Day 25 - Louisville

After a long nights drive [and thinking we were arriving at 2:30 in the morning... and being shocked when we realized we'd crossed into another time zone, we got to Louisville at 3:30 in the morning!!!] Our buddy Ellen was so gracious with our timing mistake, and we could hardly sleep because we were so excited to catch up with each other!

A little after 5am we finally settled down to rest and slept for a few hours before we got up for an amazing "Southern/European breakfast" by Ellen's amazing mom Donna Sue!

Ellen and Donna Sue spent the day showing us around their beautiful city! We got the chance to see Micheal Graves' Humana building...
an amazing boutique hotel with some INCREDIBLE art installations...

beautiful building elements...

a beautiful historic district....

so many Louisville Slugger sculptures...

and a Louisville Bakery & ice cream parlor!

We had a great time that evening over a 'family dinner' of tasty tacos and great conversation and ended the evening in the living room with watching the movie Citizen Architect. It seemed so timely that throughout this entire month of soul searching about what is next in our lives that we got to be reminded of the amazing work of the Rural Studio and how incredible it was being part of a program that utilizes education and their skill-set to make such a difference in the world.....

.... watch out world.... Transition Studio will be rocking your socks off shortly! : )

~~Kokinda's in Kentucky, can't wait to see you for a Derby real soon!

Day 24 - Arkansas/St. Louis/Louisville

We got up fairly early Sunday morning and finally purchased Andrew his own laptop so we no longer have to share computers. [He'd been using his old trusty PC from college, but after 8 long years it finally died right before we left for the trip.] He is now the proud owner of a shiny blue Dell notebook. We loaded up the car and headed out to another E. Faye Jones architecture site called Cooper Chapel.


It was a beautiful place and very much reminded us of Thorncrown a couple days earlier.


After the chapel, we headed north to St. Louis and enjoyed as much sightseeing we could fit in before it got completely dark outside. We were able to see the famous arch... the stunningly beautiful Union Station... the old courthouse... and a number of beautiful buildings and sights. The most exciting thing that we saw while we were in St. Louis were our buddies Alex + Nathaniel! We could barely wait for her to land in the city before we caught up with them! We could have chatted for hours and never had a silent moment, but we decided that the more responsible thing to do was to keep driving onto Louisville so we could avoid rush hour the next morning.

Day 22 & 23 - Arkansas

Crazy as usual, we drove through the night in order to make the most of the daylight in the great state of Arkansas. We started off our morning in Eureka Springs and admired some beautiful antique trains and no thanks to the GPS, finally found our long anticipated destination... The Thorncrown Chapel. Designed by E. Faye Jones, this beautiful space was a testament to his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright's concept of organic architecture and the dialogue between the landscape and the experience of dwelling within the built space.



We loved the intimacy of the place and could only imagine the type of beautiful service that could be held in that space.

After our visit at Thorncrown, we headed over to the house of Andrew's childhood friend Brandy Reese from Blackstone. Brandy and Sidney were amazing hosts and we had a great time and a jam packed weekend of fun!

On Friday night we went to a local pub, a tastee Mexican restaurant with live music, and ended the night with a minor league baseball game and tiger woods golf on the wii. Saturday morning we went to the monthly executive meeting for Wal-Mart and got to see the band "Little Big Town" perform their hit song, "Little White Church" along with a couple other of their popular songs.

After the meeting we went to the lake and had a great time on Brandy's boat with Tasha, their dog who really enjoyed the fresh air!

That evening, we had a great time at the demolition derby --- an exciting Arkansas Saturday night! There was some pretty amazing people watching and we had a fantastic time. We laughed so hard our faces hurt. We are already planning our visit down for next year when Brandy and Sidney enter a car! : )
After the derby we had a late night adventure at the fair and enjoyed a lot of laughs and a few hours of sleep before we hit the road Sunday morning for St. Louis! We had a great time meeting Sid and a blast reconnecting with Brandy! We can't wait to catch up with them again and are very grateful for their hospitality!

Day 21 - Chicago - Take 2!

We had so much fun exploring Chicago!!!

We saw beautiful architectural elements inside the Contemporary Art Museum!

and interacted with some amazingly playful sculptures!

Walking to and from the L train we saw so many beauitful homes, fire stations, and commercial spaces!

We laughed so hard when this squirl wanted to invite himself into our car. Instead we offered him a tortilla chip and he ate it in typewriter fashion!!

And we enjoyed more amazing food when Tina took us to Dapper, a greek diner!

We had so much fun catching up with her and the rest of the Panek family while we were in Chicago! Andrew got to recollect so many fun childhood memories, especially during his visits to the city with Gus as a kid!

And filling one of his lifelong dreams - Andrew finally got to go to a game at Wrigley Field!!!!

The weather was beautiful,

but the cubbies weren't able to pull through.

But Andrew loved the experience regardless!!!

After the game we headed South and went to the famed Robie House outside of Chicago! The way Frank Lloyd Wright designed this structure it felt almost fortress like against the public sidewalk!

After a brief visit at Robie house we headed further south to the Dana-Thomas House which is said to be one of the best examples of Prairie Architecture in the world. It was truly beautiful and I wish we'd gotten the opportunity to go inside to experience the space! Luckily we caught it before it got too dark!

And we loved this little welcome center in Missouri on the way to Arkansas! It had a retro theme and felt like we were stepping into the route 66 history!



We drove VERY late into the night that evening in order to get to Thorncrown Chapel when they opened first thing in the morning. Thank goodness for our little nap at the route 66 rest area!!!

Day 20 - CHICAGO!!!

We ate our way through this city!!!

We had a blast in Chicago and did so much walking and sightseeing! William and Sam were nice enough to show us around all day on Tuesday when we were in town and we wouldn't have had half as much fun without them! We were so greatful they became tourists in their own city for the day to show us the ropes!

We got to see some amazing sights including the "corncob" buildings...

the big eyeball sculpture...

amazing views of the city from the 95th floor observation tower...

the Buckingham fountain...

the "bean" sculpture in Millennium Park...

the digital image fountain also in Mil Park where the faces of 1,000 Chicago residents are projected and every few minutes one smiles and water shoots out through their teeth! We really had a lot of fun with this!!

And even got to play in the fountain!!!

After all that walking we were famished and of course needed to experience Chicago Pizza which was THE BEST PIZZA EITHER OF US HAS EVER HAD! [Yes that is about a 15" patty of sausage right under that thick layer of sauce. A m a z i n g! ]

We even got to see the beautiful water works building and all the pumps inside.

And after pizza ventured over to Wrigleyville!!! [Seeing the cubs stadium was one of Andrews top priority on this whole adventure!]

We LOVED Chicago! So, we stayed another day!... read about more of the Windy City's adventure on Day 21!

Day 19 - Driftless + Milwalkee

The Wisconsin Countryside is beautiful!

We departed from Minneapolis early to hit the road for a little town called Viriqouia in Wisconsin to visit our buddy Meghan's friend Jacob who runs Driftless Folk School. Driftless and Transition Studio have many similarities and hopefully will be able to do some instructor cross-over one day. After an insightful visit and short interview, we hit the road again for more adventures.

We then headed to Spring Green, Wisconsin to see Taliesen (FLW's home and studio). Kim went on an informative tour of the Hillside building, the FLW architecture school, and the students performance theatre. It was great to finally be in the midst of a place I've thought so much about over the past decade of my journey through the practice of architecture. It was a humbling experience to see the operations of the school from the beginning and also very inspiring to see the spaces.

The theatre where the architecture students performed for Wright and his guests and still have entertainment in the space today a few times throughout the school year. I wasn't actually allowed to take this photo inside, but couldn't resist when the opportunity opened up. The curtain was once a sketch in FLW's sketchbook and symbolizes the mountainside where Taliesin is located on the right and the mass of the school. As a surprise for his 80th birthday the students constructed it as a surprise to him and he was delighted. [Of course, in true Wright fashion, he had to make some cuts on the gift himself and have the final stamp of creative license.]

Then we drove by some of the other local projects he did... this one is a set of farm infrastructure. Barns, storage, stable, etc.

And this is a stained glass embellishment he designed to be by his headstone in the family cemetery of the family chapel he designed. [All in pure Wright fashion!...always in control of everything.]

While Kim was touring Andrew was enjoying a couple hours of downtime on the internet. After the tour, we headed to Milwaukee, WI to see GROWING POWER, a non-profit organization that works with inner city, lower income children to build gardens and grow fresh produce for children and families that typically do not have access to it.

Milwaukee was a little rough around the edges and after the experience in San Fran, we decided to pass on staying the night in the city as originally planned. We saw another AMAZING sunset!!!

and a beautiful greek orthodox church!

We drove into Chicago and got a last minute reservation at a Hilton hotel by the airport to get a good nights rest. It was a beautiful hotel and we were excited to sleep!