It had been years since I last visited Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History–decades actually. It was long before Sue came to Chicago. As a child, I went to the museum every couple of years. I remembered a hall full of dinosaur skeletons, a roomful of mummies and sore feet. Oh, and the huge building. My siblings and I used to wish we lived in that building, with its vast rooms, marble floors and sweeping staircases. Read more
A ring of horses colorfully trimmed and bejeweled, chase a flamingo, giraffe, tiger cub and a menagerie of other animals round and round but never catching them. On the backs of the animals kids and kids-at-heart wear looks of delight as they whir to the tune of bellowing calliope music. This is the Silver Beach Carousel in St. Joseph, Michigan. Read more
Every time I eat at Missouri Hick Bar B Que I have to do a taste test of all six sauces. The winner is always Sweet n Smoky, but I still have to try Original, Honey, Spicy Sweet, Spicy and Smoky anyway. Not too much sauce, though. I don’t want to drown out the wild cherry smoked flavor of the meats. Read more
We normally associate forest preserves with nature, hiking and maybe fishing. The Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva, Illinois, along the Fox River, has all of that. But it is also home to a Frank Lloyd Wright renovated villa, a Japanese garden and an 1800s windmill. The Fabyan estate, Riverbank, was once home to Colonel George Fabyan, a textiles heir, and his wife Nelle. The estate was sold to the Forest Preserve District of Kane County in 1937, after the couple passed on. Today you can tour the home, garden and windmill, which have all been restored to their original condition. Read more
