Last week Steve, Blake, and I toured Taliesen West, which is the compound that Frank Lloyd Wright built about 20 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix.  Or as our tour guide said, Frank Lloyd Wright and his students built.  Taliesen East is located in Wisconsin.  FLW went to the Phoenix area to contribute some design work when the Arizona Biltmore was built.  He decided to build a commune of sorts, where he trained students to become architects in organic architecture.  When he chose this site, there was nothing but desert to be seen for miles around.  Now the suburban sprawl has caught up to his development.  FLW, his wife, and students spent 6 months in each location.  The school is still in operation.  The students become part of a community that includes assignments of cooking for the entire enclave, and participating in social events on a weekly basis.
 

 Cody wanted to share pictures of the other path he likes to walk.  These are taken on the walking paths in the city of Plymouth.  Here is Cody getting ready for his walk. 

Here are some pictures taken on the path

Believe it or not - here is a picture of Cody's favorite animal - a squirrel.  You may think that it would be easy to take a picture of a mere squirrel - there are after all many living in the trees.  The trick, however, is to be able to hold on to a Sheltie, hoping that Sheltie does not see the squirrel that you want to take the picture of and to make sure the squirrel does not run from the Sheltie.  This is no easy task, thus the not very good picture of a squirrel.  He is there - take my word for it.

Last Sunday Steve and I went to the Vikings' home opener against the San Francisco Giants.  Now as many of you probably know, Brett Favre signed with the Vikings this fall.  When he was a Packer he was singularly the arch enemy of the Vikings.  Since signing with the Vikings the tables have turned.  The Vikings fans have accepted him as one of their own.  We saw lots of fans wearing the purple and white Vikings jerseys with number 4 on the back.

Okay, I have to say it.  St Peter's Bascilica is way cool.  The square in front of the basilica is huge.  I can't imagine what it would be like when it's full of people.  Well, actually I can and I wouldn't want to be there.  Since the recurrent theme of this trip has been climbing stairs to the tops of buildings we decided to climb some 500 steps to the top of the dome.  We could have paid more money for our tickets and taken the elevator, but what fun would that have been? But wait, it gets better.  Once we got to the dome and viewed the city, we discovered even more stairs that took us to the cupola.  These stairs were narrow, kind of dark, and as we got closer to the top where the dome was curving inward, so did the stairwell.  The final flight was a narrow spiral staircase with a rope to hold on to for support. But the effort was worth it.  I'm sure Kaitlyn will post some pictures to prove it.  There was an older priest huffing and puffing up the stairs, and for a minute I contemplated what it would mean if I had to do CPR on a priest and it was unsuccessful.

Well.  After jumping out of bed to get breakfast before service stopped at 10:00, we set out for a venue I did not anticipate seeing while in Roma; a swimming pool.  Yes, that's right, the World Swim Championships are in Roma, and we bought tickets for tomorrow morning's session.  Katie's friend Amanda gets in at the airport around 7:45, so it will be a rush to get there but hopefully we will see some of the session.