Drive to Chicago over two days. Thursday 7.15.2021 – leave Hudson 8:20am; stop in Angola IN for the night. Dinner at a local restaurant – Timbers Steakhouse and Seafood. Angola has a striking Civil Way monument in the central intersection of this small town.
Off to Chicago first thing Friday morning. Park in Millennium Parking garage under Millennium Park two blocks from The Fairmont Millennium hotel. Then off to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Bisa Butler show. As we walked through the park we came on a rehearsal of the Grant Park Symphony.
Bisa Butler Quilt Portraits
The quilts are all 4 to 5 feet tall, some larger.
Saturday – Brunch with Steve and Janis Morris – cousins
Brunch with the cousins at the University Club of Chicago on the tenth floor at 76 East Monroe. Lots of chat about relatives on Karen’s father’s side of the family. 
It was also the beginning of the Race to Mackinac.
We discovered that they are Florida snow birds so a soft date for a meet up in early February 2022 has been set. Hopefully will include a tennis match up. Steve is at least as much of a fanatic as Mark.
Northwestern
We drove up to Evanston to visit Northwestern University where Nyla will start in September.
The campus is enormous with many specialized buildings for art, theater, and music. Nyla will be starting at the Medill School of Journalism in this old building:
Grant Park Orchestra
Steve and Janis are supporters of this group. They gave us second row tickets for Saturday evening. Included VIP wine and snacks.
Sunday – first leg of return to Hudson
We selected a number of cities and towns to visit on the way home.
Elkhart IN
Very active manufacturing and distribution center. Recreational vehicles, motor homes, musical instruments….
- Norfolk Southern train classification and distribution yard. 15 incoming lines; 15 outgoing lines; 72 classification tracks downhill from a “hump”. Claimed to be the second largest classification yard in the world.
- Conn Selmer – largest manufacturer of band instruments in the country
- We missed this: Recreational Vehicle/Motor Home Capital of the World
Toledo OH
- Toledo Museum of Art
Additions to Mark’s collection of winter scenes:
This museum is an example of the phase of capitalism during which capitalists lived close to their assets and invested in their local community. Though Toledo is known for its long history of glass making, we weren’t moved by the glass exhibit at the museum.
Peek’n Peak Resort – Clymer NY
This is just over the border from Pennsylvania – about as far west in NY as you can go. About one and a half hour drive to Buffalo; two hours to Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Karen found this gem via her usual travel app for cheap hotels.
Dinner in the bar.
Monday 7.19.2021 – Rochester, Finger Lakes towns, home
Rte 90 – the NY Thruway – runs along the route of the Erie Canal across much of the state. So, we read up on its history along the way. Discovered that the original Erie Canal (construction started in 1817, first traffic 1821, completed in 1825), before its expansion as the NY State Barge Canal in 1918, crossed through downtown Rochester via an 800 ft long aqueduct that carried the canal and its traffic over the Genesee River. Built in 1836 it went out of use as an aqueduct with the barge canal expansion only to become a part of the now defunct Rochester subway system. Now it is the Broad St Bridge.
We stopped at the Rochester Public Library and its 1997 extension across the street, The Bausch & Lomb Library Building – interconnected via underground tunnel.
The library offered non-traditional services that are now common in libraries. This library had its own unique take on these.
Rochester seems to have some unusual buildings and monuments.
Canandaigua
A town at the north end of Lake Canandaigua – one of the Finger Lakes
Geneva, Waterloo, Seneca Falls, Throop, Marcellus
Chittenango – the yellow brick road
Home of L. Frank Baum, author of the OZ series – source for the movie The Wizard of Oz. Town celebrates its connection with a yellow brick sidewalk.
