On the road last week, back home again, it’s time to reflect on wonderful times with family and friends, new sights and experiences. For this installment of Discovering America, I offer a few highlights of our trip to Chicago and Grand Rapids, with recommendations for places to go and things to do!
June 21-22 – getting there
This trip was about being there, not getting there. Here’s the boring bit. New York to Chicago, 13 hours in two days, I-80 and I-90. To cut costs, we tried a less expensive overnight option: The Red Roof Inn, Elyria, Ohio. Not recommended! However, Ohio does get the prize for the best service plazas along the turnpike.
June 23-24 —Chicago, Illinois
In your dreams: Clear blue skies, 75 degrees in Chicago. For us, a reality!
We started Saturday with a stroll by Lake Michigan, always a must-do.
After that, we had brunch at Marmalade on West Montrose Avenue. I recommend this establishment with its unique, delicious breakfast/lunch menu.
After brunch, we browsed at the nearby Architectural Artifacts. What a fascinating place! (although a bit out of my price range) A huge space jammed with antiques and, like its name, architectural artifacts—old stuff pulled off of, and out of, buildings.
Here I am with my boyfriend artifact.
Next up, street festivals. Of course—it’s Chicago in the summer! Our hosts guided us to two of them. We had a blast.
First, the Logan Square Arts Festival. Booths with arts and crafts. Non-stop music. We listened to Fat Night, a band with an Earth, Wind & Fire-like sound. Click here to see a nice video of their music.
We also shook our behinds to Las BomPleneras. These women are amazing. Here is a quote from this website:
“Las BomPleneras is an all-female ensemble dedicated to the preservation, promotion and growth of the Puerto Rican culture through the music and dance genres of Bomba and Plena. Their mission is to create a process of empowerment in the female performer in all her aspects, while also instilling a sense of personal ownership and responsibility to the survival of the Puerto Rican music and dance genres of Bomba and Plena.”
I won’t upload my sad attempt at a video taken on my cell phone. Click here to see a great video of their performance in 2014.
The second festival was the Gold Coast Greek Festival at Annunciation, a smaller event at the Greek Orthodox church on N. LaSalle Drive. Great food, wine, and live music. We did a little Greek line dancing! At the end of the evening, we went to George’s Ice Cream & Sweets, North Clark Street. Mighty good!
Sunday was low key (were we exhausted after that whirlwind Saturday?) 
We went to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and wandered through the moist air and exotic plants in the greenhouse. Strange vegetation fascinates me. Some of it looks like Dr. Seuss illustrations. (Off subject: Did you know that we mispronounce his name? Read this about famous authors and their pseudonyms.)
While we were standing next to the Ylang-Ylang tree in the Conservatory, a docent told us the story of the creation of Chanel No. 5 in 1921, a mixture of Ylang-Ylang, rose, and jasmine. She was very into this story and had little vials of Ylang-Ylang in her pocket for sniffing. Here’s a video about the creation of Chanel No. 5, which doesn’t seem to focus quite so heavily on Ylang-Ylang.
Outside the Conservatory, we sat on the edge of the fountain and had a picnic. All agreed that food tastes most delicious when eaten outdoors.
June 25-26 – Grand Rapids, Michigan
On Monday, we spent several hours at the Laketown Beach on Lake Michigan, in nearby Holland, MI.
Steep and seemingly endless wooden stairways lead to the top of the dune and down the other side to the beach. The sand has blown over and buried a big part of the stairway. You sink down into it, wondering if the stairs are really there.
The water was too cold for swimming. It was clear, clean, easy to wade into (no muck on the bottom), but eerily devoid of any visible fish, minnows, or water fowl. No dearth of insects, however: Beware of the biting flies!
Monday evening we walked through the Heritage Hill residential district on the way to downtown Grand Rapids. The large, historic homes are well preserved and each one is unique. Really beautiful!
We ate dinner at San Chez Tapas restaurant. Delicious! In this photo I’m looking quite content after finishing that glass of wine.
As we entered the restaurant, down the block, a large crowd was gathered near the Van Andel Arena, waiting to go in. James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt were playing. The restaurant empathized with all of us who weren’t attending the concert by playing a lot of James Taylor songs.
The next day, Tuesday, we drove past the Meyer May House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Then, we carried on to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. We spent a couple of hours there and could have stayed longer. Each sculpture is a discovery tucked imaginatively into the greenery.
My favorites: “The American Horse” by Nina Akamu and “I, You, She, or He…” by Jaume Plensa.
Also very enjoyable, the Japanese Garden with haikus engraved on the rocks. Darn. Wish I’d taken some photos of the poems.
After the gardens, a close friend treated us to a tour of two buildings at the Steelcase Corporation. The entire place is filled with models of work stations, glass offices, studios, hubs, carrels. Not a single cord to trip on. All information resides in the air. Have you seen the movie “The Circle”? For a person like me who suffered years of paper cuts in offices furnished with clunky, sticky-drawered file cabinets, this is a dream world.
Rain all the way home. Thank you, weather gods, for giving us clear skies when it mattered!
Now, it’s back to the “old grind,” ha ha. Sorry to make you jealous, but I enjoy my new way of life. Currently, I’m adapting my novel Thursday’s List into a screenplay, then on to writing the fifth Dana Hargrove novel!
For more stories, check out my collection