Chicago - a short trip

Last month I did a quick trip to Chicago downtown with a friend. Time was limited but visited few very interesting places. Our first stop was Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).  The museum is located near the historical Water Tower Place in downtown. From the fourth floor there is a very nice view of the Michigan Lake. There was an exhibit on surrealism. Paintings, sculptures and photographs on surrealism of many well-known Chicago based artists like Nathan Lerner, Joseph Elmer Yoakum, Patty Carroll, Gertrude Abercrombie, Forrest Bess and many more were on view in the exhibition. It was a very good opportunity for me to learn about this art form. Also. there was an exhibition of Kerry James Marshall's paintings, who is well-known for his large scale paintings on black figures. MCA screen theme was, Phil Collins' "el mundo no escuchara"/ world is not listening. I took photos of some of the photographs and paintings which I liked.

Next  we visited Montrose Park along the Lake Michigan. I have driven so many times on Lake Shore Drive before but had no idea about this park. It is an amazing spot for watching birds. I am not a birder but love to watch birds. We saw at least ten different kinds of birds like Red winged black bird, American Robin, Downy woodpecker, Black capped chickadee, American Redstart, Gulls, Cardinals, common Grackle, Mallard ducks and more.

Another very interesting place we visited was the Rosehill Cemetery. It is a huge cemetery located on the North side of Chicago. It has a beautiful limestone entrance, later came to know was designed by William Boyington, the architect of the famous Chicago Water Tower. This is the most serene, peaceful and gorgeous cemetery I have ever seen. It has beautiful grounds, trees, statues and headstones, some of them are 200 years old. I really liked the place.

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Rosehill_Cemetery

Magnificent Magnolias, Arboretum, Madison 2015

Last week I was in the Arboretum with my daughter. This is one of my favorite times of the year to visit the Arboretum. It was a sunny day with a touch of spring in the air. Most of the prairie is still brown but the gorgeous magnolias are in bloom. The place was bursting with colors from pink, white and yellow magnolias, crab apples and quinces.


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Grand Rapids, Minnesota October 2012

On a bright fall color day in Wisconsin, we twelve of us headed for Grand Rapids, MN.  Grand Rapids is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota. It was a short weekend getaway trip. Our destination was a cabin called “Northern Jem” an eight hour drive from Madison. Nestled in the woods along the beautiful Trout Lake, it was the perfect location for spending the weekend with friends. We had a great weekend…lots of food; lots of “adda”, singing songs till mid night beside the fire-pit…Kayaking, fishing, and wandering aimlessly in the woods…enjoyed watching deer pretty much every day. The Trout Lake is a pretty good size lake and famous for its fishing…walleye, northern pike, rock bass, blue gills etc. etc…guess what!! we spent one whole day in the lake without catching a single fish…and later end up going to the nearby local store to buy some fishes for outside grilling. It was such a memorable trip.

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Adda
Location

Last of the Fall Color - Devil's Lake State Park

Wisconsin is known for its beautiful fall color and Devils Lake State park is one of the best places to see them. Leaves start changing colors from mid September and reaches its peak by the end of October. I had a chance to go to see the fall color at Devil's lake with a friend last fall. It was the third week of October and lucky to see the last display of the amazing fall color of the season. We entered the park through the North shore entrance and were spellbound seeing such an amazing sight...the whole atmosphere suddenly turned fiery from the yellow color of sugary maple trees. It was such a breathtaking moment for me.


There are some good hiking trails around the lake. It is a beautiful glacier formed lake surrounded by high rocky bluffs. We did the full loop around the lake both the East and the West bluff trails and other small trails connecting them, around 2.5 mile loop. The famous Balanced Rock and Devil's Doorway rock formation are on the East side...was lucky to see a bunch of rock climbers climbing the rocky bluffs. This was my first experience seeing rock climbing in a natural set up.


The fall color view from the top was stunning. It was like a colorful canvas. Interestingly, there runs a rail road passing across the south shore of the lake in the park. I really enjoyed the scene of a cargo train with full of graffiti art passing by from the very top of the East Bluff. Also saw some big black birds known as turkey vultures for the first time. Later I came to know that Cherokee Nation gave them the honorary name of "Peace Eagle" as from a distance they resemble eagles and the fact that they can not kill their prey.


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Park Trail Guide