Revisiting Old Friends

I've taken you there before, but with my new camera I decided to take another shot at the interior of the Loyalty Building. The first through third floors contain some colorful terra cotta tile floors.

But it's the main stairway that always grabs my attention. Iron balusters and bronze newels topped by inverted copper cones.  Say that three times fast.  The survival of the copper newels from being scrapped during the second world war is due to the owner painting them black.  They were rediscovered under the paint in the 1960's.

You may also remember what is probably my two favorite buildings in Milwaukee, the Mackie and the Mitchell.  They are chummy neighbors both commissioned by banker Alexander Mitchell.

The Mitchell

The Mackie

The Mackie

Lesser known than the other 3 buildings in this post on the same block is the Grand Avenue Club.  Like the Mitchell and the Mackie it is in a state of lovely decay. It used to be the Bank of Milwaukee and was built in 1856.

Three kings on guard

Tomorrow morning my mother and I leave for our first stop on our way to Gatlinburg.  I hope to post some spring photos from Cumberland Falls State Park on Sunday!

Milwaukee Color on a Gray Day

 Coaxing a little color out of some architecture shots on a gray foggy day in Milwaukee is no easy feat. The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, the seat of Milwaukee's Catholic Archdiocese, had some colorful  tiles.  The Cathedral is designed in an austere German style known as Zopfstil and built of Milwaukee brick. Since the laying of the cornerstone December 5, 1847, the exterior appearance has changed very little except for the present tower, which was constructed in 1893, and the expansion of the east end of the building, which was added during the rebuilding of the Cathedral after the fire that partially destroyed the church on January 29, 1935.

The Hotel Metro also offered a bright spot of color with its turquoise art deco doors. Not so much art deco on the inside though.

Most of the color that caught my eye was in the signs, of course.

Uncovering the color in my photos required the help of Windows 8 Photo editing program.  It gives you an option of different exposures/tints, including black and white.  It saved my whole set of Milwaukee photos, more to come another day.

Want something else colorful to look at?  My daughter sent me this link to Kevin Bacon dancing to "Footloose" on The Tonight Show.  How is it that except for a few wrinkles he looks exactly the same as he did 30 years ago?  Thirty years! He also danced to "Footloose" on an episode in season 5 of "Will and Grace".  My favorite Kevin Bacon performance though is in the movie "The Woodsman".  Disturbing movie, but so well done.

Beaux Arts Beauty

While in Milwaukee on Sunday I wanted to park where I could easily find my car again.  It was easy to spot my car at the Northwestern National Insurance Building thanks to those planters full of daffodils.

If that jaunty sign of spring wasn't enough to lift my spirits there was also a nifty clock.

The building was erected in 1906 of Bedford limestone in the Beaux Arts style.  The Ionic columns were lovely, but so was the ironwork.

It was a great building to shoot first before I walked around for an hour on a foggy morning. 

Pfistster Cherubs

I know my last post promised more trail scenes, but yesterday I got caught up in a day out and about, mostly in Milwaukee.  It was foggy and then rainy all day, but I brought the camera along anyway and took some more architecture shots to work with my new camera some more.

In the lobby of the Pfister Hotel the ceiling is decorated with a beautiful mural.  Think it's always been there?  It was added as part of the Pfister's centennial celebration in 1983.

From the Conrad Schmitt Studios' website:
In 1893, the original lobby ceiling was an open skylight until architects added a roof enclosure in the late 1930s. The once lively vaulted skylight was over-painted with layers of non-historic solid-tones and surrounded by white ceiling panels. This lackluster decorative approach greatly diminished the lobby's inherent sense of welcoming. Guido Pfister intended the hotel to be a place of splendor and comfort. The impressive columns, figured hardwoods, ornamental plaster highlighted with gold leafing, etched glass, lavishly patterned carpet, oil paintings and treasured artworks create an atmosphere of Victorian luxury for everyone to experience. What the CSS team found in the Pfister Hotel lobby was dirty, tired, and in need of rebirth. 
Within the lobby, the ceiling was thoroughly cleaned and primed, while sketches and stencils were created and approved. CSS muralists painted directly onto the vaulted ceiling, highlighting with hand-painted gold leaf. The soft, sky-blue scene of ethnically diverse cherubs alighting through subtle clouds framed with 26 warm, red shields, recalls the lobby's original skylight. Central to the overall presentation of the ornate main lobby, the mural creates a sense of breathing room. 

The Pfister has an extensive Victorian art collection which can be viewed online here.  Linking up to Monday Mural.  

It rained most of Saturday and all of Sunday here which finally brought green to our corner of the world!  Snow in the forecast today, just to even things out.  Trail scenes tomorrow!

Chilly Morning With the Turkeys

I made it through the night, but it was a cold one!  The tent has 3 large windows that zip on 2 sides, closed on the bottom and the top is only held closed with a toggle.  The tent billowed all night even though the wind was only 5-10 mph.  I was curled up like a snail in my Smartwool layers inside my sleeping bag and with my hood on my jacket pulled up.  As usual, my feet just didn't get warm all night so every time I woke up I had a little trouble falling back asleep because of them.

I forgot my light for my Kindle (thought I left it with my camping stuff..where is it then?) so I was done for the night by 9pm.  When I told my mother I was going to Kettle Moraine to try out my new tent she expressed her worry about me going and my smart reply was "afraid the turkeys are going to get me?"  I giggled when I was settling down for the night and suddenly heard gobbling nearby.  I also heard geese and cranes, and about 4am I awoke to more gobbling and even an owl.  I had tent campers on either side of me so if I had been in danger of stampeding turkeys I'm sure I could have gone to them for aid.

photo courtesy of nature.org

This morning I'm enjoying some decaf chai tea at Starbuck's while listening to Bob Dylan singing "Tangled up in Blue".  Not too shabby.  The wifi keeps kicking me out though.  Before I climbed into my tent to read last night I took a quick walk at Scuppernong Springs across from the Ottawa Lake campground.  The light was nice and it's the only open spot around here in the state forest.  Here's a few straight-out-of-the-camera shots of my walk.

I know, spring in southeastern Wisconsin looks a lot like early winter, doesn't it?  At least it was warm.  It's cloudy here now but warming up fast into the 50's.  A storm is forecasted for around noon so I'm heading out of here to hit the trail again and take the long route today.  Pictures from the trail for you tomorrow!

Tent Season Has Finally Begun

Since April began the temps have been steadily climbing above freezing, and today was so beautiful that I packed up the car with my camping gear to do a run-through with my new tent at Kettle Moraine.

The Ottawa Lake campground is open but not staffed.  I self-registered and headed to my favorite site, close to the showers but secluded on the outer edge with lots of trees.  When I stopped at the shower house I found out the ranger's office wasn't the only thing closed!  Good thing I'm staying only one night.

I go the tent up with little trouble but then realized I couldn't reach to get the rain fly attached!  Luckily there was a handy stump I could climb up on and make a toss from there.  The darn thing ended up being inside out, but I wasn't attempting it again so finished attaching it as it was.  No rain in the forecast, I just wanted to trap some heat.

Site 333 is actually a little on the small side for a Wisconsin State Park.  Camping is good in our state, but if you're from out of state be prepared for the sticker you'll have to buy.  Stay more than a few days and make those dollars work for you!

As soon as I was set up I zipped across the road to Scuppernong Trails.  A few cars were in the lot, but it was pretty quiet.  When I stopped here a few weeks ago on a warm and sunny day the trail was covered in thick ice still, but today all is melted and the sandy trail was nice to walk on.

I bought some gel sesamoid pads from Amazon and they work so well that I've ditched the boot.  The boot was throwing everything else out of alignment, causing the bottom of my right foot to be sore from added weight and pressure, not to mention making my left hip feel strained.  The pad works so well that I went for a 2 mile run outside on gravel yesterday.  Still wanting to ease back into things I chose the 2.3 mile loop today.  The pad takes the pressure off the sesamoid but adds a little extra pressure on the metatarsals which gets uncomfortable after awhile.

The pad is sticky all by itself, and you just wash it and let it air dry at the end of use.  It has the added benefit of filling in some of that high arch gap that I have on the left foot.  I didn't know it came in two different thicknesses and the one I purchased happens to be the thicker one.  I'm going to see if I can find the other one for when the inflammation is under control.

I started trying to write this post at the Oconomowoc Public Library but their wifi was so slow I couldn't load a picture at all.  While I was waiting for it to respond I felt something crawling on my wrist and flicked a tick off.  Yuck!  That little bugger must have been crawling around my shirt for more than an hour before he found the skin highway.  I headed over to Bruegger's Bagel Bakery but their wifi is slow as well, it took 6 minutes per picture to load!  So, that's all the photos for today, the rest will just have to wait until I get home tomorrow.  The bagels?  Not that great.

It might be beautiful this afternoon, but tonight's low is forecasted for 41F.  Brrr!  I brought lots to bundle up in, hopefully I'll make it through.  I wanted to bring my cozy tent cot to trap my body heat better, but I needed to walk through this tent set-up to see if I wanted to take this along on our trip to Kentucky and Tennessee next week.  It was a little awkward to set up alone so I might just bring my smaller tent from Walmart which has the added benefit of taking up next to no room in the car and weighing next to nothing.  So many choices now!  We leave in a week and I can't wait to see the country turn green and burst into bloom as me and my mom make our way south!

The Mighty Book-Reading Dragons

Been wondering where I've been?  No place exciting, that's for sure.  The weather has finally come out of hibernation here and I went for my first outdoor walk yesterday that  I didn't have to bundle up for.  It was only down to the lake and back but it's a start.  I went to the Ortho last week due to some recurring pain I've been having on the ball of my foot.  With my upcoming trip to Gatlinburg only 2 weeks away I had to make sure I didn't have something serious brewing.  The pain recently started happening almost every day instead of just occasionally and yes, it most likely is a fracture.  The tibial sesamoid of my left foot is either fractured or I am part of the 10% of the population who has sesamoid biparitae, which is where it formed two separate smaller sesamoid bones.  It's difficult to tell on the xrays, but the doc seems to think the fracture is a possibility because the crack looks "cloudy" which would indicate it's trying to heal and fill in. 

Either way, treatment is the same and due to my high arch on that foot I'm a prime candidate for recurring sesamoiditis so I ordered some dancer's pads and babying the ball of my foot while trying to support my arches is part of my new injury-prevention program.  Does it never end? For now I'm stuck in a boot, which I removed yesterday for my walk and just didn't "roll" forward onto the ball of my foot.  No running for awhile, which I am okay with.  Maybe I'll even look for a new sport instead, who knows?  I've only been running 2 miles at a time 2 or 3 times a week anyway, but it is a good way to keep fit in the gym over the winter.

While driving around Reno we saw these two enchanting murals at Hunter Lake School.  

I thought the dragon was a good fit for Monday Mural today due to the season 4 premiere of "Game of Thrones" last night.  Great scene at the top of the episode of Dany with her dragons.  Maybe the dragon in the mural should check out the "Game of Thrones" series of books to read.



I also watched the season finale of "Shameless".  I've been predicting Ian's situation all season.  Kind of recognized the signs considering what we have going on here at home.  Great episode, especially that surprise at the end, right?