Category: Travel

The 2008 best-selling novel, Loving Frank, told the tragic back story behind Taliesin, master architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic winter home near Madison, Wis. Like many fans of the book, I hoped to someday see Taliesin, which in Welsh means “shining brow.” Someday came this summer.

Located on 600 acres in the still-wide-open spaces of Spring Green, Wis., Taliesin is a remarkable series of buildings, known for their forward-thinking design, sweeping vistas and tumultuous history. The World Monuments Fund describes Taliesin “as an autobiography, experimental sketchbook, and manifesto in one. It is regarded as one of Wright’s most significant and personally meaningful expressions of organic architecture evolving from the Prairie style.”

Wright began building Taliesin in 1911 for his companion, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, with whom he formed a union considered especially scandalous at the turn of the 20th century. Wright left his wife, Kitty, and six children for Cheney, who was married to one of his clients and had two children of her own. However, their time together at Taliesin proved short-lived.

Three years after its construction, Taliesin became the site of Wisconsin’s worst mass murder. In August, 1914, a crazed servant –– for reasons still shrouded in mystery –– bolted shut the doors, doused the floors with gasoline and set Taliesin on fire. A few Wright workmen managed to escape, but most of its occupants were murdered with an axe as they attempted to flee the flames. Cheney, her two young children, who were visiting for the summer, and four others died in the melee.

Wright, who was away on business, vowed to rebuild the structure, and did so, using some pieces of the original home in the 1914 version. Wright continued to revamp Taliesin’s interior and exterior spaces until he died in 1959.

Today, Taliesin visitors can choose from an array of tours, ranging from a two-hour “Highlights,” which includes both private and public spaces, to an even more comprehensive four-hour “Estate” experience. There’s even a “Loving Frank” tour, based on the novel, that runs one Friday a month from May to October.

Taliesin is one of 10 major Frank Lloyd Wright sites in his home state of Wisconsin, with several others located near Madison. I also visited his Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center. Wright signed off on the building’s final plans only seven weeks before his death, but his “dream civic center” didn’t get built until 1997. Music fans will want to check out the center’s roof plaza, where a plaque honors soul singer Otis Redding, who died in a 1967 plane crash on Lake Monona, where the building now stands.

The Unitarian Meeting House –– Wright’s own church –– is another of his Wisconsin-based National Historic Landmarks and one of his few “red tile” projects, meaning he designed both the interior and exterior.

But for me the highlight of my personal Wright tour was Taliesin, still a thing of beauty, despite the tragedy that unfolded there.

In the weeks leading up to a recent Nashville music pilgrimage, I would excitedly announce to anyone within earshot that I would have the chance to visit the new Johnny Cash Museum. To which I invariably would receive the bewildered response: “There wasn’t a Johnny Cash museum before?”

The city had its longtime landmark Country Music Hall of Fame (established in 1961) and iconic venues, such as Ryman Auditorium, with a rich dose of history courtesy of the Man in Black, but the long-awaited Cash museum didn’t open until last spring.

The new facility, situated in the heart of Nashville in a compact storefront, offers a beautiful tribute to the legend, his life, his love for his wife, June Carter, and of course his music.

I spent a good 90 minutes exploring the exhibits, first reacquainting myself with Cash’s music via a series of decade-specific iPad stations. Whether it’s a little “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line” or “Rusty Cage,” a few minutes spent here will ensure good head space for what’s to come.

The exhibits themselves offer a trove of photos, personal letters, striking outfits (there really is something to be said for seeing those size 13 boots up close and personal) and items belonging to his band mates, including guitarist Luther Perkins’ amp, which was used to record “Hey Porter,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and other signature hits.

There’s even the dress that former First Lady Pat Nixon wore when Cash performed at the White House in 1971.

The museum commemorates their home with a wall excavated from the ruins and reconstructed stone by stone. In front of the wall are the Cashes’ antique sideboard and a dining room chair, with a heart shaped box Johnny gave to June one Valentine’s Day and a handwritten message conveying his love. If that weren’t enough to inspire a Johnny Cash song, there’s another tidbit of information that gives the exhibit an added emotional punch: The excavated stones are from the room where the music video for his latter day classic, “Hurt,” was filmed. However, the emotional highlight for me was a section dedicated to Johnny and June’s lake house, where they spent several decades together until their passing in 2003. Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees purchased the property in Hendersonville, Tenn., several years later, and began remodeling it. But tragically, the house caught fire amid the construction and burned down in 2007.

One of the world’s few remaining examples of a wooden Victorian beach resort, the beachfront property in San Diego, Calif., has become a major tourist destination, while still operating as an upscale hotel. The latter consists of 757 rooms and 142 suites, with dozens of beachfront villas and cottages, some with private swimming pools.

During a recent trip to San Diego, a friend and I hopped on the Old Town Trolley, which took us across the sweeping bridge linking the mainland with Coronado Island to the hotel.

We spent part of the day exploring the National and State Historic Landmark, a Grande dame that reminded me of The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, another historic hotel that’s a magnet for visitors to that region. A 90-minute tour of The Del is offered by the Coronado Visitors Center four days a week, but we preferred to explore on our own.

While The Del still wows with its period charm –– including its meticulously restored lobby –– it’s worth remembering that at its 1888 opening, the public marveled at modern conveniences like electric lights in the guest rooms and elevators. The Del features five restaurants, including the stately Crown Room, which is known for its sumptuous Sunday brunch, along with a half-dozen casual eateries; nearly 20 boutiques and gift shops; and a spa with 21 treatment rooms and an infinity-edge pool. The hotel also spans an expansive public beach that’s been rated one of the best in the country.

A beautifully designed coffee-table book that’s sold in several shops on the property commemorates the resort’s beginnings. In 1880, Midwestern speculators Elisha Babcock Jr. and Hampton Story forked over the-then huge sum of $110,000 to purchase the entire Coronado peninsula.

By 1887, the men had raised $1 million by selling off land parcels, and used the funds to build the resort, which opened in February of the next year.

Since then, The Del has enjoyed a mostly fabled history, hosting royalty, U.S. presidents, movie stars, and –– legend has it –– even a ghost or two. Movie buffs will recall its starring role in Billy Wilder’s classic 1959 comedy, Some Like It Hot, for which in stood in as the fictitious “Seminole Ritz” in Florida.

For us, the highlights of our visit proved a chance to get up close with The Del’s trained hawks, which are used to keep seagulls from bothering beach-goers, and a special anniversary exhibition. The latter display –– with images of Some Like It Hot co-star Marilyn Monroe frolicking on The Del’s lawn and original turn-of-the-century room keys and room service menus –– made me want to step back in time and experience the hotel during its first heyday.