Midwest Guest

Midwest travel links for December 2013

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Baseball history gem-I loved this look at a very cool museum in Kansas City, Missouri from Lisa and Tim at the Walking Tourists blog. I've heard a bit about the NLB Detroit Stars, and I wrote an article about Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first African American to play Major League baseball (in Toledo, Ohio) a few years ago. I also recently read a book about an integrated baseball team originating in North Dakota during the 1930s (the excellent Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line by Tom Dunkel). So, this museum is definitely on my Midwest bucket list.

 

 

Fifth Third Field in Toledo, Ohio

 

A Visit with Harry Truman: The Truman Library and Home Site in Independence, MO-Shanna stops (along with the buck!) at another Kansas City must-see, President Truman's presidential library and boyhood home. Check it out at A Midwest Travel Companion blog.  

 

5 Things you just can't miss in St. Louis-Check out St. Louis with Sarah as she give us this list of essential stops in her hometown on her self-titled page.  The city's art museum sounds like another place I should put on my Midwest bucket list!

 

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD-We saw  Mitchell's Corn Palace in 2007, a year after a severe drought that caused them to curtail their yearly update, and we got a glimpse of several panels in progress. I really enjoyed seeing this post from Visual Lingual that shows a more complete and nicely lit-up facade from this year than the version we saw.

 

 

 

 

Nebraska: A Pivotal Route 6 State Often Overlooked By the Rest of the Country Is In National News Big Time-Malerie takes a look at the effect that a recent movie featuring Nebraska and actor Bruce Dern, in an "Oscar-worthy performance", is having on the state's image as somewhere worth visiting. Check it out on Malerie's Stay on Route 6, dedicated to promoting her guidebook of the same name. I've got the book and taking at least a good portion of this 3,652-mile road trip is another Midwest bucket list item for me!

 

Hiking Starved Rock State Park in the Winter-I've read about this park in Illinois many times. Pictures I've seen of its vintage-1930s lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps definitely helped this place earn a place on my Midwest bucket list long ago. Connie's story at her Midwest Wanderer blog about hiking the park during the winter shows the park in an especially beautiful light.

 

Chicago's Columbian Exposition Comes to Life at the Field Museum-Regular readers of Midwest Guest know that architecture is a frequent theme of posts here, so it should come as no surprise that I'd love to see this exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum. The 1893 World Fair in Chicago featured the work of famed architects like Daniel Burnham and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (who created New York's Central Park and had a major hand in designing and improving Detroit's park on Belle Isle). The Chicago fair also provided the setting for author Erik Larson's thrilling The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. Check out Bill's report on the museum's exhibition at the Chicago Architecture blog. The exhibit runs through September 7 of this year.

 

20 Reasons Why Cleveland Does, in Fact, Rock-This list from Keph on The Viator Travel Blog includes several of my favorite Cleveland sites like the Cleveland Museum of Art, Terminal Tower, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum and the city's famed West Side Market, as well as other places I'd like to go like the International Women's Air and Space Museum, Millionaire's Row and the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

 

 

 

West Side Market, Cleveland

 

City Market-I'm a big fan of city markets featuring the best in local produce and culinary treats, so this feature by Whitney on the Indiana Insider blog about the market in an historic city market building in downtown Indianapolis caught my eye. It's yet another entry on my Midwest bucket list!

 

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

Want more Midwest news and links? Subscribe to my bi-monthly Midwest Guest newsletter!

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Great Midwest reads to warm up your autumn

Here is yet another list of great Midwest reads I've come across in recent months:

• A Woman Like Me by Bettye LaVette-Born in Muskegon, Michigan, LaVette's early promise as a soul star quickly dissolved after a series bad breaks left her struggling to find an audience...or to even get an album made. A recent video of a performance of the Who's "Reign o'r Me" at The Kennedy Center's awards show, which moved Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend to tears, went viral online setting the stage for the singer's amazing late-life career comeback. LaVette's story, told in her uniquely celebratory and slightly profane voice, is a great read for music fans and those who appreciate seeing a never-say-die spirit triumph.
  
  
  
• Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit by Dan Austin-Austin's tales of some of the city's great landmarks lost to time and neglect is a follow up to his Lost Detroit book. The mostly long-gone structures in this book live on in vintage photos, veteran Detroiter's memories and the tales Austin shares with readers. Seeing photos of places like Detroit's Old City Hall, the City of Detroit III steamship and the Graystone Ballroom is a grim reminder of the treasures we've lost to time and a reminder to treasure the many magnificent architectural gems that still exist in the city.
  
  
  
• Revolution Detroit: Strategies for Urban Reinvention by John Gallagher-This is a follow up to Detroit journalist Gallagher's Reimagining Detroit. The book further explores Detroit as a shrinking city and possible strategies for moving ahead within that new reality for Detroit by sharing examples of the success of other troubled cities here and abroad. Among the ideas Gallagher champions are encouraging urban gardening on a commercial scale (after seeing some success with community urban gardens in building community, feeding people and fighting blight and crime) and viewing currently blighted and vacant land as an asset, rather than a liability.
  
  
  
• Me, the Mob and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells by Tommy James with Martin Fitzpatrick-Tommy James shares the tale of his roller coaster ride from the Midwest to fame with Roulette Records (with 1960s hits like Mony Mony, I Think We're Alone Now and Crimson and Clover) and witnessing the label's executives' fall from grace in a hailstorm of arrests for multiple FBI charges of scams and tax evasion. The effect of the record execs woes on James' career was complicated and catastrophic in many ways, but this is the tale of an industry survivor who signed on with the label as a naive teenager born in Ohio and living in west Michigan at the time, rose to fame and lived to tell the story.
  
  
  
• Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson-Anderson's classic is a loosely connected collection of stories largely following the life of writer George Willard and other residents during the early 1900s in small-town Ohio. The book, first published in 1919, landed on more than a few banned book lists for its candor in depicting pre- and extra-marital sex. I found it slow-moving and depressing picture of too many people saddled with unfulfilled dreams and wasted potential. Women especially seemed to lead sad, stunted or shattered lives while living in unhappy marriages or spending their lives pining for someone who dumped them long ago. Anderson based his tales on his memories of growing up in Clyde, Ohio and on friends he knew as a young man while living in a cheap Chicago boarding house and writing his first novels.
  
  
  
• Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball's Color Line by Tom Dunkel-This is the meticulously researched story of a semi-pro baseball team fielded by a Bismarck, North Dakota car dealer named Neil Churchill during the 1930s. Churchill wanted the best players for his team and recruited a good number of stars from the Negro Leagues banned from playing for the strictly segregated major leagues at that time. African American baseball stars like Satchel Paige, Quincy Troupe, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and Hilton Smith played for Bismarck, and Dunkel's account makes the reader wonder if Major League baseball might differ had these players if the majors allowed them to play. The Bismarck team folded near the end of the Great Depression and about a decade before Jackie Robinson's Major League debut as the league's first African American player in the modern era (although a few baseball players like Moses Fleetwood Walker played for Major League teams in the very late 1800s).
  
  
  
• Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist by George D. Morgan-Mary Sherman Morgan developed the chemical cocktail to propel the United States' first rocket, the Explorer I satellite, into space. Born into an impoverished North Dakota family, Mary struggled to be able to attend school as a young girl and immediately left home after her high school graduation at age 19 to attend college. Lack of money to continue school forced her to accept a job offer to work testing explosives for a chemical company near Sandusky, Ohio during World War II. Mary lost her job at the end of the war and she next landed a job as a chemical analyst for a California aviation company. Even as the only woman working on the engineering floor, and one of few without a college degree, her reputation for brilliance as an analyst led to a her appointment to work on a top secret and top-priority rocket project in the wake of the Russian launch of Sputnik. Mary's son George found his mother's story obscured by a shroud of security and her own reluctance to share the story with her children or anyone else. He takes some literary license in this work and shares the fact that conversations, names and some events in the book are re-creations. I still think he succeeded in sharing the gist of his mother's fascinating life story and saving the story of this space pioneer from complete obscurity.
  
  
  

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

We "Go Nuts!" in Lansing, Michigan

We enjoyed a chance to go nuts in downtown Lansing with the Lugnuts baseball team earlier this spring!

Attending a local baseball game, hockey game or any local sporting event seems like one of the best ways to experience a town, its people, fun food and culture to me.

Lansing's reputation as Michigan's state capital is sometimes more buttoned-down and politically serious, but the Lugnuts experience shows the town at its fun and family-friendly best.

The Lugnuts are Lansing's Class A minor league baseball team and Toronto Blue Jays affiliate that plays in the Midwest League.

As a sports fan, I always enjoy seeing young players at the beginning of their pro career with the possibility of saying I saw them when.

(Can you say Tyler Seguin? Seguin is a hockey player we watched for several years as a Plymouth Whaler before he went on to be an important part of a Stanley Cup winning team in 2011 in his rookie year as a Boston Bruin.)

The whole idea of possibly seeing tomorrow's superstar players today aside, I've always found minor league sports a fun and affordable experience.

The Lugnuts baseball franchise originally began life as a team in Lafayette, Indiana in 1955. The team, like many others in the minor leagues, moved around to several different cities and through several different entities before settling in Lansing in 1996.

I do remember hearing a bit about the choice of the team's name, which reflects Lansing's automotive history, and some of the discussion around its appropriateness as name and mascot, but the name and the Big Lug mascot seem to have earned a big place in the hearts of the fans and in the community.

The Big Lug, a purple dinosaur with lug nuts for nostrils, seems to get around everywhere within the stadium--I almost literally ran into him in a hallway near the Clubhouse, which is an upper level lounge on the stadium's suite level offering reserved seating on a balcony for a great view of the game.

The Lugnuts call Cooley Law School Stadium home, and at a capacity of 11,000 people, it is one of the largest Class A ball parks in the country.

The stadium, built for $20 million in 1996, reminds me a bit of the Traverse City Beach Bums' home with its large lawn with seating area in the outfield and a bit of the Toledo Mud Hens' home in the heart of that city's downtown.

Builders specifically tailored the dimensions of the Lugnuts' ball park to its urban setting for a perfect fit within one city block. Our hosts described how one of the team's owners personally paced off the entire area to prove that they could fit a ball field into the spot with just a little room to spare.

Ball park food is always a fun part of a game experience, and I particularly like finding something to eat that is unique to a ball park or its location.

This time out, I heard about the macaroni-and-cheese hot dog and headed straight for the Franx stand to get one. Yum!

Lugnuts ticket prices range from $8 for lawn seating in the outfield, which also has a playground with inflatable games for the kids, to $10 and $11 for reserved and box seating and $22.50 for the Clubhouse seating.

Be sure to check out Tim's take on our Lugnuts experience here.

Want to learn more about the Lugnuts history? Check out Our Lugnuts: Year One! by Bob Roth.

Thanks to the Greater Lansing Michigan Convention and Visitors Bureau for sponsoring my visit to Lansing, providing lodging, meals and a tour of Lansing area attractions for my review during my recent visit there, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for April 2013

Check out some great Midwest-related stories I found online this past month:

Let's Move! at Conner Prairie-Our trip to Conner Prairie for its Follow the North Star program this past November was a dark, rainy and somber trip. Allison offers a peek at the sunny side of this interactive history park near Indianapolis, Indiana at the Doing Indy blog. We're hoping to return to Conner Prairie one of these days to walk through the park and see it during the daytime!

What should be done with the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit?-Michigan sadly became one of a few states without a State Fair when the state pulled the plug on funding one of the nation's oldest state fairs in 2009. The old fairgrounds look pretty sad these days, but there are still some folks floating ideas to make better use of the property these days. Check out Sven's post at the A Healthier Michigan blog about a couple of these ideas.

The Big Stove at Michigan State Fairgrounds in better days

Joseph Moore Museum of Natural History-One mother found this museum the perfect place to take her two-year-old for an interesting and engaging field trip. Dinos, mummies and more kept her son busy, and free admission made the price family-friendly as well! Check out agray's story about her family's day at the museum at the Indiana Insider blog.

Children's Garden at Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis-Nicole shares another idea for a family-friendly museum at her Arrows Sent Forth blog. Her family, which includes two young boys, found visiting this museum the perfect way to break up a long road trip with lots of fun things to see and do!

Evansville, Indiana: EMTRAC-If your kids have a fascination with trains, this transportation museum should be a hit with them. Check out Adam's story about visiting here with his family, seeing a lot of cool toys, climbing aboard display trains and walking along the riverfront at his Visit Flyover Country blog.

Baseball, jazz and history in the 18th & Vine District in Kansas City-Baseball and music make for a perfect vacation mix in my mind (and brings back some great memories Tim and I have from a trip to Memphis to see the Red Birds and visit Beale Street), so I especially liked Scott's story about visiting Kansas City, Missouri to see the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Baseball Leagues Museum. Check it out at his Quirky Travel Guy blog.

Turkey Stearnes: a Detroit legend who starred in the shadows-Although this story isn't strictly travel-related, I thought it belonged on the list this month. I've heard of Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars over the years, but he, like many other talented players throughout the years, received little recognition when he played baseball. Stearnes finally made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. Dan writes about Stearnes' amazing career at the Detroit Athletic Co. blog.

#ElCafeDe2013 Coffee Tip of the week: Opening Day Coffee Shop Style!-Aaron willing admits that he gets as excited about a coffee shop's opening day as many people do about baseball's opening day. Check out his story about a new coffee shop in downtown Detroit at The Adventures of elATLboy.

Wine Wednesday: Chicago's BYOB-If you fancy a glass of wine with dinner, you might find yourself bringing your own beverage to a restaurant in Chicago. Jennifer explains how Chicago's liquor laws allow many Windy City restaurants without their own liquor licenses to have BYOB policies. Check out her story at Jdomb's Travels.

5 Unique Things to Do in Indiana-Looking for something to do in Indiana? Anthony shares his list of fun things to do in the Hoosier state throughout the seasons at Travel City Breaks.

Michigan-River Raisin National Battlefield Park-We paid a quick visit to this battlefield in Monroe, Michigan on the way home from Ohio recently, but the Visitor Center was already closed for the day when we were there. Thanks to Terri at Travel 50 States with Kids, I got a peek at the park's visitor center and a preview of what to expect when we visit there ourselves.

That's it for this month's Midwest travel links list. Do you have any favorite Midwest stories or blogs to share?

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Play ball! Samuel Luther Thompson, from the Danville Browns to the Detroit Tigers

I always check out historic markers we see in our travels as I love learning about local history, but imagine my surprise when I found this marker honoring a former Detroit Tiger baseball player near a field in a park near Danville, Indiana!

And now, with the Tigers' opening day fast approaching, it's a great time to find out more about this early baseball slugger who set several records yet to be broken.

Big Sam Thompson was one of 11 children born to Jesse and Rebecca McPheeters in Danville, Indiana on March 5, 1860.

Jesse Thompson was a Union soldier with Indiana's 63rd Volunteers during the Civil War. Jesse learned the then-new game of baseball in the Army and brought the game back home to Danville to share with his sons.

Baseball became big in Danville, with the town fielding four amateur teams and games drawing as many as 1,000 spectators to games.

The Thompson boys were all big kids, each standing at least 6 foot tall and weighing about 200 pounds, which was unusually large for men during the 1800s.

Baseball fans throughout central Indiana soon knew about the Thompson boys and Danville Browns teammates for their baseball skills.

"Hustling Dan O'Leary", whose career included stints as a baseball player, team manager, theatrical manager and freelance court reporter, can claim credit for discovering Sam Thompson.

O'Leary came through Danville with a pro team and the idea of scouting Sam's older brother Cy during an exhibition game. He decided that the then-26-year-old Cy was too old to begin a pro baseball career, and Sam's younger brother William, who was 6 years younger than Sam, was too young. O'Leary decided that the then 24-year-old Sam seemed the just the right age to enter pro baseball.

Danville's mayor bragged that the Browns would win the game if Sam played, which fueled O'Leary's desire to see Big Sam in action.

Sam declined O'Leary's request to see him play as the young carpenter was working on a roof and needed to finish it to earn a much-needed $2.50 he would earn by doing the job. O'Leary, determined see Sam play, paid Sam $5 to play the game instead of finishing the roof. The Danville team beat the pro team from Indy 9-0.

And so, Sam Thompson became a professional baseball player, playing first for a team in the Northwestern League from Evansville, Indiana in 1884, and then playing with the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the Western League in 1885 after the Evansville team folded. Soon, several teams in the Western League disbanded and league play stopped.

O'Leary lived in Detroit and convinced the owner of Detroit's National League team, the Wolverines, to sign Thompson.

Thompson got set to don a Wolverine uniform, but there was a problem. The team couldn't find a uniform big enough to fit Big Sam, and he made his major league debut by splitting his pants as he ran into second base after hitting a double.

Still, Sam quickly became a fan favorite and won the respect of his fellow baseball players with his impressive skills.

He led Detroit in batting during his first full year with the team in 1886. He became the first player in major league history to get more than 200 hits in a season in 1887 and racked up a total of 166 RBIs that same year, a record that stood for 34 years until Babe Ruth broke it in 1921.

Outfielder Thompson, with his batting and fielding prowess, helped lead the Wolverines to a National League pennant and an 1887 World Series victory over the St. Louis Browns of the American Association.

The Wolverines folded in 1888 due to a poor season finish and financial problems, so the Philadelphia Quakers acquired Thompson. The Quakers soon became the Philadelphia Phillies, and Thompson remained with the team until 1898.

Thompson became the first Major League player to get 20 home runs and to steal 20 bases during the 1889 season. He led the league in home runs in 1889 and 1895.

Back problems led to his retirement from the Phillies in 1898.

Thompson retired to Detroit, where he worked as a U.S. Marshall and as a bailiff in the federal court in Detroit.

He also played for the Detroit Athletic Club's amateur baseball team until persuaded to join the Detroit Tigers for a stand of home games in 1906. The 46-year-old Thompson played alongside a then-19-year-old Ty Cobb in Cobb's first season as a Tiger and became one of the oldest players to hit a triple.

Thompson retired from baseball for good, after his final game as a professional player with the Tigers on September 10, 1906.

Thompson was the only nineteenth-century player to drive in 150-plus home runs in a season (achieving that total twice).  He was a strong fielder and batter, retiring with career records of 1256 home runs, 1299 RBIs, a .331 lifetime batting average and 127 home runs. His lifetime RBIs/game record of .923 still stands today ahead of baseball greats like Babe Ruth, Hank Greenberg, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.

Baseball authorities really never appreciated Thompson's talents during his lifetime, but later baseball historians studied and gave Thompson full credit for his stats and status as one of the sport's truly great players.

Thompson collapsed from a heart attack while working as an election inspector in Detroit on November 6, 1922. He died the next day.

Crowds gathered for a parade through town and for Thompson's burial in Detroit's historic Elmwood Cemetery.

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, inducted Thompson in 1974. The Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame followed suit in 1979.

Danville erected their marker honoring Thompson in 2006.

We visited Thompson's grave in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery on a recent snowy March day, pausing a moment to remember an early Detroit Tigers star and anticipate the coming of spring and yet another baseball season.

Check out my story of another early Midwestern baseball player, the first African American to play Major League baseball, Moses Fleetwood Walker, Ohio baseball pioneer.

Thanks to Visit Hendricks County for sponsoring my visit to Hendricks County, providing lodging, meals and a tour of Hendricks County attractions for my review during my recent visit there, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for December 2012

Check out some of these great Midwest-related stories I read online as we closed out 2012:

• Black Star Farms: A Fantastic Destination-We've visited the wine tasting room Black Star Farms at Sutton's Bay, Michigan, several times in the past, so I enjoyed this account of a visit there at The Wine Monologues of a Wine Enthusiast blog. I enjoy the winery's Rieslings, and during our last visit, we stopped by the Leelanau Cheese creamery tucked behind the Black Star Farms tasting room to sample (and take home) some of the fab Raclette Cheese.
  
  
• Planning a Visit to Traders Point Creamery-Nicole takes readers of her Arrows Sent Forth blog to another great Midwest creamery. Traders Point Creamery is one of the country's only all-organic dairy farms, and it looks like a great place to visit with your family and sample some ice cream!

• Bath School Disaster-The recent tragedy at Newtown, Connecticut reminded Debra Ann Pawlak of the disturbing story of the worst act of violence against a school. I read this sad story about a year or so ago in a book about the 1927 tragedy in mid-Michigan which claimed the lives of 45 people, most of them children.

• CLE Reads: Les Roberts' Whiskey Island-I was thrilled to read Amanda's review of author Les Roberts' latest book in his Milan Jacovich mystery series at the Clue into Cleveland blog. I got Tim hooked on the series after buying him the first couple of books in at when I visited Ohio for a writers conference. We didn't know about this newest addition to the series, or the one immediately preceding it. Thanks for helping me do some Christmas shopping, Amanda!

• Finding Hendricks County's Historical Markers-Eric posts this report on the county's All Access blog, and includes a couple of the markers I saw on my own trip there recently. I'll be posting more of my stories about Hendricks County, which will include my take on a couple of these markers, in coming months. Meanwhile, I'll be looking for Eric's take on Hendricks' Samuel Luther Thompson marker. Thompson played with the Detroit Tigers baseball team in the early 1900s, so it was a must-see site for me when I was there.
  
  
  

 

• Indianapolis Collected: A Dirty Tale of Mudpack Marketing-Libby shares some dirty tales of the "toilet" concerns of Indianapolis citizens over the years at the Historic Indianapolis blog. I do appreciate the sense of humor displayed here in what could be a more pedestrian story about cosmetic products made and marketed in Indianapolis during the early 1900s. This blog always offers a fun and interesting look at Indianapolis history.

• The Beauty of Cleveland's Guitar Mania at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-Justin shares his collection of photos of decorated guitars at his InACents blog. Artists decorated 54 large guitars that later were on display throughout Cleveland, but Justin happened to catch the collection when it was displayed together in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum last summer.

• Family Cabins at Brown County State Park-I've enjoyed staying at a couple of Ohio's State Park inns, and I've always wanted to try staying at the lodges or cabins in one of Indiana's State Parks. Check out Nicole's story at the Indiana Insider blog about her family's stay in a cabin at Brown County State Park.

• Ohio Caverns-You wouldn't think of Ohio as a place to find cool caverns, but think differently! Michael shares this report about some of the state's visitor-friendly caverns at the Discover Ohio blog.

• Born & Raised in South Detroit-Sorry Steve Perry and Journey, but there is no such place as South Detroit. Farlane shares one of my favorite pieces of trivia and a great photo taken by DetroitDerek at the Michigan in Pictures blog. Yup, Canada is -south- of Detroit, something I've pointed out myself multiple times over the years!
  
  
  
• Meet Christian Clemens, founder of Mt. Clemens-Check out Amy's story about Mt. Clemens founding at her Night Train blog. I've always been fascinated with Ohio's canals, and Michigan's lack thereof, so I especially enjoyed learning about Christian Clemens' connection to Michigan's ill-fated Clinton-Kalamazoo canal.

© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved

Eating on the Road: Ohio's Skyline Chili

Jessie Voigts shares our affection for Skyline Chili! I love chili, but I don't like it with beans, so I choose Skyline's signature three-way chili - spaghetti topped with chili and a mountain of finely shredded cheddar cheese! And, yes, as Jessie suggests, I make it a point to stock up on canned Skyline Chili at a local grocery store when I visit Ohio!

You know you’re driving through Ohio when you see Skyline Chili and immediately pull off of the road for lunch!

Skyline Chili is a sure sign that you’re in Ohio – and it’s the Official Chili of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.

Haven’t had Skyline Chili? Check it out – you’re in for a treat!

Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides started Skyline Chili in 1949. His dream was to share unique, delicious recipes with friends and family.

His first restaurant overlooked the skyline of Cincinnati, and a legend was born.

Nowadays, you can get your coneys, chili cheese fries, chili sandwiches, and, of course, Cincinnati chili several ways (with beans, with onions, and always with a healthy serving of chili atop the spaghetti noodles, and then a mound of shredded cheddar cheese).

You can even spot cans of Skyline Chili in local grocery stores.

I don’t like fast food, so when we travel, I like to find local places and support them. Although Skyline is a chain, it's a local chain, and service at the table is fast. It’s a great choice for when you’re driving in Ohio and need a bite to eat.

Eat at Skyline and you’ll be taking part in an Ohio tradition that’s over a half-century old. And that’s my style. YUM!

Jessie Voigts is the publisher of Wandering Educators, a travel resource for global educators. Love to learn about the world? Head to http://www.WanderingEducators.com

Text and Photos © Jessie Voigts 2012. All rights reserved, used with permission

(Be sure to check out my story, Take me out to the ball game, which includes mention of my trip to see the Cincinnati Reds and sampling Skyline Chili at the ballpark!-DDK)

Photo Friday: Traverse City Beach Bums team mascots

We had a great time watching a recent a Beach Bums baseball game in Traverse City, Michigan. It was a beautiful night, and the home team produced a victory for their fans.

Team mascots like the Bums' bears, Suntan and Sunburn, are always fun to watch, and the minor league team mascots always seem to be especially active and interactive with the fans.

Suntan helps Sunburn with his pre-game stretch



Watching the pre-game warm ups

A little dancing and air guitar!


Watching the game...


...Suntan can't resist a little bit of flirting


Dancing atop the dugout

Check out yesterday's story for more about our night with the Beach Bums.

Thanks to Crystal Mountain Resort, for the ticket vouchers for our return trip to see the Beach Bums play this summer.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

Catching a Traverse City Beach Bums baseball game

We caught a Traverse City Beach Bums baseball game during the team's inaugural season in 2006, and it was a lot of fun revisiting the team during a recent trip to northern Michigan earlier this summer.

Wuerfel Park entrance

Attending a game at the team's Wuerfel Park is a fun experience, and it can be an especially budget- and family-friendly outing. Tickets are reasonably priced, as are parking and concession prices (two adult admissions to the chairback sections, two grilled kielbasas, parking, two beverages, two small bags of caramel corn and a game program added up to less than $50 at 2011 prices).

If you plan to have a beer during the game, be sure to stop by the I.D. Check Station and get a wristband near the front entrance as you arrive at the game.

We also liked the fact that the there are two concession stands at opposite corners of the ball park where you can watch as they cook your hot dog or burger on an open grill.

We had great seats in the second row near third base, but the view seemed good from wherever we went in the ball park. We checked out the view from atop the grass berms in the lawn seating section beyond the outfield, a great option for families who want to spread out a picnic blanket and have easy access to the playground near this section.

The Beach Bums are in the Frontier League, a low-level professional league where the pitching can be a little slower, but we were fortunate enough to see a great pitching performance by Bums' pitcher David Deminsky. Deminsky pitched the complete game, and the Beach Bums bested the Normal (Illinois) Cornbelters 7-1.

Want to learn more about life in the Frontier League? Check out Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League with Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire by Mike Shannon.

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for a photo feature of the Beach Bums' cute, cuddly bear mascots, Suntan and Sunburn.

Thanks to Crystal Mountain Resort, for the ticket vouchers for our return trip to see the Beach Bums play this summer.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Traverse City

Catching a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game

We grabbed the chance to catch a Pirates' baseball game when we recently visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a family party.

Pittsburgh's PNC ballpark, opened in 2001, has the open design favored by a lot of the newer ballparks, but it makes particularly good use of the city's skyline and its location on the shore of the Allegheny River. Most fans have a great view of the cityscape and the Roberto Clemente (or Sixth Street) Bridge from their seats, plus the two-deck design means the highest seat in the house is just 88 feet from the ball field.

The PNC ballpark is the fifth home of the Pirates since 1887, when they joined the National League. The team has a long and interesting history, which includes playing in the first World Series in 1903 (when they lost to the Boston Americans 5-3), being coached by current Detroit Tigers' coach Jim Leyland from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, and having legendary players like Honus Wagner (who has the distinction of being pictured on one of the world's rarest baseball cards).

We had a great view of the field and Pittsburgh's downtown from our seats along the third baseline, and the seats were amazingly comfortable for being in the middle of the row.

We had a perfect view of Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis' crazy batting stance, too. I'm still puzzling over how the pitchers figure out where to throw the ball to him.

I love checking out the crazy promotions and local eats you find at sporting events. Pittsburgh has its bright-green parrot mascot to whip up enthusiasm for the Bucs (one of the team's nicknames derived from "buccaneer"), a between-innings race between four folks dressed as pierogies, and local delicacies like the massive coleslaw- and fries-topped beef sandwich I got from Primanti Brothers concession stand, along with a Yuengling beer to wash it all down.

We got to the ballpark by riding on the "T" (trolley or train) from the suburbs and taking it right downtown.

The city closes the Roberto Clemente Bridge to vehicular traffic on game days, opening it entirely to pedestrians crossing the river and going to the game. Tim tipped his family off to my affection for bridges, so we got off of the T a stop earlier so I could walk across the Smithfield and the Roberto Clemente Bridges on the way to the game (and, yes, there will be Pittsburgh bridge stories here sometime later this year!).

The Pirates took two games of the three-series they played with Boston that weekend, although they lost the game we saw to Boston 2-4.

Still, bridges, baseball, a sandwich nearly as big as my head, and some Yuengling beer made my day at the ballpark with the Pirates a winner.

Curious about the Pirates, Honus Wagner and Roberto Clemente? Check out The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates by Bruce Markusen, Pittsburgh Pirates by David Finoli, or Honus Wagner: On His Life & Baseball edited by William R. Cobb.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

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