What we did this weekend-Biosphere2 and Taliesin West!
Lee has always wanted to go see Biosphere2 ever since he was a kid. Why he waited until the last moment I don't know. But it was very amazing. The whole scope of the project was fascinating. Unfortunately our tour guide didn't do a very good job and only gave the bare basics. When we got home we started looking stuff up on the web and learned much more. Talk about an "INTERESTING" story. I didn't realize there was so much drama that went on in its beginning. Being the ornery person that I am, I would have loved to asked him lots of uncomfortable questions about the early shenanigans that happened. Walking up to the Biosphere2. 
The desert part. 
The ocean part. 
This last picture is where they used to grow their food in the early experiments. Right now they are preparing it for another experiment. 
On Sunday we drove to Taliesin West. For those of you who don't know what that is, it was Frank Lloyd Wrights winter home. The tour there was awesome as the guide made it very detailed with interesting facts. I will have to say that it gave me a new appreciation for his architecture (as I don't always like all of it). The tour was quite expensive but I left feeling pretty happy with the experience and wanting to tour another of his places. The pool was built close to the house so if a fire started in the kitchen they would have plenty of water to put it out. 
All through out the building you see recurring shapes. 
Must have been nice to have all that slave labor (eager college students) to lug those rocks around and build your house for you. 
One neat thing about the place was you could sit in all the old furniture. Those chairs are called wing chairs which are made out of one sheet of plywood. Not my favorite but oh well. A funny thing about the house was almost every room had a big fireplace in it since they only came for the winters. 
So thats what we did this weekend. What did you do on your weekend? |
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| WOW... love the pictures. Sounds like you guys had fun. My weekend wasn't nearly that interesting.
I did laundry most of the day on Saturday, then Saturday night hubby & I went to Wise Guys Comedy club in Syracuse and stayed out till 3 am. Sunday... we slept in.   |
| That is awesome! |
Cool! I've done the tour at Taliesen West and I really liked it too. I've never been to the Biosphere. We went up to Flagstaff this weekend to hit the Celtic Festival and get out of the heat. The weather was great. But, since you're moving soon I guess you don't have to worry about the heat for much longer  |
his_armywife wrote: WOW... love the pictures. Sounds like you guys had fun. My weekend wasn't nearly that interesting. I did laundry most of the day on Saturday, then Saturday night hubby & I went to Wise Guys Comedy club in Syracuse and stayed out till 3 am. Sunday... we slept in. YUCK! I am now paying penance and doing laundry and other assorted house cleaning that I should have been doing this weekend. The comedy club sounds like great fun. I have only been to one comedy club and it was here in Arizona. They did only improv and it was great. Bailey's Mom wrote: Cool! I've done the tour at Taliesen West and I really liked it too. I've never been to the Biosphere. We went up to Flagstaff this weekend to hit the Celtic Festival and get out of the heat. The weather was great. But, since you're moving soon I guess you don't have to worry about the heat for much longer Cool
That sounds neat! I hadn't heard of the Celtic Festival before. Is it anything like the Renaissance Festival they have here? |
| I have only seen TV specials on both places. I enjoyed the shows. What a diverse couple tours that was!
I picked up 2 shifts Friday and Saturday evening at the hospital to maintain my oncall status. (I switched to working FT with my peds homecare client about 3 weeks ago!) So I am now on my 8th straight day of work. Luckily only 2 more, then off to Waukesha for a 3 day show!!! Gotta love priorities!  |
| All those pictures are great. I'd love to do the home tour. For some reason, I found it amusing that he was planning for a possible fire in the kitchen by putting pool nearby. I guess it would be the most obvious place for a fire to occur but it made me think maybe he was a bad cook and he knew it. |
sounds like you had a great weekend, I went house shopping  not to sure if we will move but had a good time anyway |
ButtersStotch wrote: All those pictures are great. I'd love to do the home tour. For some reason, I found it amusing that he was planning for a possible fire in the kitchen by putting pool nearby. I guess it would be the most obvious place for a fire to occur but it made me think maybe he was a bad cook and he knew it.
That's a funny thought -- building a pool specifically to extinguish fires from failed cooking projects. However, in Wright's case I would suspect that the design detail stemmed from the two previous house fires he had experienced. The first one was set by a cook (continuing with the kitchen theme) who subsequently murdered seven people at the house with an axe. We didn't see any axes at this house.  |
| By any chance did the murdered people or the cook ever live in Darcy's house???? |
Wyn wrote: By any chance did the murdered people or the cook ever live in Darcy's house????
LOL - good one. And they are in the right neighborhood too!!! |
Wow that Biosphere is amazing, I'm with you I would like all the nitty gritty and drama details that went on when the whole experiment took place  |
| Is that first place where some scientists tried to live inside, but the place got taken over by fungal growths and ants? |
| I think they had to occasionally pump in some oxygen (or pump out some carbon dioxide) and they couldn't tell at the time why.
It was a very valuable lesson in understanding the complexity of setting up an artificial biosphere, contrary to what people were saying would be an "easy" thing to do on another planet or the moon. I seem to recall some psychological issues related to the long confinement too, but I can't pull that memory up. I don't know about the fungus and the ants though. |
| Taliesen West as indeed built by slave labor, I knew a guy who interrned there, talk about brain washing. Anyway, the home is still spectacular but FL Wright built crappy homes, they leak like sieves. Roofs, window, door are poorly designed.....yes visually innovative, but don't every buy one!!! They sure wouldn't pass the Energy Star ratings today |
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