ArcaMax

“Illumination”

This was no normal light show.

Located on the grounds of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, we took the 20-minute drive out of the city to see an amazing evening light experience.

I say “light experience” because this is not your normal twinkle light display. Don’t get me wrong. I love the twinkle light displays people set up in their yards, businesses put on their roofs and even the Lincoln Park Zoo does each year with more than two million lights. There is a difference here though.

Most of the community lighting displays are images made out of light strings. Animals, Christmas images and the like. This was more like night scaping you might find in a yard, a park or in front of a business; only on steroids. No crafted images of dancing bears or Santa on his sleigh. Nothing like that.

This was a new approach. More like tree and lighting theatre set in an amazing back drop. Morton Arboretum sits on 1,700 acres of mature trees. The land was originally part of the Morton family estate. (The Morton Salt family).

The lighting architects took a one mile long path and lit up the surroundings in a myriad of ways. Most of the displays were lighting choreography. The light colors would change. Or they’d vary what trees were lit and when. The colors were all modern; some colors projected on trees that I had never seen before.

They use all LED theatre lights that use 50 percent of the energy of the traditional lights. That said, I could hear a massive generator humming in the distant dark to power the whole operation.

There were plenty of interactive displays. They had trees that you could hug and the tree would go from dark to glowing. It responded to your touch.

They had trees you could sing to and the trees would respond by keeping the beat of your song. Lights pulsing as you sang.

Another display allowed you to stand in front of a camera and it would project a picture of your body across a stand of trees that were several stories high.

They even had a big touch panel that you could manipulate your hand across, and it would change the pattern of the lighting on the landscape.

There were several stations where you could gather around a campfire. At some you could roast marshmallows and of course, you could buy hot cocoa. This was perfect for kids and adults alike.

Click here if you want to see a photo album. Our friend Jeff brought his fancy camera and took plenty of pictures. Keep in mind that in many cases the lights are moving as he’s trying to take pictures in pitch dark, so some are a bit blurry as a result. There is no way to capture the ethereal beauty of the display, but we tried.

As we head into the New Year, I thought it might be nice to use light as our inspiration. Rather than make another New Year’s resolution, how about we all think about how we can bring light into someone’s life. A little sparkle. A little happiness. If we all did that, 2014 would definitely turn out to be our best year ever.

Raspberry Yogurt Smoothie

Serves 1. Can be doubled in a full-sized blender

As we endeavor to eat healthy but we are still on the run, I thought this quick and tasty smoothie might hit the spot . I often drink one of these at my desk at work.

½ cup of frozen raspberries (you can do these with just about any frozen berry or frozen fruit chunks)
½ cup of full fat yogurt (unsweetened)
1 cup of coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of Truvia
Put all of this in your blender and whiz it. You can adjust the amount of liquid to make it whatever consistency you like. YUM.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola