The trip to Ensenada was very interesting. We drove through Tijuana which has transformed in the thirty and more years since my last visit. I recall children trying to sell gum and cardboard shacks in the river basin and on the hillsides. Perhaps they exist, but not on the usual tourist routes. Tijuana is definitely a NAFTA winner. Then we followed the coast down to Ensenada, which as our driver said was a more “typical” Mexican city. It is a lovely small city whose economy remains dependent upon the sea. The ride up and down the coast revealed a bustling economy with construction going up everywhere. It also revealed some of the problems in maintaining minimal zoning codes.
The next day I flew back to Chicago (talk about weather whiplash!) & that evening picked Jan up for a long weekend visit.
We did two tours sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The first on Friday was a river tour which was a delight, although I froze right through to the bone. The second on Saturday was a three hour bus ride exploring much of the architecture of the city that invented the “skyscraper.” Thanks to having just read the Devil in the White City, I actually knew the names of many of the people involved.
We attended Sunday worship services at Unity Temple in Oak Park, the Frank Lloyd Wright building some credit as the “first” modern public building. It was interesting to see how a contemporary UU congregation made use of what Wright called his “little jewel box.”
Jan has returned to Boston and I’ve returned to the rhythms of a minister-in-residence and “professor” of religion at a Unitarian Universalist seminary.
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