Thursday, March 22, 2007

Wanderlust: Travel Log in Brief


I'm home! I have a lot to share from my vacation but I'm going to pace myself. I visited Chicago and Madison briefly for a family matter. Then I went to Philadelphia and finally ended my two week vacation in New York.

Chicago
I haven't spent much time in Chicago. I usually see it passing through on my way to Wisconsin where I have a lot of family. I spent a couple of hours on Michigan Avenue this trip while waiting for family to arrive at the airport. A couple of hours has definitely peeked my interest. I'm a city girl through and through and I've never met a city I didn't like. The architecture and landscape of Chicago was very beautiful. Hopefully I get to see a little more of it some day.

Madison
What can I say about Madison? I've travelled there every few years to visit family since I was a little girl. It's definitely one of America's best kept secrets. You can't even fly direct from most cities. It's one of those places that most people will probably never see unless you have a very specific reason to visit, but it's really a beautiful city especially in the summer when everything is very green. Surrounding the city are gently rolling hills of bright green grass and picture perfect red or white barns. Frank Lloyd Wright claims Wisconsin as home and you can visit his estate, Taliesin, which is about an hour from Madison near Spring Green. You can also visit nearby Alex Jordan's House on the Rock.

Philadelphia
I was very pleasantly surprised by Philadelphia. They have been working very hard to renew Old City and the area around Independence Hall. Philadelphia is also the birthplace of the much beloved Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. The Anthropologie flagship store resides in Rittenhouse square in a very beautiful old building. More on Philadelphia later.

New York
This was my first trip to New York and I'm in love! Growing up in a small town in the West, I always dreamed of living in New York because it was the biggest city I knew about. I wasn't disappointed! Much more on New York later, too.

2 comments:

michelle said...

Yay! Welcome home. I can't wait to hear more about your trip.

Annie said...

We'll be moving to Washington D.C. for Drew's Oral Surgery residency. We'll be there for 5 years so I'm totally stoked about really getting to know the east coast...it's a totally different world out there and definitely an experience every Western U.S. dweller needs to experience.