Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:
Winter Magic: Our First-Time Family Excursion to Grand Rapids!-We frequently visit Grand Rapids on the western side of Michigan, but it was fun to see the city and it's attractions from the point of view of a parent with young children. Amy's post about her family's visit to the city at the My Experience Grand Rapids blog included one of my favorites-riding the carousel inside of the Grand Rapids Public Museum-and a couple of other things I thought would be fun for "big kids" like Tim and me-root beer tasting at The Electric Cheetah (which is already on our GRap bucket list) anyone?
Traverse City: A Beloved Getaway for Michiganders-Traverse City Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula is another favorite destination for us. We're planning to head up that way later this winter. Meanwhile, Max takes readers of the Go Nomad blog to some of our favorite TC destinations like Horizon Books and Cafe, Cherry Republic, Leland's Fishtown and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
28 Fun Things to do in Indianapolis-Natalie shares this great list of Indianapolis area attractions at the Doing Indy blog. We've visited places around the city in recent years, but it's been years since we've visited the city itself. Spending a little more time in Indianapolis is another item on our Midwest bucket list, and this list looks like a great place to start planning future visits there!
Cheap Winter Getaways-Check out this great list of winter travel suggestions from the crew at the Midwest Weekends blog. I'm a big winter fan, and although I've visited places like the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin, Copper Harbor in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, some of Chicago's museums and places like Ely and Duluth in northern Minnesota during the summer, several of the things on this list have long been on my personal Midwest travel bucket list.
Grand Forks' Ralph Engelstad Arena offers hockey fans great facilities, play-Hockey in North Dakota? I'd be all about that. We've seen the University of North Dakota play at college tournaments in Detroit in the past (including one memorable time when we sat through two overtimes to see UND win a Great Lakes Invitational tourney). I really loved getting this glimpse of the team at their home arena from Tim at The Walking Tourists' blog.
4 Reasons to Love Detroit (Yes, I said LOVE. And, no, I'm not kidding.)-And I LOVED this post about Sally's recent visit to the D at the unbrave girl blog. Again, I see another visitor came to Detroit with some less than stellar memories of previous visits here and surprise themselves by finding a lot to like about Detroit. I thought Sally did a great job of capturing some of the city's highlights and resurgent spirit. Go ahead Sally, get out there on the street corner with your pom poms and give us a cheer...I'll have your back :)
Thirty-One Thresholds: Discoveries at the National Mustard Museum? Indeed!-I love this idea from Wisconsin photographer an blogger Bo Mackison that requires her to head out of her home and visit some Madison-area attractions with her camera and write about those experiences on her personal blog. The National Mustard Museum has long been on my Midwest travel bucket list, so I loved getting a glimpse of the museum and its history here.
Mayberry Cafe: Blast from the past-Visiting this quirky eatery in Danville, Indiana is a special treat, especially for fans of the old Andy Griffith television show from the 1960s. Tim and I ate here a couple of years ago, so I especially enjoyed revisiting it virtually via this post from Kayleen on the Indiana Insider blog.
Wordless Wednesday: Randolph County Courthouse in Winchester-I'm a big fan of old county courthouses, and Indiana seems to have a number of great ones worth visiting. Check out one of Jessica's favorite Indiana courthouses with this story at her little Indiana blog.
Indiana Bridges: Ferris Wheel Turned Dunns Bridge-I'm also a big bridge fan, so I loved learning a little about the creation of the Ferris wheel and this unique bridge in northern Indiana that may, or may not, be able to trace its origins to an attraction at the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair. This story is also at Jessica's Little Indiana blog. (For what it's worth, I also love true crime books. Want to learn more about Chicago's historic World's Fair? Check out The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson).
The City That's Using a Trail to Unite Its Citizens-Check Max's story at the National Swell blog about the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The pedestrian and bike path official opened in May of 2013, and this story cites its positive effect on the city's cultural life, economic health, community life and the health of residents and visitors to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis area has several other nice pedestrian and bike trails, including the Monon Greenway, which we spotlighted in a story here after our visit to Carmel a couple of years ago.
History through headstones-We often visit old cemeteries when we travel, and we don't see that as creepy at all. Cemeteries can be interesting places to learn about an area's history, take photographs of beautiful statuary or architecture and opportunities to geocache. This story from The History Center of Allen County and Fort Wayne spotlights historic cemeteries and the Little Turtle Memorial in downtown Fort Wayne, which we discovered ourselves a couple of years ago. Check out the story at the Visit Fort Wayne Insider blog.
That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?
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© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved
What a great resource this is - off to read!
Posted by: wandering educators | January 08, 2015 at 02:19 PM
I'm always amazed how you can keep up with such great link lists. I'm going to have to go check out a new Wisconsin Blogger and what he had to say about the Mustard Museum. Poupon U!
Posted by: Julie Henning | January 08, 2015 at 06:43 PM
Thanks for checking in Jessie and Julie! I love doing the link lists each month...and I usually have more links than I really have the space to share here :) I keep a running list of links I find over the month and pick out about 8-12 to list here each month. I have a lot of blogs that I check regularly via feedly...other stuff I find as I surf online. That's a format that seems to work well for me and allows me to come up with a list that has enough variety among states, authors and subject matter each month.
Poupon U! Heh :)
Posted by: Dominique King | January 09, 2015 at 04:39 AM