

Stockholm was a cute kind of place, with blue bicycles to borrow, free of charge (we didn’t) and a real community feel.  We stepped inside one of the other stores to browse and received a recommendation for a shop/gallery in the next town.

Cultural Cloth was right up my alley and there were some really interesting pieces in there.  My favourite was a crochet/beadwork necklace from Turkey – but at $169 it wasn’t an impulse purchase, sadly.

What joys there are to be found along America’s Byways!  We love it!

A short time later, we were crossing the river and I was getting out my camera to try to snap the next sign – I nearly got it!

Welcome to Minnesota.  No “ker-ching” until our feet touch the ground though

The skyline of St Paul passed by – or rather, we passed by the skyline.

And eventually, finally!  We arrived in Minneapolis.

Ker-ching!!!   US State #40 for my hero and I!

On our way to find some dinner this evening we found no roller skating waitresses, but we did find Mary Tyler Moore throwing her beret in the air outside Macys.  We missed the fun of the drive-in diner, but actually, the margaritas in the Mexican restaurant we chose made up for it in some way

At the Drive-In Diner

Dinner tonight was a Shrimp Supper at Rudy’s.  Mary and my hero had their favourite Root Beer Floats whilst I settled for a chocolate malt, all accompanied by exactly the right music.  We loved it.

So?

If you followed the link then you’ll already know, Rudy’s is a drive in diner and though we chose to eat inside so we could watch the whole operation, we could have driven up to one of the parking bays and had our food delivered to our car window

by one of the super skilled roller skating waitresses!

 

Just as we were leaving, a car nearby placed their order and one of the team sprang into action with a tray laden with food, drinks on one shoulder and an ice cream held in her other hand.  She sped across to the car to deliver the order in super fast time.

First delivery was the ice cream!

Then, the tray was fixed to the open window so that hungry people could access their food from a kind of shelf/table.  Shortly before leaving, they’d summon the waitress by means of a call button and she’d skate out again to collect the tray and any rubbish before they drove away.

What fun!  (the food was good, too!)

Our hotel tonight is not quite our usual style.

But it has a great view of the U Haul depot!

Who says we don’t travel in style?

Going West

Heading west from Madison this morning I responded as quickly as I could to the call “quilt barn!”  Sure enough, there it was….gone.

We were driving towards LaCrosse and made a short stop at an Historical Marker, just to see what it was all about.  In this case, it was commemorating John Appleby, the inventor of the knotter on the grain binder.

See?  Of course, you know all about why the badger’s there now as well, don’t you?

We were almost at our destination by then: Spring Green, Wisconsin.  This is where Frank Lloyd Wright’s family lived, where he grew up and where he returned to build his own home, Taliesin.

We’d booked a tour of the house before we left home and assembled in the Visitor Centre in good time to join the group for the shuttle ride up the hill to the house.

It was a beautiful morning, just perfect for being here.

We were very lucky indeed to have a great guide in Andy, who explained all the background to the site and told us the story of Frank, his wife, his mistress and the murder…

Read about it here

So this is Taliesin 3, because another fire in 1925, caused by faulty wiring, destroyed much of the living quarters once more, so the structure we see today is the third iteration of the building.

Andy explained all of this in detail and pointed out other significant features such as the house across the valley which FLW built for his sister (thank you, zoom lens on my camera!)

He went on the explain some of the fundamental principles of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, including the theory that buildings should look as if they have grown from the earth.  Perhaps you’ll recall other FLW visits we’ve made, to Taliesin West, to Oak Park in Chicago and most recently, to the Martin House in Buffalo last year?  What Andy was telling us resonated and we knew exactly what he meant.

As usual, there were no photos allowed indoors, so I’ll continue with the pictures I took outside and outline the points Andy made about FLW’s work and which I found fascinating.

First of all, upon entering the visitor centre this morning, we all ducked our heads because the ceiling felt so low.  Actually, there was no need to duck, for it was high enough for us to walk in comfortably, but Andy explained this architectural device as we came across the exact same feature in the hallway of the house and studio:  “Architectural Compression and Expansion”.  By reducing the height of an area (“compression”), one can be encouraged to keep moving into the open area beyond (the “expansion”), which means that the architect is able to manipulate the behaviour of the users of his designs and FLW did this particularly effectively.

Another of FLW’s design features is the hidden front door.  I remembered this from the Martin House last year and the same was true for Taliesin.  In fact, Andy took us around to the rear of the building, because he wanted us to see FLW’s favourite view.  Before we reached there however, we walked around the old stable block, now used by architecture students of the FLW Foundation which is based both here and at Taliesin West in Arizona.

FLW’s favourite view of his home was this one, from the rear driveway because of the varied roof shapes visible from this point.  I can’t say I share his favourite, but then that’s probably because I can’t appreciate the finer details of roof structures!

Asymmetry was another common feature and this house was a shining example of that.  No room was symmetrical in any respect, though Andy explained that the house had been an ongoing experiment for the architect to try out new ideas and things changed frequently. Certainly his preference for open space living was clear here, as one room led to another with only a few closed in spaces – bedrooms, generally.  The “rooms” were divided by compression spaces – low ceiling areas with shelving above or a narrow walkway with no door,  opening out to a larger, loftier space.

One thing we have noticed at all the FLW properties we’ve visited is the planting in the gardens.  Here, just like all the others, the borders were beautiful.  Deep, almost black hollyhocks alongside white lilies and spikes of blue flowers I didn’t recognise, all in lavish clumps.  I’d love to recreate something similar at home.

One last thing we’d noticed before leaving the house: Here, we had been viewing FLW’s own home and not a project built for a client.  The finish was something altogether different because not only was he always making changes and trying out new ideas, the extensive budget of a wealthy client wasn’t available to him.  So some aspects were far less than perfect and in the last room we viewed, the Garden Room, the window frame left almost an inch of fresh air where it didn’t fit properly.  Fascinating.

On our way again, then, towards LaCrosse, our overnight stop, past thousands of stars and stripes set out in readiness for Independence Day.

I ended the day in the same way as I set out – a quick snap through the windscreen, of this cute Amish family walking home along the road and in particular, the toddler all dressed up exactly like her Mummy, complete with jacket and bonnet.

Dinner plans tonight sound fun.  I might be back with another post later!

A Capitol day

Whenever we are in a state capital, we like to visit the capitol.  Here in Madison, the Capitol stands high above the surroundings and dominates the city centre and we looked forward to taking a look inside.

The first tour was at 10am so after breakfast we walked the few blocks from our hotel and found the step-free entrance.  The Capitol is built around a central lobby and has four wings aligned to the compass points and is set in a square of lawn in the centre of the city.  In the old days, Capitol Square was a bustling, busy commercial place but now it’s set amongst bank, insurance companies and suchlike and the area bustles no longer, except for the office workers of course.

Inside, it’s as grand as any capitol we’ve seen.  Walls and floors of different colours and varieties of marble, each one sourced from a different part of the world and costing a fortune.

Standing in the central lobby, high above our heads was the dome with the central painting of Wisconsin and her handmaidens.

A little lower down, on each of the four sides there’s a richly coloured mosaic depicting Liberty..

Government,

Legislation

and Justice.  They set the tone for the whole place, being very much in the style of the early 1900s – and very much to my taste, too.

We began the tour in the Governor’s Meeting Room.  Well, I’m not sure how frequently the Governor holds meetings in this room but if I were he, I’d take every opportunity.  Beautiful paintings on every wall and the ceiling too, again in the style of the early 1900s.

I really liked this painting, which hangs behind the Governor’s chair.  Sadly, all of them are dark and the light wasn’t so good either – not the best for photography.  But there’s a website with, hopefully, better images.

Leaving the Governor’s meeting room, we passed the bronze of the State Animal – the Badger with the very shiny nose, resulting from the custom of rubbing it for good luck.

Our tour continued through meeting rooms, lavishly built of marble and with stunning frescoes just beneath the ceiling.  I especially liked this one which was so much of its time, depicting steamships, the railroad, early motor cars and very faintly in the sky, one of the new fangled flying machines.

I liked this small vignette too.  There’s so much Native American heritage here, most obviously for us in the form of the place names. 

Who should we come across next but Chief OshKosh on trial for murder, illustrating an incident in the state history, recorded in a painting high up there on the wall of the Supreme Court.

The tour continued through both houses before returning to the central hall, giving us a chance to take a few more photographs and to try to find the step free exit – hopefully in a direction which would lead us to a coffee shop!

Ta Dah!!  The bonus was it happened to be Cafe Colectivo, the same brand as we’d enjoyed at the Mud Creek Cafe the other day.  Mmmm.

A short walk away was the Wisconsin History Museum, where we learned a little more about the State and became a little more aware of the wider landscape, particularly up north by the canadian border.  Brrrrr!

We also learned a little more about what’s made in Wisconsin.  Bicycles!  Also, there’s paper packaging, beer and Harley Davidson motorbikes.  There’s probably many, many other things but there’s one which just keeps coming to the top of the list.

Cows.  Well, yes…

Milk.

Of course.

Cheese!

Thankfully, just down the street was Fromagination where a cheese sandwich was exactly what we needed for lunch.

Delicious!