With the holidays behind us, it’s time to start thinking about travel plans for the next school recess — spring break! It’s tempting, especially for us Midwesterners, to plan escapes to warmer climes. But there is a wealth of history, fun, and diversity right here in Middle America — for locals and visitors alike. To […]
Summer is finally here in Chicago. Well, at least the calendar says so. (Really, what is up with all this rain?!) The kids might be asking where you’re heading for summer vacation. Or, you may be looking to do a weekend away from the city. Either way, I’ve got recommendations for some summer travel and weekend […]
“Funnest vacation ever!” When your five-year-old screams that multiple times during a trip, you know you’ve done something right. What I did “right” was bring my kids on a weekend trip to America’s largest water park, Wilderness Resort, in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. About a three-hour drive from Chicago, Wilderness Resort is an excellent remedy for our brutal, […]
Known as “America’s Little Switzerland”, New Glarus is a town of just over 2,000 in Green County, Wisconsin. Fitting that it is in Green County, as the surrounding hills are just that, brilliantly verdant even under dark storm clouds as we arrive in town. I first visited New Glarus in 1997. A friend and I stopped […]
Just a few years ago, I was forced – kicking and screaming – to surrender my 85-litre Osprey backpack for a pop-up RV camper. Okay, maybe “forced” is too harsh a word; I was convinced that camping with young children is easier and more enjoyable in an RV than in the backcountry. As much as it […]
I’m not an adrenaline junkie or a thrill seeker by any means. The mere thought of doing something like bungee jumping induces a full-on panic attack for me. I did go skydiving once, but that was almost twenty years ago and I was in Australia; I was a bit more laid back and carefree at […]
Just steps beyond Kenosha’s delicious, multi-cultural HarborMarket, and right on the revitalized lakefront, are the Kenosha Public Museum and Civil War Museum, two of the three museums that comprise the Kenosha Public Museums campus. The Kenosha Public Museum was established in 1933 as a natural sciences and fine arts museum. Its new location on the […]
One way to describe our visit to Kenosha is “whirlwind global tour”. You’re thinking now, “Huh? But you only went to Wisconsin!” True, but we experienced way more than the stereotypical cheese and bratwurst. In fact, there is quite a bit of culture going on in Kenosha. It started for me at the Kenosha HarborMarket. I’ve been […]
The tagline of the Kenosha Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is “One Great Lake, countless great times!” That “Great Lake” would be Lake Michigan and those “great times”? My family and I had a whole bunch of them in Kenosha this past weekend. Having lived in Chicago my entire life, I’ve known that my […]
I’ve been out of school for some time now, yet every year around mid-August, I’m plagued by this feeling of dread. Why? Because it’s back-to-school time and the unofficial end of summer. Long, warm days; fiery sunsets; and heaping ice cream cones, are replaced by reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. And with the dread comes the […]
