Wordless Wednesday: building that must not be named

A Wall that's hard to argue with

We were lucky on our most recent Rio Chama trip to grab the fabulous Chama Wall campsite, from the dining room of which you get to see the view shown above whenever you look up.

We've camped here on some past trips, and I've posted lots of pictures of this amazing ridge before, but it's hard not to take more. 

Although it's very difficult—impossible, actually—to convey the simple size and the incredible majesty of this setting. That's what really struck me, as if anew, on this trip. I can tell you that the Wall is over 1000 feet above the river level, but that doesn't really mean anything, compared to how it feels to sit at its feet. 

I'm hoping some of these photos can show you, or at least start to show you, how wonderful a view this is. (I've borrowed some pictures from Henry's and Larry's collections, taken with their much fancier cameras, to help with this task. Thanks, guys!)

First of all, as you approach the campsite, you've already seen some pretty spectacular rock formations and canyon walls. But this one still takes your breath away when you first glimpse it...

You can just see the base of the Wall in this shot of our living/dining room (yes, we really rough it on these trips!). 

But I think, for some reason, that just seeing the base really gives you a better idea of the massiveness of the Wall than when you try to convey that in a panoramic shot. Here's another of just the base itself, in late afternoon sun, with no distracting humans in the way...

I mean, this is really, really a lot of rock...just sitting there and looking gorgeous for our entertainment!

The entertainment isn't always just static, either. Thanks to Mike's binoculars, we were treated to a great wildlife experience. 

In the little alcove that is framed in red in the photo on the left (it's almost at the top, on the far left of the shot—click on the photo to enlarge it) we got to watch a falcon having an early dinner!

Relying upon the lofty perch to save her kill from predators, she flew to and from it several times. Sharing the binoculars, several of us enjoyed watching "our" falcon for quite a while.

Here is a extra-closeup of the alcove, taken with Larry's super-lens:

Isn't that cool!?

Henry got another unusual perspective of the Wall when he and some of the more energetic members of our party took a hike up a ridge on our side of the river. This is what the Wall looks like when you're at a more comparable elevation...

I have still failed, I'm sure, to give you a good sense of what it's like to live for a couple of days in the shadow of this amazing formation, but I hope you at least got a taste.

just before sunrise over the Wall

Museum-a-palooza

Not since I lived in London have I spent time in a city with so many wonderful museums! Where even the views from the front porches are spectacular (the photo above is from the front lawn of the Adler Planetarium).

As a bonus, like in London, most of them were free—for us at least, thanks to my recent inspired purchase of a family membership at our local Witte. Hooray for reciprocal admission!

Although we didn't have too much time in the city, we made the most of it, and visited four amazing museums.

The Art Institute (the one we had to pay for, but boy! was it worth it!) actually lets you take pictures of their paintings, so it's not surprising most of the photos we took were of their fabulous stuff.

I've been in some great art museums over the years (the American and British National Galleries, for example, and both London Tates). But I don't think I've ever been in a museum that offered so many paintings famous for their inclusion in Dr. Brown's History of Art class (still one of my favorite college courses).

In addition to the Magritte above on the left, here are a few more examples:

Cézanne, perhaps my favorite Impressionist-era painter
(for some reason not in the Artic's online catalog?)

a breathtakingly beautiful Renior

a haunting Monet (they have so many of his it was hard to decide
which one to show you, but this one is so unusual, it got the nod;
curiously also not in the catalog)

detail from perhaps their most famous painting, Seurat's Sunday on La Grand Jatte

And to show you that they cover more periods than just the early moderns, here's another of my favorite artists, represented by this enormous Assumption with tourist included for scale (thanks to Henry for this snap)...

And of course I always get a kick out of well-executed trompe l'oeils (although the best is still the one we saw in Vicenza)...

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The other museums we visited are the types—science- and history-related—that we usually like better than art museums (although we might make an exception this time—the Art Institute was really that good).

But the science museums in Chicago are world-class, and they didn't disappoint; although we were somewhat disappointed that we didn't have more time to spend in them.

First we went to the Museum of Science & Industry, largely on the recommendation of friends that we see their German submarine...yes, really! The picture on the right is of a bunk area in the sub, which we toured, complete with a torpedo as bedside table.

Not only was the sub enormous (see the picture below, with a few museum visitors in it for scale) and a fascinating artifact, but the story of its capture and move to the museum was a great story.

What a unique exhibit! And another example of my maxim that there are an infinity of stories that can be told about World War II.

Other highlights of our much-too-brief visit at this museum were the model trains...

ending up the journey from Chicago to Seattle

...and a really scary maze in the imaginative section featuring mathematical patterns in nature—for a while, we wondered if we'd be able to find our way out at all!

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Our quickest visit was to the Planetarium, and unfortunately we didn't have enough time to see any of the shows. As it was, our bus having to compete with traffic from a pre-season football game made us late to our nephew's wedding—the actual reason for our being in Chicago in the first place!

(BTW, congratulations to Collins and Julianna, and thanks for getting hitched in this glorious city, giving us a reason to visit it!)

In addition to the great view of the downtown skyline the Planetarium offers, they had a lot of good exhibits inside that almost made up for our missing their special entertainments. We spent a good bit of our time looking at their Apollo 13 stuff, and I thought this graphic depiction of human exploration of the solar system was very clever; each line represents a mission to that heavenly body:

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The most famous museum we saw was the Field, and we really barely scratched its surface, in spite of spending three hours there. 

I particularly enjoyed all their Native American exhibits, including this exquisite beadwork, which always impresses me:

Their main hall, home of the famous T-rex, Sue, is impressive enough...

...but when you consider that the galleries around it on two levels are chock-full of fascinating exhibits, you can begin to understand the scope of the place.

Here's another shot, from one of the second-floor side halls, of some selfie-taking tourists:

The only good thing about not being able to see enough of these great museums is that we know there will be plenty of interesting things awaiting us on future visits!

Fabulous fungi!

You don't normally expect to find forests of fungi in the dry desert southwest. But there are little spaces where water collects. And since the Rio Chama region has had a rather moist summer—by New Mexico standards—we were pleased to see some really gorgeous specimens during our recent trip.

Some were very simple, like this tiny beauty, sprouting from a hole in an extremely large dead tree...

Another, much smaller, log sported this specimen...

...not as pretty, but still rather impressive.

But the most amazing fungal sights were in a little grotto under a large boulder that we passed by on one of our hikes. The picture at the top of this post is from this magical space. Thanks to one of our eagle-eyed companions who spotted this hidden treasure!

the discovery!

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the several different fungal colonies that were thriving here.

I don't remember ever seeing so many different, and large (you can't tell from the pictures, but they were enormous!) types of mushrooms in one place...or maybe at all!

My favorite specimens, though, were the lovely brownish-rose growths that I showed you at the top of the post. Here's another shot of the whole group...

...and a couple of closeups of the largest individual members...

The honey-colored drops are water that was dripping slowly from the rock above, nourishing this amazing garden.

In addition to the big guys, there were these lovely growths that looked like draperies, or waves, undulating on this unexpected shore...

The rocks and the rivers in this part of the world are certainly impressive, but I'm so glad we were alerted to these smaller treasures, too. 

Wordless Wednesday: invasion of the .....??

Two libraries, two worlds

I've commented before on how varied my month+ away from home has been.

But I can't describe any better the wide gulf that separates the worlds I visited, than by telling you about two libraries that we encountered.

The first one was a building that anyone would be awed by...the former Chicago Public Library that's now that city's Cultural Center. The historical marker plaque on the right gives you some information about its history and design, and you can learn more from Wikipedia.

What an amazing structure! Acres (or so it seems) of gorgeous marble, accented with fabulous tile mosaics and sculptured glass. No books, now, but as a temple dedicated to the value of learning and cultural transmission of ideas, it's nearly unsurpassed.

The architectural highlight is probably the Tiffany glass dome that crowns the top floor. But I also enjoyed noting all the insets featuring authors from around the world that were popular at the turn of the last century, when the building was erected. (Most of them still are....) Here are two shots showing partial views of the dome, with some of the gorgeous stone- and mosaic-work surrounding it:

And here's a closeup of some of that tile, that comes with a little story.

In a gesture that we found to be incredibly common in and around Chicago, a helpful security guard saw me starting to take a picture of one of these table-like banister tops, and suggested I snap the other one instead. The one I was originally looking at, he told me, had some cracks, whereas the other was in better shape. 

We found Chicagoans to be the friendliest and most helpful people, particularly for big-city dwellers, that we've ever encountered. This impression, in addition to all the wonderful sights and activities the city offers, have put it on our list for a return visit at first opportunity.

Anyway, here's the tile closeup:

Yes, this former library was pretty impressive. But as wonderful, in a completely different way, was another, active library that we stumbled across over 1000 miles away, in a totally different setting.

The little town of Abiquiu, New Mexico, famous for Georgia O'Keefe and as the title of an episode of Breaking Bad, is in a wonderful natural setting (more about this in future posts). We have often stopped by Bode's, on the highway that runs alongside the town, for a cold beverage after our Rio Chama trips, and we did so this time, too.

But we'd never explored the town itself, and decided to take a look. It has some interesting old adobe buildings, a lovely church and an interesting cemetery, but its library is perhaps the most impressive building in town.

No, it doesn't look much like the Chicago Cultural Center, but its heart is in the same place. Here, in this little (2010 population: 231) town where the streets aren't even paved, there's a library. It has three rooms full of books, and even has a section of local history and several computers for public use.

I was both charmed and moved by this little building. And when I got home and was going through my pictures, I was glad to see that I took a photo of this Milton quote in the Chicago building, which expresses the thought that connects these two unlikely libraries, as well as their counterparts around the world...

This spirit is alive and well in Abiquiu as well as downtown Chicago, and I find solace in that to help me weather these stormy times for our country. Don't you?

Wordless Wednesday: first of fall

Spice of life

I've taken some complicated trips in my time, but I'm not sure anything can rival the variety of venues, activities, and scenery that I've been lucky enough to experience during the last month.

This hectic period will soon be over and when I'm back home and able to relax a bit, I'll start telling you more about all these adventures. But for now, here's just a taste...

inside the Cloud Gate, looking up

sunset from Ghost Ranch

gorgeous fungi in a canyon grotto

the famous "L"...great for transport unless they close your station!

rocks along the Rio Chama

great buildings and great sky

model train steams thru the mountains at the Museum of Science & Industry

scouting Aragon Rapid on the Rio Chama

a stand of lovely pines near our campsite

I wonder what caught my eye in this Adler Planetarium display?

huge Mayan stele in the Field Museum

Rio Chama transport

one of my favorites...out of MANY at the Art Institute

adorable great-nieces and -nephews watching ants at work

And finally, this lovely inscription on the walls of the former Chicago Public Library (which is now the Chicago Cultural Center) pretty much sums up my feelings about this wonderful city as well as the other places I've visited during this whirlwind month. My approximate translation: "O sweet voice! The welcome sound of one's mother tongue in a strange land!"

How sweet it is to feel welcome wherever one travels!