Lollapalooza in Chicago

4 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, Paris / Île-de-France, Events Reading Time:  9 minutes

© flickr.com - Aneil Lutchman/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Aneil Lutchman/cc-by-sa-2.0

Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, but several years later, Chicago became its permanent location. Music genres include alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop, and electronic dance music. Lollapalooza has also featured visual arts, nonprofit organizations, and political organizations. The festival, held in Grant Park, hosts an estimated 400,000 people each July and sells out annually. Lollapalooza is one of the largest music festivals in the world and one of the longest-running in the United States.   read more…

Wrigley Building in Chicago

15 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - daryl_mitchell/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – daryl_mitchell/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located at 400–410 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago’s Near North Side. It is located on the Magnificent Mile directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower. Its two towers in an elaborate style were built between 1920 and 1924 to house the corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company. Its bright white facade is covered in terra cotta.   read more…

Lake Forest in Illinois, Tree City USA

17 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Deerpath Building and Theater, part of the Lake Forest Historic District © flickr.com - Teemu008/cc-by-sa-2.0

Deerpath Building and Theater, part of the Lake Forest Historic District © flickr.com – Teemu008/cc-by-sa-2.0

Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded with Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in 1857, a stop for travelers making their way south to Chicago. The Lake Forest City Hall, designed by Charles Sumner Frost, was completed in 1898. It originally housed the fire department, the Lake Forest Library, and city offices.   read more…

The Magnificent Mile in Chicago

13 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Shopping Reading Time:  5 minutes

© TonyTheTiger/cc-by-sa-3.0

© TonyTheTiger/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Magnificent Mile, sometimes referred to as The Mag Mile, is an upscale section of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, running from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side. The district is located within downtown, and one block east of Rush Street. The Magnificent Mile serves as the main thoroughfare between Chicago’s Loop business district and its Gold Coast. It is generally the western boundary of the Streeterville neighborhood, to its east and River North to the west.   read more…

Arlington Heights in Illinois

29 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com - bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com – bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the city’s downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the 2010 Census, it is the most populous community in the United States that is incorporated as a “village”, and is the 13th most populous municipality in Illinois, although it is not far ahead of its nearby Illinois neighboring villages of Schaumburg and adjacent Palatine. Arlington Heights is known for the former Arlington Park Race Track, home of the Arlington Million, a Breeders’ Cup qualifying event; it also hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships in 2002. The village is also home to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which has one of the largest collections of books in the state.   read more…

Great River Road along the Mississippi River

10 July 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Great River Road route marker © Thomas R Machnitzk/cc-by-3.0

Great River Road route marker © Thomas R Machnitzk/cc-by-3.0

The Great River Road is a collection of state and local roads that follow the course of the Mississippi River through ten states of the United States. They are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. It formerly extended north into Canada, serving the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.   read more…

Oak Park in Illinois

28 November 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture Reading Time:  23 minutes

Lake Street © Dennisyerger84/cc-by-sa-4.0

Lake Street © Dennisyerger84/cc-by-sa-4.0

Oak Park is a village adjacent to the West Side of Chicago. It is the 29th largest municipality in Illinois. The village has a population of 52,000. Oak Park was settled beginning in the 1830s, with rapid growth later in the 19th century and early 20th century. It incorporated in 1902, breaking off from Cicero. Development was spurred by railroads and street cars connecting the village to jobs in Chicago. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled here in 1889. Population peaked at 66,015 in 1940. Smaller families led to falling population in the same number of homes and apartments. In the 1960s, Oak Park faced the challenge of racial integration, devising many strategies to integrate rather than re-segregate the village. Oak Park includes three historic districts for the historic homes: Ridgeland, Frank Lloyd Wright and Seward Gunderson, reflecting the focus on historic preservation.   read more…

Grant Park in Chicago

27 July 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Spirit of Music Garden © Alanscottwalker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Spirit of Music Garden © Alanscottwalker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Grant Park is a large urban park (319 acres or 1.29 km²) in the Loop community area of Chicago. Located in Chicago’s central business district, the park’s most notable features are Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum Campus. Originally known as Lake Park, and dating from the city’s founding, it was renamed in 1901 to honor Ulysses S. Grant.   read more…

The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago

22 September 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  20 minutes

Field Museum on Lake Michigan © Fritz Geller-Grimm/cc-by-sa-2.5

Field Museum on Lake Michigan © Fritz Geller-Grimm/cc-by-sa-2.5

The Field Museum of Natural History, also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum maintains its status as a premier natural history museum through the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, as well as due to its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections. The diverse, high quality permanent exhibitions, which attract up to two million visitors annually, range from the earliest fossils to past and current cultures from around the world to interactive programming demonstrating today’s urgent conservation needs. Additionally, the Field Museum maintains a temporary exhibition program of traveling shows as well as in-house produced topical exhibitions. The professional staff maintains collections of over 24 million specimens and objects that provide the basis for the museum’s scientific research programs. These collections include the full range of existing biodiversity, gems, meteorites, fossils, as well as rich anthropological collections and cultural artifacts from around the globe. The Field Museum Library, which contains over 275,000 books, journals, and photo archives focused on biological systematics, evolutionary biology, geology, archaeology, ethnology and material culture, supports the Field Museum’s academic research faculty and exhibit development. The Field Museum academic faculty and scientific staff engage in field expeditions, in biodiversity and cultural research on all continents, in local and foreign student training, in stewardship of the rich specimen and artifact collections, and work in close collaboration with public programming exhibitions and education initiatives.   read more…

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