The gingko blog.

Vacation: Done. Family members visiting, within the last week and a half: Five. Places visited: Several, all in metro Chicago. Including: Millennium Park, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, Spring Valley Nature Reserve, my office (but not for work), the Archicenter, North Michigan Avenue (esp. the Apple Store), Navy Pier, Oak Park and Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio.

I’ll say this about the Frank Lloyd Wright site: there’s a fine brick patio next to his home and studio, a very civilized place with chairs and tables under the shade of a ginkgo tree that The Architect planted himself, according to the tour guides. I didn’t actually take the tour yesterday, but when the tours passed the tree, I heard about the tree’s planting. It’s enormous in the way that 100-year old trees should be, full in its August greenery, providing very necessary share on a clear summer day when the temps nearly -- or did -- touch 90 F.

My brother Jay, sister-in-law Deb, nephews Sam and Robert, wife Yuriko and daughter Lilly were on the tour. I was watching daughter No. 2 Ann, now 18 months old and unappreciative of FLW. Also, no strollers allowed in the buildings. So I volunteered to stay under the sheltering ginkgo tree with her, since I'd been on the tour before. Ann and I both drank a lot of water, and at least once she poured some on me. Not a toddler accident, but with whimsy aforethought. The girl is developing normally, I think.