Midwest travel links for July 2012

Check out some of these great Midwest-related stories I read online during this past month:

• When You Visit Detroit, Visit the Fisher Building-Detroit has a number of great architectural landmarks dating from the late 1920s, including one of our favorites, the Fisher Building. I loved this feature at Visit Detroit's Experiences in the D about this Art Deco-style skyscraper (which also includes a link to one of my stories about the Fisher Building).


Fisher Building

• The Best Chicago Blues Bars-One of my favorite memories of Chicago was our visit to Buddy Guy's Legends club to see Shemekia Copeland (I especially loved her song, "Sholanda's House of Beauty"!), so I was thrilled to see Buddy Guy's make this list at Rosalind's Farsighted Fly Girl blog.
• Fort Wayne: My City-Aaron at the Urbanophile blog shares a link to a great video featuring a group of hip-hop artists from this Indiana city expressing a positive sense of pride in their hometown.
• Wayne State Walking Tour-I loved this collection of great photos and information about some of the architectural gems at my alma mater, Detroit's Wayne State University. Check it out on Cathy's Inspired D+sign blog (and be sure to click on the links to see the photos her children took during the family's walking tour of campus).


Wayne State University

• Art Institute of Chicago-Learn a little about the history and political moves behind the construction of Chicago's iconic Beaux Arts-style art museum at Jim and Mitch's designslinger blog. Also be sure to check out Art Institute of Chicago expansion makes "Second City" museum the nation's second largest here at Midwest Guest.
• Cleveland FREE Stamp: A Monument of Freedom-We've seen the FREE stamp in Cleveland, Ohio many times, but it was nice to learn a little more about this piece of public art and its history with Justin's story at the InACents blog.
• Greater Cleveland Aquarium: The World's Longest Underwater "Sea Tube"-I've yet to visit the new aquarium in Cleveland, but Traci of the Go Big or Go Home blog did! The underwater sea tube reminds me a bit of the Detroit Zoo's clear underwater tunnel in their Arctic Ring of Life exhibit.
• New Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Opens Dunes to Cyclists, Strollers, Skaters and Wheelchairs-The Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore in northern Michigan is one of our favorite vacation spots. I've done the Dune Climb and hiked along the beach there, but it's great to see the opening of a new trail that will make this beautiful area even more accessible. Mike, a media relations guy at the Traverse City CVB, writes about the trail at the Loving Traverse City blog.


Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore

• Union, IL: Illinois Railway Museum-Adam and his family, which includes his train-loving son, had a great time visiting this railway museum about 45 miles from Chicago. Check it out at Adam's Visit Flyover Country blog.
• The Building that Changed America-I've always known the Detroit-area Northland Center as the first shopping mall, in the modern sense of the word, in the United States. It certainly was the first big open-air suburban shopping mall, and interestingly enough, the man who designed the 800,000-square-foot Southdale Center Minneapolis, billed as the first fully enclosed and climate-controlled mall in the United States, also designed Northland. Check this story about the Victor Gruen-designed Southland, and some cool vintage photos of the mall, at the Nokohaha blog.
• The Ohio State Reformatory-Ever see the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins? Then you may recognize this place! This old prison served as a set for the movie based on a Steven King book he early 1990s. We saw the exterior of this building and its gift shop as we were just passing through town and arrived too late for the tour, so I was especially fascinated to see this post with its spectacular photographs of the old reformatory at the Queen City Discovery blog. Photographer "Gordon Bombay" scored the opportunity to take a photographer-only tour that included many parts of the facility not available during public tours, and Queen City Disco readers score a rare glimpse at this iconic site.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Comments

[Inspireddsign]

Hi Dominique! Thanks so much for including our Wayne State walking tour! I look forward to checking out some of these other links. Great post!

[Dominique King]

No problem! We want to get down and do a real walking tour of campus like you did as well. There really are a lot of great architectural gems and interesting pieces of public art at WSU.