Saturday, March 4, 2023

Vacationing within 300 miles of home

Many of us have travel bucket lists, maybe including wows like New York, the Grand Canyon, Paris, a non-Western country, an African safari.


Cincinnati probably doesn’t make your list. Neither did it mine until a brief visit to my two early-20s nieces, who each landed her first post-college job there. I intend to go back. Because of an aunt’s funeral, my sister Pat and I had to cut short our visit. We didn’t get to the top attraction on my list, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. There wasn’t time for a tour of Over-the-Rhine, whose more than 1,000 historic buildings make up one of the country’s largest, most intact 19th-century historic districts. Both attractions meet my criterion for worth seeing: one of a kind, or nearly so. 


That outing reminded me that there are unvisited places within driving distance of Chicago that would interest me. After a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in September, I expect to be content to take less breathtaking vacations nearby


A desire to explore my own backyard isn’t really new. Twenty-seven years ago, I self-published a book, Midwest Passage: How Traveling Close to Home Broadened My Horizons. I wrote about vacationing at the Lincoln sights in Springfield, Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and eastern Iowa (Mississippi River, Amana Colonies, Grant Wood sights, the National Czech and Slovak Museum). 

My thinking then was that I would learn to be a better traveler by visiting places I could easily return to. Instead of rushing around to cross must-sees off a list, I would slow down and be more spontaneous.


I’m not looking for transformation now; I’m just feeling inclined toward simple vacations. Less planning, fewer timetables, more flexibility. Also, as I get older, I’m not sure that my stamina or my legs can take daylong sightseeing. Also again, if I rent a car, I don’t have to arrange cat-sitting. Fanny can go with me; she travels well for a cat. 


I’ve seen much of the United States and have gone to Europe three times, but I’ll miss seeing the rest of the world. However, I experience different cultures in Chicago neighborhoods like Pilsen, Little Village, Argyle Street, Chinatown, and Devon Avenue where immigrants speak their languages, prepare native foods in restaurants, and sell goods imported from their homelands. 


A couple of New York Times clippings I saved reinforce my thinking about nearby travel. Tour leader Aziz Abu Sarah said that travel is not distance but a state of mind and suggested volunteering to work with immigrants in one’s own community before going abroad. Travel writer Reif Larsen admitted fretting about contributing to climate change by frequent flying. While he is not ruling out all plane travel, he wrote that “I will try to plan more trips locally.”


Where within about 300 miles might I want to visit for the first time or return to? 


Besides the places mentioned in Midwest Passage, I’ve enjoyed and would happily return to picturesque Door County, Wisconsin, and Brown County, Indiana; the northern Indiana Amish country; and historic Galena and the Great River Road. 


As for never-been places, St. Louis tops the list. The unique Museum at the Gateway Arch covers two centuries of US westward expansion. The city also boasts a number of free museums, a top-rated zoo, and nearby Cahokia Mounds, the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico.  


Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, has been compared favorably with Williamsburg. It brings together more than 100 significant buildings relocated from their original spots or authentically rebuilt. They include Thomas Edison’s workshop, the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop, a courthouse where Abraham Lincoln argued cases, and homes of different architectural styles. The adjoining Henry Ford Museum houses vehicles, machinery, and other artifacts of American ingenuity. Dearborn also has the largest Arab community in the country. And as long as I’m there, I might spend time next door in Detroit, too.


I lived in Madison eight years without getting to nearby Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo (Circus World Museum, International Crane Foundation), and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green. I could also revisit old haunts in Madison and see what’s new, including the Wright-designed Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. A stop in Lake Geneva, where I’ve also never been, would not be out of the way.


Michigan’s Harbor Country just over the Indiana border has drawn me more than once, but I’ve not visited the resort towns just to the north — South Haven, Saugatuck, Holland, and Grand Haven — which are known for beaches, art galleries, wineries, and overall small-town charm.


For a hiking vacation or just time relaxing in nature, staying in a state park puts you where you want to be. Accommodations range from rustic cabins to elegant lodges. Starved Rock, Turkey Run, and Brown County State Parks are known for their charming lodging as well as their beautiful scenery.


And, of course, Cincinnati is calling me back.


4 comments:

  1. the Underground Railroad Museum would be interesting .. Have you been to Mackinaw Island in Upper Michigan, that's a nice escape as well.

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  2. Haven’t been and ought to go. It’s somewhat over my 300-mile radius but likely worth a longer drive.

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  3. I can recommend many Michigan sites including Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. Greenfield Village is worthwhile. And since I grew up in St Louis and still have family there I definitely recommend Cahokia Mounds and the Arch. Forest Park and the zoo were favorites when I was young but lately I have heard it is simply too crowded. Not enough parking. Long lines. If you need a tour guide in Michigan let me know.

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    1. Maybe one of these years I will see you in Grand Rapids. Molly recommended your art museum.

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