While Shelly checked out the retail delights of Asheville, Jon and I decided to go for a walk in the Great Smokey Mountains, which straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina border and is at the southern part of the Appalachians. After reading about the high diversity of salamanders in the park and having never seen one before, I was determined to find one.












Not only were we successful in finding several different species of salamander, we also found some beautiful snakes, heaps of southern leopard frogs by the river, and lots of butterflies! I was very excited to find orchids too - with much larger flowers than I was expecting. We also found the trees at the top of the ridgeline did not yet have their spring leaves, while the trees in the river valleys were in full leaf.




After the Carolinas we went to Chicago for a two-day intensive and highly enjoyable architecture course, with the tours run by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. First up we checked out the rise of the skyscraper, where we saw buildings from the 1880s through to the 1930s, and learnt about the structural differences which allowed skyscrapers to exist. Once we had the architect-guided tour of downtown Chicago, our next tour indulged in the outstanding art deco buildings. I would highly recommend this walking tour. We got to see some interiors the public was otherwise unable to view, and stared at several fascinating elevators with wonderful golden detail. Unfortunately one of my favourite buildings on the tour (lovely intricate bird carvings on the facade) was one of several buildings at risk of demolition. Our last tour was a boat ride along the river, which while interesting, had too many Modernist buildings for my taste, and the biting cold wind and rain which wasn't too noticeable while maintaining a brisk pace walking downtown became miserable sitting on a boat. For a Canberran, it was thrilling to be in the city where Walter Burley and Marion Mahoney Griffin came from and to see the same buildings they saw before coming to Australia, and it was also interesting to see the city that attracted Miles Franklin in the Edwardian era. I have to say though that this was not my favourite city despite the incredible architecture - it was the first place on our travels which wasn't terribly friendly, negotiating the traffic as a pedestrian was interesting, and even the local accent seemed harsher. Then again, perhaps the continual rain, cold and wind affected my impressions of the city.

Boston on the other hand was immediately friendly, engaging, and even had warmer weather. But more on that in the next post.