I love to travel, and I love to write about my travels.
We decided to head up to Boston for the long Thanksgiving weekend, perhaps following in our American History tradition (last year it was Philadelphia). We started out early Thanksgiving morning, made good time, and arrived Continue reading “Boston (with side trips to Concord and Salem)”
We were looking for somewhere fairly close for Thanksgiving this year, so we settled on Philadelphia, as it’s only three hours by car away from where we live. We left the DC area on Continue reading “Thanksgiving in Philadelphia”
I was invited to Chicago for a conference for my library work, so Chris and I decided to head up a couple of days early and sightsee the Windy City. We arrived on Saturday around noon, and after checking into our super-awesome hotel (upgraded to a suite, thank you!), we dropped our bags and went out for a tour of the town. We headed for the river, where we bought tickets for a river architecture cruise. For 90 minutes, we cruised up and down the north and south branches of the Chicago River, and were treated to a fabulous lecture about the architectural styles and price tags of the buildings. We were also treated to some toasty hot chocolate with butterscotch schnapps. The weather was cool but not too cold, but the hot chocolate was still delicious.
After the cruise, we walked around Chicago, sighting such sights as the Millennium Park, the Bean, Grant Park, and the Navy Pier. We had dinner on the Pier (Chicago hot dogs) and after returning to our hotel, went up to their 29th floor rooftop bar for some drinks and a wonderful night view of the skyline.
On Sunday we walked over to Al’s Beef, enjoyed their lunchtime offerings, and headed up town to the Chicago History Museum, at the edge of Lincoln Park. The Chicago History Museum is a nicely done museum detailing the history of the city, and we bought groupon tickets for half price, so bonus! An afternoon’s entertainment for $7. I enjoyed learning about how the river’s course was reversed; the historic fire; segregation and integration; Capone, and other bits of Chicago’s history. They have a nice lounge there called “Chicago Authored” which profiled some of Chicago’s prolific authors, including Hemingway, Sandra Cisneros, Veronica Roth, Michael Crichton, and Carl Sandburg. Before we knew it, it was time to leave the museum and meet up with my conference group for a dinner at Original Gino’s, where I had the Best.Deep.Dish.Pizza.Ever. I wanted to eat more but I had to stop at two pieces, because there was no more room in my stomach for more pizza.
On Monday I had to go to my conference, and Chris continued exploring the city. He visited the Adler Planetarium and the Art Institute of Chicago, and then together we visited the Willis (Sears) Tower, and looked out over four states from the tallest building in the western hemisphere. 104 stories! Wow! Glad we got to see that one.
After a quick Mexican dinner (surprisingly good, and with excellent margaritas), it was time to pack up, head to bed, and watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. A Chicago classic.
All too often we forget to sight see in our own town. Lucky for me, I live near our nation’s capital, and so I have been able to sight see with both Continue reading “A Day in DC: Just the highlights”
Chris loves his National Geographic Traveler, so when they ranked Pittsburgh as one of the top 25 places to explore (in the world?!), we had to go. And while I would have to say a visit to the fjords of Norway or the beaches of Bali might have been nicer, we did have a lot of fun.
It’s a four to five hour drive from our house, so we left mid-day on Friday and visited Falling Water along the way, Frank Lloyd Wright’s house that he designed for a Pittsburgh family. Amazing blend of architecture and nature. I could totally live there. And never leave.
We got to Pittsburgh around dinner time, visited the Warhol museum (open late on Fridays and half price!), then found a bar downtown that was showing the Stanley Cup semifinals, where the Penguins were playing. We had corned beef sandwiches and Iron City beer (a local specialty) and then wandered around downtown in the cultural district, winding up at Andy’s Wine Bar in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel. I tried a new drink: a ginger beam, made with Jim Beam, ginger, syrup, and ginger beer. Yum.
On Saturday we visited the Mattress Factory, a very weird and yet very fun installation art museum. I loved the room full of silver helium balloons, Chris loved the polka dot room with infinity mirrors. Then we took the funicular up to the top of the hillside that overlooks the three rivers (a bit reminiscent of Khartoum), and then walked along the downtown and South Shore trails until we found the Hof Brau House. I should have known better than to take Chris there mid-day, because we basically got stuck there and had not only lunch but dinner there as well, with several liters of beer between us.
Sunday, our last day, we visited the Carnegie Science museum, and watched Star Trak: Into Darkness at their OmniMax. Big. Maybe too big. The science center was fun, especially their Sports Works section, and then we just had one final building to look for: Church Brew Works, an old church that has been turned into a brewpub. Great beer and a great lunch, with a lot of ambience.
Hopefully our next trip will be more along the lines of the jungles of South America, but Pittsburgh actually turned out to be pretty nice.
PalmTreeMusings 