We promised our granddaughter, Carmela, we’d take her on a short trip as a birthday gift. Right away she said, “I want to go to Casey.” Casey, Illinois, is home to the world’s largest—well, a dozen different things.
Change the color of a tree when you hug it…or sing to it…or press a button near it. These are some of the fun interactive features of Illumination: Tree Lights at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Other lights dance to music, and trees light up in a rotating array of colors.
Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville, Indiana, pays tribute to the Howard family and their steamboat building company. The tour combines a history of the ornate Edmonds and Laura Howard mansion and the shipyard located across the street, which the Howard family owned from 1834 until 1941.
Watch as Connie walks through the Mississippi River. She and Skip are at the Mississippi River headwaters in Itasca State Park, near Bemidji, Minnesota. The 2,552 mile Mississippi River begins here as a small stream flowing from Lake Itasca.
Aviator Charles Lindbergh gained his fame as the first person to successfully complete a solo transatlantic flight. The Charles Lindbergh Museum in Little Falls, Minnesota, chronicles his life and career with exhibits and films. On a tour of the adjacent Charles Lindbergh House, however, visitors are treated to stories of his childhood and many of his boyhood antics.
I grew up in Illinois just over the border from Northwest Indiana. Although I no longer live in that immediate area, I have lots of friends and family who do. Over the years I’ve heard talk about Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana. I assumed it was just a small-town festival, no big deal—until I finally went to Pierogi Fest. What a hoot!
