Author: Louise Riley

The green Jag & it’s owners 

     

Crispin & Cecile picked us up again this morning & we headed out to the western part of the city & the Frank Lloyd Wright museum. We had tickets for the 11h30 tour but got there in time for a walk around the neighbourhood to spot other examples of his work. The guided tour itself was fascinating. The building was actually the family home & FLR drawing office & design centre. He was an architect who broke the mould, moving away from the Victorian style into something, which at the time must have seemed truly revolutionary. The interesting thing is that his style still seems relevant today, a century later. 

We had lunch with Crispin & Cecile & then we headed back in towards town going past where Cecile lived as a child. On the route back into town we saw less affluent areas & areas which are obviously up & coming but I must say that on the whole I think that Chicago is a nice place. 

Crispin & Cecile have been wonderful tour guides & have been very generous with their time & information. We leave tomorrow armed with lots of info about Route 66—where to stop & things to see. We owe them a big thank you & hope that we can reciprocate when they next get to Europe.

We are aiming for Buddy Guy’s club tonight & then off on our further travels, this time by car, tomorrow.

I am going to add some photos of today’s transport, our hosts & some examples of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

Crispin & Cecile arrived to pick us up at 3pm. He said to look out for a green car so when a lovely green Jag arrived we thought it might be them. Crispin is Doug’s 2nd cousin (Doug’s Mum & Crispin’s father were cousins) & has always kept in touch initially with Doug’s Mum & then latterly with Doug’s sister Margaret. Doug doesn’t have any memory of ever meeting Crispin before, especially since Crispin went to live in New Zealand with his parents when he was 9 yrs old! Nevertheless that was all rectified today. Crispin’s wife Cecile is American & Chicago is her home town. They took us the scenic route north of Chicago to where they live in Winnetka. Despite the weather it was a lovely journey & we saw some beautiful beaches along the lakeside & some very interesting houses. Their own house is in a wonderful location—-we knew we had arrived by the Union Jack & French flag flying at their driveway entrance! From their window you look out onto woodland where deer & other wild life abound & yet they are very close to the lake. 

We spent a lovely time with them, catching up on lives, stories & experiences. After a meal together (delightful pud) Crispin brought us back to our hotel but today we are meeting them again for more exploring & sharing.

  

We woke up to rain so abandoned our plans to go out for breakfast. Instead we ate in the hotel & apart from the coffee it was very nice.

We were picked up for our city tour & then taken downtown to meet the main bus. Fortunately it wasn’t an open top tour because by this time we had realised how cold it is. The guide spoke at 100 miles an hour but was a fount of info. We had a south side tour lasting a couple of hours but the views were somewhat impaired by low cloud! We did go onto the University campus, we saw where Obama has his home, we saw the beaches along the lakeside & we went into the Rockefeller Centre & generally got a  idea of the layout of Chicago.