October, so far...

I'm starting this October post with a picture that was probably taken in September. This tree is probably my favorite thing in our yard--it gives us such an awesome display every fall. It stayed this pretty for quite a while, but a few days ago it lost about half of its leaves, so not so pretty anymore.

On Friday, Oct. 3, we had one of our field trips with Roger and Sheryl.  This time we went to Racine and took in some tours that are offered by the SC Johnson Company. (Johnson Wax)   Frank Lloyd Wright designed some of the buildings on their main campus, and also designed a home in the 1930's for the Johnson who was then the head of the company.  That home is now used as a conference center,  and they just recently opened it up for tours.  It was very interesting!  It is called "Wingspread."  It is designed with a center area and four separate "wings."  We were only able to tour the center area and two of the wings, but we also watched a video that told a lot about what the house was like when the Johnson family lived there.

Wingspread--not a great picture of it, though.

The above picture shows a couple of the unique things in the house that turned out to be rather impractical. That's a fireplace that is built so that it can burn long birch logs (they were probably about 5-6 feet long).  Apparently Mr. Wright didn't think about the fact that those logs would burn from the bottom, and then the logs would fall right into the room.  I think the guide said they only did that once. :)  Also the windows that you can see (clerestery windows, I think?) had a real problem with leaking when it rained.  We heard a story about how Mr. Johnson was having a dinner party and was having rain drip down on his head.

That spiral staircase is right next to the fireplace, and it goes up into a little place called the "Crow's Nest."  This was put in as a fun feature for the two kids in the family.  We did all venture up the stairs into the Crow's Nest, but it sort of  tested my dislike of heights and tight spaces.  That's Roger making his way down the stairs.

This tour was in the morning, and we had some time before the next part of the tour, so we made a stop at Bendtsen's Bakery, my very favorite bakery from our days in Racine. We had coffee and a pastry there and bought kringle and their "seven sisters" rolls to take home. A stop at Bendtsen's is really a MUST if you are in Racine. For me it was one of the best thing about my time living in Racine.  (The very best things, of course, were meeting Bob and giving birth to Matt.)

In the afternoon we had a tour of the Research Tower and the Administrative Offices, both of which were also designed by Wright. We also watched a couple of short films in the Golden Rondelle Theater.  It was all very interesting, and all the tours are free! I have no pictures of that part of the tour.  Indoor photography is not allowed in those buildings, and it was too cold and windy to stand around and take pictures outside.  We finished our day with an early dinner at a restaurant right on the lakefront.

Before I close out this post, I'll add one more picture just to show that we still do get pretty regular visits from Bambi and friends.  These two were really close to our house on this particular day--I thought the one was going to just come up to the window and stare back at me.  They really do not show much fear.

Well, that's it for the first couple weeks of October.  We'll see what the rest of the month brings! :)