To Chicago by Train!!

This is the first leg of our journey by train. We started our 30 day U.S. rail pass at Springfield, Mass. and overnighted to Chicago.

We wanted to take this Northern route to be able to see states which we had not seen before, plus to enjoy the anticipated woodsy scenery and such. However, the woods were pretty barren this time of year with the leaves trying to make a return for early Spring but not yet flowering.

We were prepared, with cozy down blankets, loaned to us by Britt, and fat travel pillows to sleep in our seats on the train. However, that turned out to be a disaster (and would have been worse without the blankets--thanks Britt!). There was plenty of legroom but no comfortable position to be found for sleeping. (I ended up sleeping on the floor where there was an open space used for storing the metal stairs they use to climb onto the train, but you might imagine a very hard floor rocking back and forth with the clickety-clack of the rails below, plus the overhead lights blasting right in my eyes. It was sheer torture most of the night.)
Here's Julie finding our place on that first train.
But all was well the next day when Faranak and Sofia met us at the Chicago train station. Sofia, whom we had only known from "her" blog, had just awakened from a good nap in the car and was a little shy with us at first. She became the center of attention from then on. What a sweetie she is, and so independent! Here she is keeping her daddy, Gilberto, in tow... (Daddy Gilberto. That's a real jump for our imagination! But it's for real, folks.)
Sofia was showing off her "potty-trained" doll.
And her Tiara. Sometimes she likes to wear it upside down. She flipped it over after Julie placed it in her hair.
To our delight Lua Del Campo was visiting from college in LA to attend the youth portion of the National Baha'i Convention, and she stayed with the Medranos for the first night we were there.
The morning after our arrival we went over to the Baha'i House of Worship which is very close to the Medrano's house, but it turned out that the National Convention activities made the whole downstairs portion of the Temple inaccessible to us, which meant that we were unable to buy any Baha'i books from the bookstore as we had planned. However, we did enjoy a quiet and lovely period under this glorious dome to have prayers and reflexions.
The Temple was enshrouded in fog, as seen below. We enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the area and ended up walking all the way back to the Medrano's place, just for the fun & exercise.Later we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and the next day left for Milwaukee and on to visit the Hill family in Madison. Below are photos of a stop at Starbucks and dinner at the Cheesecake factory. Here's a shot of the ladies on the way.
(Note, Ali, I am using your famous camera tripod-cito to catch us all without the need to have someone holding the camera.)On the way to the Hill's place in Madison we stopped at the amazing museum in Milwaukee which was designed by the famous Architect/Engineer, Santiago Calatrava. Those "wings" actually fold down at a designated hour to cover over the glass panes. The steel cables which support the pedestrian bridge from a nearby building and higher street make very interesting patterns where they attach and fan out. Great and unusual design.
This colored blown-glass sculpture was on display in the reception area.Here's a closeup of the intricacy of the shapes.