Festival of Sights, Part Two

Continuing my recap of our yuletide drive up to Zion.

Saturday, December 19th

North Bound: Lake Shore Drive

We drove past another remnant of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Museum of Science & Industry, which was the Palace of Fine Arts during the expo, and was briefly the home of the Field Museum before it moved to its current location in 1921.  I love the look of this building, and it’s been far too long since I’ve been there.  Must visit MSI again soon!

The city was cold and gray, with a low cloud cover and icy drizzle hiding the skyline from us.  We saw several signs for the Lake Michigan Circle Tour, a winding route along lakefront roads in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.  Looked like I was following the Illinois portion by happenstance.  Part of the route crosses the lake from Wisconsin to Michigan on the car ferry S.S. Badger.  Duly noted for the future!

We passed the Museum Campus (one of my favorite spots), on by Navy Pier (Upon seeing the Ferris Wheel, my daughter said, “Daddy, can we go to the circus?”), on and north until LSD ended.

North Bound: Sheridan Road

We started following Sheridan Road at this point, a mostly north bound but sometimes westward route.  It seemed more like a route along a series of old winding trails than it did a singular road.  Sheridan Road was created by Congress in 1832 as a military road to connect Fort Dearborn in Chicago to Fort Howard in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and is named for Civil War General Philip Henry Sheridan.

There are many historic and beautiful buildings along the route, so many that we wished we’d brought a camera.  We immediately swore to follow this route again in the summertime.

Some highlights from Sheridan Road:

• Loyola University Lake Shore Campus,
• Emil Bach House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright,
• Northwestern University campus in Evanston,
• Grosse Point Lighthouse, barely spotted by Ashli through the trees.  Made a note to stop there on a future trip.
• Bahá'í House of Worship.  Even Aisy said “Wow” as we passed, pronounced “Whaowa!”

So many wonderful sights and great architecture that to list them all here would make this series of posts much longer than I want it to be.  I’ll mention some others as I recount the south bound trip.

Next post:  An evening in Zion, and the evil waves of an icy lake!

Festival of Sights, Part One

This past weekend the family and I took a road trip up to Zion, Illinois to witness their Festival of Lights and to tour Kringle’s Kingdom.  In our typical fashion, the wife and I searched the Internet to get a general idea of how to get there or what sights we might want to see, but nothing was definite other than the destination – no route, no set time to arrive, no set time to return.  We’d done this countless times to the south, east and west of base, but this would be our first expedition to the north, through The City.

Throughout out trip, Ashli and I made mental and written notes of things to look up once we returned home.  We love to discover fascinating places and the history behind them.  We returned home today, and I thought it would be fun to create a journal of our trip here at CMB, but as I researched what we’d seen, I decided to split it up into a series of blog entries.  The trip that took two days in the doing will now take a few blog entries in the telling.

Saturday, December 19th

North Bound: Blue Island

“Want to get something to eat first?” I asked, and that’s how we ended up at the original Beggars Pizza location at 127th Street and Western Avenue in Blue Island.  I had a heart stopping sandwich called the Godfather, an “Italian beef topped with sweet peppers, mozzarella cheese and red sauce on top of garlic bread.”  Lots of mozzarella.  Great sandwich!  As we ate, I noticed two black and white photographs hanging on the western wall.  One appeared to be an old service station building where the restaurant first opened in September of 1976.  The second photo was of the same building after atrium seating was added during a remodel in 1986.

Heading out, we went north on Western Avenue.

East Bound: 63rd Street

In the Chicago neighborhood of Chicago Lawn, we hung a right on 63rd Street and headed east.  I had decided I wanted to take Lake Shore Drive to head north, and this way was going to get us there.  Pretty mundane driving up to this point, passing the usual strip malls, fast food joints and low income housing on block after dilapidated block, but then suddenly we found ourselves underneath the Green Line of the ‘L’.  The trains going by overhead on the ancient steel structures grabbed our attention.  The line mysteriously ended at Cottage Grove Avenue, leading us to wonder if the trains took to the air at that point.  This line, the oldest of the ‘L’, was originally built in 1892 and once extended all the way to Stony Island Avenue and the entrance to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.  The tracks between Cottage Grove and Stony Island were removed beginning in the 1980s due to structural problems and never replaced.

The Republic

In Jackson Park I spotted something in the road ahead, a large gilded statue upon a pedestal of granite.  I suspected immediately that it was from the Columbian Exposition, since we were in the area where that legendary fair was held.  Trying to get a better look at the statue caused me to miss my turn on to Lake Shore Drive, so I looped back around to the Hayes-Richards Circle and got a better look.  She was the Republic, a 24 foot tall interpretation in bronze of Columbia, the romantic personification of the United States from days of yore.  This particular sculpture was created in 1918 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition.  This reproduction was one-third the size of the original, which was 65 feet tall and stood in the Grand Basin of the Court of Honor.  We’re always intrigued with lore from the Exposition, so this was a very pleasant sight!

To be continued!