Tag Archives: tour

photo of Taliesin tour

Taliesin

Teardrop Trail Log: June 21

We left Governor Dodge State Park and headed to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and architectural school located in the rolling hills near Spring Green. Visiting Taliesin had been on my bucket list after knowing several friends in Arizona who had attended Taliesin West. The name, Taliesin meaning shining brow, is a nod to Wright’s Welsh heritage. The Visitors Center was originally built as the Riverview Terrace Restaurant in 1953 where we met our tour guide as well as the rest of the folks on the house tour. We drove past the waterfall at the dammed stream and up the winding road of the 490-acre estate. Our knowledgeable tour guide introduced us to the court yard, studio and living quarters. She shared the history and important aspects of his architecture, interior design, furniture and light fixtures. She also discussed the challenge of maintaining the various aspects of the architecture as it was in Wright’s time. He was fond of Asian designs and collected artifacts. But he also collaborated with sculptor Richard Bock on other sculptures. Wright was not a very tall man and he had a fondness for lower ceilings and passage ways that challenged a member of the tour who was seven feet tall.

Wright loved music and felt that music and architecture were closely related. The tour explored the famed living room, complete with the Steinway Art Grand Piano and the unique music stand he designed for a quartet. It had been the scene of nightly concerts. Wright was an accomplished pianist. In addition to the works of many composers, he performed works by his father, William Carey Wright who was a composer, music teacher and itinerant Protestant minister. Please enjoy his 1851 composition, L’ Agréable Réverie, played by Jim for this post.

Stories about the people who had lived in Taliesin were an important part of the tour. From his mother to Mamah Cheney – his mistress, the two later wives, his children, the community of students and clients, the property was the setting of a tempestuous domestic life complete with scandals, murders, fires and other dramas.

After the tour, we returned to the Visitors Center and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in
the Riverview Terrace Café, complete with an awe-inspiring view and equally inspiring meal of local food and beverages.

A view of Taliesen

Taliesen

Learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and listen to his father’s music:

Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss

The Music of William C. Wright: Solo Piano and Vocal Works 1847-1893

Photo of The Visitors Center

A Close-up Look at the McDonald Observatory

Teardrop Trail Log: March 29, 2016

We headed south to the McDonald Observatory, located in the mountains of West Texas. At an elevation of 6719 feet, it is under some of the darkest skies in the continental United States.

My introduction to the Observatory came through the StarDate radio broadcasts on Public Radio. At last, we were driving up Dark Sky Drive on Mt. Locke towards the Visitors Center. We had reservations for a 2:00 pm solar viewing and tour. We met our tour guide and enjoyed the solar program in the visitors center for an up-close look at the large research telescopes. We took the shuttle to the top of Mt. Locke and the overlook of the 107″ dome.

A photo of Our guide at the top of Mt. Locke

Our guide at the top of Mt. Locke

After sharing the history of the Observatory, the guide took our group to the lobby and we climbed the four flights of stairs. He described the parts of the telescope, the functions and how the astronomers use it.

The most exciting parts of the demonstration were when he showed the telescope’s motions and then rotated the dome. We felt the power of the motors that moved the large structure. 

Photo of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope

Hobby-Eberly Telescope

The next part of the tour continued at the summit of Mt. Fawkes and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The guide explained that an amazing collaboration between four universities allowed this telescope to be built at 80% of the cost of an optical telescope of similar size. The primary mirror is the largest yet constructed making it one of five biggest telescopes in the world. Renovations have just been completed for a new cutting-edge research project, Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). It is the quest to understand dark energy, the mysterious force that makes up 70 percent of the matter and energy in the universe.

We were hoping to attend one of the “Star Parties,” later that evening but the forecast called for cloudy skies so we headed back to Balmorhea and our teardrop.