taliesin: enough said

So, I went up to Wisconsin this weekend. I am really starting to begin to like Wisconsin. It’s a much more interesting place then Illinois. But, I do love Chicago. The trip was great. I went up to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. Taliesin was the summer home of Frank Lloyd Wright. The home was originally built in 1911. The house is on 600 acres along with the Hillside School (Now Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), Romeo and Juliet windmill, Tan-Y-Deri home, Midway Farm, Taliesin, and Unity Chapel which is a public Unitarian chapel still used today. The history of the place is as amazing as the architecture.

Taliesin

View from Taliesin

Hillside School

Romeo & Juliet

Tan-Y-Deri

Midway Farm

Unity Chapel

The Spring Green area is great as I also went to Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain, Wisconsin. There they make their own cheese. It was a lame tour (a fifteen minute talk on how the cheese is made there) of the factory, but it was neat to see a huge process of cheese making. The cheese itself was way worth it, too. Cedar Grove also does something unique by having what they call a Living Machine that purifies and cleans the cheese production wash water from the factory and discharges it back into the water system. It was very cool to see a company do this.





Living Machine

After the cheese - what else but wine. I traveled up to Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac. The winery just got a brand new expansion and it is made to look like you have traveled to Italy and are at an Italian villa. The winery has a rich history going back to 1858. The tour was great too. The tour was about an hour with a full wine tasting after. It also only cost $3.50. It was probably the best winery experience I have had.







During the whole trip I stayed at Governor Dodge State Park in Dodgeville. A great Wisconsin State Park with lots of hiking trails, lakes, wildlife, and even a waterfall. Each morning I woke up to the singing of birds including robins, orioles, warblers, hummingbirds1, bluebirds, large bumble bees, and many others. The hiking was good and the waterfall was a hidden gem.



Further readings on Frank Lloyd Wright:
Death in a Prairie House
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography
Loving Frank

1: hummingbirds don’t sing but were there