Shiojiri Niwa, the Japanese garden in Mishawaka, Indiana, covers only one and a third acres of land, but the symbolism is much larger than that. The serene strolling garden is a symbol of a special bond between sister cities Mishawaka and Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan that began with a chance meeting in Indonesia in 1937. Read more
If you’re thinking I’m talking about Lombard Street in San Francisco, you’re wrong. The crookedest street in the world is Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa. Read more
The bronze sculpture of a woman standing in the rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol welcomed us with open arms. She stands directly beneath a beautiful stained-glass dome that tops the building where Illinois law is proposed, debated and put to legislative vote. Taking a look around the Italian Renaissance Revival building, statues, paintings and ornate walls and ceilings surrounded us. To learn more about the art, architecture and what goes on in the capitol, we took the free half-hour tour. Read more
Driving through Colon, Michigan, you would never think this tiny town of 1200 people is the Magic Capital of the World; that Bob Hope, Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin all got their starts here; that Edgar Bergen visited Colon regularly; or that the town cemetery is filled with deceased magicians. Read more
Not having been to a baseball game this season, I was looking forward to seeing the Minor League Burlington Bees, a Class A Los Angeles Angels Affiliate, take on the West Michigan Whitecaps. As a baseball fan, I enjoy visiting baseball fields as I travel. More often than not, they are minor league fields, which are far more plentiful and much more economical than attending a major league game.
Baseball has been in Burlington since 1889, and Community Field, where the Burlington Bees play, has been around since 1947. Though the park has gone through several renovations, it has retained much of its old-time ballpark atmosphere. There’s no Jumbotron here, just a regular digital scoreboard, and except for the first four rows, the seats are general admission metal bleachers, which allow fans to move about the park as they wish.
Our tickets were for assigned seats, some of the best in the ballpark (even the best seats are only $8), and one member of our travel group was to throw out the first pitch. But on the evening we went to the game, instead of evening sun, the sky was full of clouds—and rain. Read more
Whenever we stumble across a lighthouse, I have to take a photo. There’s something romantic about lighthouses, perhaps the beacon of light welcoming sailors into a harbor or warning them of hazards. Maybe it’s the romanticizing of the keeper’s job, as backbreaking as it was. Or maybe it’s just that the splash of color—often red—against the blue of the sky and water makes a great scenic photo. Having taken the photo of the beacon that stands at the end of a pier in Michigan City, Indiana, we were surprised to find the light keeper’s house, the original Michigan City lighthouse. Refurbished, it’s now a museum run by the Michigan City Historical Society. We visited the museum earlier this year and came away with several fascinating facts about the lighthouse and the city during our self-guided tour. Here are 13 of them: Read more
