EXPERIENCE THE REAL THING ILLINOIS INDIANA MICHIGAN MINNESOTA OHIO PENNSYLVANIA WISCONSIN
www.greatlakesnorthamerica.co.uk
Highlights Minnesota is a shopper’s dream! The area hosts the largest mall in the country, Mall of America in Bloomington, featuring 520 stores, 60 restaurants, 7 nightclubs and the largest U.S. indoor amusement park - Camp Snoopy. The Minneapolis/Saint Paul area also offers incredible downtown shopping and neighbourhoods packed with quaint shops and boutiques. With NO SALES TAX on clothing, your shopping bags are bound to be full! Two times the city, twice the experience! Minneapolis and Saint Paul are two distinctive cities, neighbours located along the banks of the Mississippi River that together offer travellers an incredible variety of culture, entertainment, sightseeing, first-class lodging and unlimited dining options. Hotels in suburban Bloomington offer free shuttles to and from the airport and Mall of America. The new light rail line makes it even faster and easier to get around -- connecting the best shopping, hotels, nightlife and entertainment the area has to offer. Take the Hiawatha Line from the Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Airport to the heart of Minneapolis' downtown and back to Mall of America in Bloomington, or hop on one of our city busses to go to Saint Paul or points in between. It’s easy and economical!
Don’t miss the North Shore Drive along Lake Superior – now designated as an All American Road for its unique scenic beauty. The Sawtooth Mountains on one side, and the largest lake in the world on the other, provide spectacular views and scenic overlooks.
In the US: Explore Minnesota Tourism www.exploreminnesota.com E-mail: explore@state.mn.us In the United Kingdom: Great Lakes of North America Cellet Travel Services, Ltd. Telephone: 01564 794 999 Fax: 01564 795 333 www.greatlakesnorthamerica.co.uk E-mail: yolanda@cellet.co.uk
Minnesota's 10,000 lakes offer boating, fishing and many outdoor recreational opportunities. Nature in the cities is abundant, for instance, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge has recorded over 200 species of birds, and is just 2 miles from MSP International Airport! In addition, golf at world-class resort spas in northern Minnesota and within the metro area at courses that have hosted the PGA, the US Open and other professional golf tournaments.
Explore More: Minneapolis – Vibrant. Beautiful. Cosmopolitan. Naturally sophisticated. You'll love our style! www.minneapolis.org Saint Paul – Classy. Stately. Charming. Delightfully appealing. You’ll love it here! www.visitsaintpaul.com
Bloomington – Home of Mall of America, 33 affordable hotels, light rail, free Mall and airport shuttles! www.bloomingtonmn.org Mall of America – Shop ‘til you Drop! Experience 520 stores, 60 restaurants and attractions galore. And, No Sales Tax on Clothing! www.mallofamerica.com
INTRODUCTION
GREAT LAKES – GREAT STATES Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
Hiking in Wisconsin
Come with us to an exciting and relatively unknown area of the United States of America. An area approximately the size of Europe with thousands of sparkling lakes, rivers and streams, including the five Great Lakes – virtually vast ‘inland seas’ – and the mighty Mississippi River, mile-upon-mile of wide sandy beaches, scores of photogenic lighthouses, some of the world’s
highest sand dunes and dramatic inland landscapes carved by Ice Age glaciers. The Great Lakes of North America region is also a land of deep forests filled with wildlife, endless rolling prairies rippling with fields of grain, and a huge number of outdoor adventure opportunities, ranging from canoeing, fishing and golf to skiing, dog sledding and snowmobiling. On its shores and inland are the homes of more American Indian tribes than in any other area east of the Mississippi River and welcoming towns and villages founded in the 18th and 19th centuries by French, English, German, Swiss, Scandinavian and numerous other national groups.
Then there are the legendary cities: magnificent Chicago, third largest city in the USA, with its spectacular skyscrapers and superb museums and performing arts – not forgetting great shopping, dining and nightlife; handsome, historic Philadelphia, the ‘birthplace of America’ and exciting, dramatically-sited Pittsburgh with its modern art museums; Detroit, where America’s motoring industry and irresistible Motown music were born; Cleveland, the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll and the great river city of Cincinnati; Indianapolis, home of the world-renowned Indy 500 races; the treasure-filled ‘Twin Cities’ of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, best known for the bargain-filled Mall of America; and vibrant Milwaukee
The Great Lakes of North America region is also a land of deep forests filled with wildlife, endless rolling prairies rippling with fields of grain, and a huge number of outdoor adventure opportunities.
where you can enjoy everything from a tour of a Harley-Davidson plant to a visit to an historic Great Lakes sailing ship. And – great news – it’s so easy to get there via flights from the UK into Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Philadelphia as well as flights from Ireland into Chicago and Philadelphia. So what’s keeping you? Come on over!
CONTENTS 4
REGIONAL MAP and GREAT LAKES FACTS
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GREAT LAKES – Great Outdoor Adventures
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ILLINOIS – My Kind of Town, My Kind of State
10 INDIANA – Motoring Magic and More 14 MICHIGAN – Where the Four Lakes Meet 17 GREAT LAKES – Great Shopping 18 MINNESOTA – Water, Water, Everywhere 20 OHIO – The All-American State 23 PENNSYLVANIA – Through Ben Franklin’s Eyes 26 WISCONSIN – City and Country Adventures 28 GREAT LAKES – Great Driving Tours
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is surrounded by three rivers
Steamboats in Cincinnati
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FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND
THE REGION DULUTH ●
Lake Superior
MINNESOTA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
MARQUETTE
●
MICHIGAN
● MACKINAC ISLAND
SAINT PAUL
● MINNEAPOLIS
✪
WISCONSIN ●
GREEN BAY
MILWAUKEE
MADISON
✪
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Lake M ichigan
Lake Huron
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rio Onta Lake
MICHIGAN ✪ LANSING ●
CHICAGO
e Eri ke a ●ERIE L
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DETROIT
CLEVELAND
●
SOUTH BEND
PENNSYLVANIA ●
PITTSBURGH
✪ HARRISBURG PHILADELPHIA ●
OHIO COLUMBUS
ILLINOIS
✪
INDIANAPOLIS
✪SPRINGFIELD www.gochicago.com
✪ INDIANA
● CINCINNATI
EVANSVILLE
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great lakes facts
www.EnjoyIndiana.com
LOCATION Set along the Canadian border between the Midwest and north-eastern USA.
www.DiscoverOhio.com
INCLUDED Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. LAND AREA Approximately 364,000 square miles. CLIMATE Usually a pleasant fresh spring, a hot sunny summer, a beautiful vibrant autumn and a crisp cold winter. www.michigan.org
www.exploreminnesota.com
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TIME ZONES The eastern part of the region – Pennsylvania, Ohio and all but portions of north-western Indiana and Michigan – are in the Eastern Standard Time Zone (five hours behind the UK) and Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin are in the Central Time Zone (six hours behind the UK). UK & IRISH CONTACTS The Great Lakes of North America Tourist Office c/o Cellet Travel Services Ltd, Brook House, 47 High Street, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire B95 5AA Tel: 01564 794999 E-mail: info@cellet.co.uk or visit www.greatlakesnorthamerica.co.uk Callers from Ireland should dial +44 1564 794999
www.visitpa.com
www.travelwisconsin.com
OUTDOOR
GREAT LAKES
GREAT OUTDOOR ADVENTURES With four of the Great Lakes, much of the mighty Mississippi River and thousands of other lakes and rivers within its borders, it’s hardly surprising that the Great Lakes of North America region is a Mecca for boaters, swimmers, fishermen and jet skiers. What may be lesser known is the region’s huge range of land-based outdoor adventures. You may have heard about the great fishing, boating and beaches along Pennsylvania’s and Ohio’s Lake Erie waterfront, or even about the water sports available in Pennsylvania’s Delaware River Gap region, but did you know that Pennsylvania has more than two dozen ski resort areas, that you can hang-glide in Hyner View State Park or view the eastern USA’s largest herd of elk from a special scenic drive in the ‘Pennsylvania Wilds’? Or that in Ohio you can bike along 800 miles of trail or hike through the state’s south-eastern Hocking Hills where towering bluffs, natural caves and other amazing formations add to the allure of the rugged terrain? While in Chicago, you can sail out into Lake Michigan or play golf or beach volleyball along its shore. Or you can head south along
Sailboats at Mackinac Island, Michigan
legendary Route 66 and its connecting roads for the deep woodlands, numerous rivers and streams, and campsites of the 268,400-acre Shawnee National Forest. While there you can climb up dramatic rock formations, view waterfalls and a wide range of wildlife, boat or stroll along six rivers and creeks, picnic and go horseback riding.
Camping in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest
Indiana also has its recreationfilled parklands – notably its largest, Brown County State Park – but its special treat is the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, sited only 50 miles south-east of Chicago and offering 15,000 acres of dunes, beaches and wooded trails. In Michigan you can explore the world’s largest and highest range of freshwater sand dunes by dune buggy. And, with 3,200 miles of shoreline wrapped around two peninsulas and surrounded by three Great Lakes, Michigan is also great for water sports and photography – particularly as it has more lighthouses (nearly 120) than any other state. Then there are its public golf courses – more per capita than any other state – and, in winter, skiing, dog sledding and snowmobiling.
Dog sledding in Minnesota
Biking in Wisconsin
If you prefer water sports you can always white-water-raft down its turbulent rivers and play hide-and-seek by kayak amongst the sea caves of the 21 islands. Minnesota is particularly well known for its 1,500 miles of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness along the Canadian border, but you can also play golf on more than 450 courses, participate in numerous winter sports and follow in the steps of those filmic Grumpy Old Men, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, by going ice fishing. Golfers rave about Wisconsin’s courses but if you prefer water sports you can always white-water raft down its turbulent rivers and play hide-and-seek by kayak amongst the sea caves of the 21 islands constituting its Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. And where better to canoe than along the 250 miles of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, keeping your eye out en route for glimpses of eagles, ospreys, owls and beavers? 5
great lakes of North america
ILLINOIS
www.gochicago.com
You may set out from the UK for Illinois with only one thing in mind – to spend as much time as possible in stunning, scintillating Chicago, America’s third largest city and the major gateway to the Great Lakes region. Frank Sinatra’s “my kind of town” and poet Carl Sandburg’s “city of the big shoulders” is vibrant, full of architectural and cultural attractions, fun and a great place to shop! But, then – to make your trip even more memorable – consider spending a few more days on a treasure hunt through the rest of the state.
Photo: Vito Palmisano
MY KIND OF TOWN AND MY KIND OF STATE
BY MARY MOORE MASON
Begin by heading south from the city on legendary Route 66, which bisects Illinois for 300 miles on its 2,400-mile journey to Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. All along the way are reminders of the carefree post-World War II years when Americans set out to discover their own country. There are perky little diners and mom and pop restaurants, Art Deco-style motels and flamboyant neon signs, drive-in movies and old-timey petrol stations, particularly in and around Springfield, 200 miles south of Chicago. Here, in the state capital, you’re also at the heart of the ‘Land of Lincoln’ where a visit to the fascinating new Abraham Lincoln 6
Chicago's Lake Michigan skyline and Navy Pier; below: A figure of Abraham Lincoln at his namesake Springfield museum
Presidential Library & Museum is an absolute must. Far from being a mere paean to a past president, the museum is filled with colourful dioramas depicting Lincoln’s private and public life and the turbulent Civil War and slavery times in which he lived. There are also dramatisations using both live actors and holograms, and provocative interactive exhibits. While in the city, you can visit Lincoln’s
ILLINOIS STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Springfield POPULATION: 12,419,293 SIZE: 56,400 square miles NICKNAMES: Land of Lincoln TIME OF STATEHOOD: December 3, 1818
ILLINOIS
FUN THING S TO DO
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Lie back and enjoy the stunning
1 skyscraper scenery on a Chicago Architectural Foundation River Cruise. The 90-minute cruises down the Chicago River run from early May until late November. Another option: a guided architectural walking tour. A statue of Ulysses S. Grant in Galena, once his home; right: cruising down the Chicago River.
Bordered by Kentucky and the Ohio River, southern Illinois is an area of deep forests, state parks, lakes and dramatic rock formations. home, law office and tomb, both the historic Old State Capitol and the handsome present day State Capitol and the Dana-Thomas State Historic Site, one of America’s most perfectly preserved early Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Just 20 miles to the north-west is the restored frontier town of New Salem where ‘Honest Abe’ spent his young adulthood as a shopkeeper, postmaster, surveyor and captain of the local militia. Other cities with Lincoln associations include Galesburg in western Illinois where you can visit the birthplace cottage of his Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Carl Sandburg. From here it’s a quick trip east to historic Peoria, overlooking the Illinois River, or west to the Great River Road paralleling the mighty Mississippi River. Along the road are such interesting towns and cities as picturesque Galena, where you can visit the home of General/later US President Ulysses S. Grant; Nauvoo, site of an early Mormon settlement;
the Quad Cities area, where you can view current and historic farm and industrial equipment at the John Deere & Company Pavilion, and Alton, one of a number of river towns offering both riverboat cruises and casino gambling. To its south are Cahokia, the state’s oldest (1699) town, and the Cahokia Mounds, the remarkable remains of the largest prehistoric American Indian city north of
Mexico. Bordered by Kentucky and the Ohio River, southern Illinois is an area of deep forests, state parks, lakes and dramatic rock formations, whereas much of central Illinois, bordered to the east by the Wabash River, is rolling, fertile agricultural country punctuated by university and commercial cities and by the Amish farming communities of Arthur and Arcola. To the north are Rockford, Illinois’s second largest city and home to such magnificent public gardens as Anderson Japanese Gardens; Woodstock with its wealth of Victorian architecture; Aurora, site➤
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Enjoy the numerous attractions on Navy Pier, jutting out into Lake Michigan and housing everything from good restaurants and the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre to the Chicago Children’s Museum, a huge Ferris wheel and a musical carousel.
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Attend a concert of the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus at the stunning new Frank Gehrydesigned Pritzker Pavilion in lakefront Millennium Park.
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Learn about President Lincoln and his family and the time in which they lived at Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
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Boating in Shawnee National Forest; right: Bill Shea and his wife at Springfield’s
Spend a half-hour chatting about Route 66 with Bill Shea, 85, the colourful owner and manager of Springfield’s Route 66 Gas Station Museum. Then order a batter-covered hotdog (don’t dare call it a corndog!) on a stick at the nearby Cozy Dog Drive In.
Route 66 Gas Station Museum
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A reminder that 300 miles of Route 66
A red hot night in Blue Chicago
pass through Illinois Cynthia Howe
Mark A. Lansky
➤ of the new Chicago Premium
Outlets discount shopping mall; Gurnee, where families enjoy the theme parks Six Flags Great America and its new Six Flags Hurricane Harbor; Ravinia, in Highland Park, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs throughout the summer; Schaumburg, home of the massive Woodfield Mall, and Wilmette, where you can view the majestic Baha’i House of Worship and relax on a beach overlooking Lake Michigan. Just south on Lake Michigan, Chicago’s skyline is dramatised by some of the world’s most stunning skyscrapers, including the Sears Tower, the highest building in North America. The area’s other architectural and artistic treasures
include tranquil Oak Park’s array of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Prairie-style homes and Chicago’s numerous modern sculptures – here a Picasso, there a Calder or an Anish Kapoor – both in the city centre and in the new lakefront Millennium Park. That’s not to forget the magnificent, world-class – and recently expanded – Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. Then there are the worldrenowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra, some 200 theatres, a variety of jazz, blues and comedy clubs, opera, ballet and some 5,600 restaurants in the central business district alone. As for the fabulous shopping, where do you begin (or
Illinois, particularly Chicago, has appeared in so many films that it’s hard to make a choice. The University of CAPTURED Chicago campus was the departure point for Meg ON FILM Ryan and Billy Crystal’s memorable car journey in When Harry Met Sally; Matthew Broderick and his mates admired some of the same Art Institute of Chicago paintings you will view in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney and/or Cameron Diaz pop up in scenes along the Chicago River, Lake Shore Drive and the Drake Hotel in My Best Friend’s Wedding; John Goodman, as baseball legend Babe Ruth, hit a home run or two in Wrigley Field in The Babe, and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd generally run amok in the ‘Windy City’ in The Blues Brothers. Incidentally, if you’re heading north drive through suburban Winnetka – this is where young Macaulay Culkin outfoxed Joe Pesci and a fellow burglar in Home Alone. (John Candy also spent some time here in Uncle Buck.)
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ILLINOIS
✈ GATEWAY FROM THE UK AND IRELAND: Chicago is served from London Heathrow by direct American Airlines, British Airways and United Airlines flights; from Manchester by bmi and American Airlines, which also links Glasgow and Chicago (summer only). There is also a service from Heathrow via Amsterdam by KLM/Northwest. American Airlines and Aer Lingus offer direct flights from Dublin.
Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture enhances Chicago's Millennium Park
Just south on Lake Michigan, Chicago’s skyline is dramatised by some of the world’s most stunning skyscrapers, including the Sears Tower, the highest building in North America.
Grant Wood's American Gothic in the Art Institute of Chicago
stop)? Just for starters there are North Michigan Avenue’s ‘Magnificent Mile’, lined by major department stores, vertical malls
and scores of shops; the chic little side streets with boutiques boasting top designer labels, and State Street’s landmark Marshall Field’s, the birthplace of the department store. In addition there are numerous other neighbourhood shopping areas and the huge malls surrounding the city. Speaking of neighbourhoods, you shouldn’t leave Chicago
without visiting at least one of its numerous and colourful ethnic enclaves such as Little Italy, Greektown or the Ukranian Village, or without enjoying one of the many flamboyant annual parades or festivals. To best experience these areas take a Chicago Neighborhood Tour or go on a free tour with a Chicago Greeter specialising in your particular area or subject of interest.
Millennium Park's Frank Gehrydesigned Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Mary Moore Mason, the Londonbased editor of Essentially America magazine has been to Chicago on several splendid shopping (and cultural) safaris and has the credit card bills to prove it.
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great lakes of North america
INDIANA
www.EnjoyIndiana.com
MOTORING MAGIC AND MORE
There are several theories as to why the good people of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. Some say the name comes from a French word for a country person while others think it refers to someone who dwells in the hills. Perhaps it was the name given to the workmen employed by a builder named Samuel Hoosier, or maybe the name comes from a call of “who’s here?” It seems no one knows for sure – not even the Hoosiers. BY TINA EDISS
But however the state residents got their name, one thing is for sure – Indiana has produced its fair share of famous people, among them: actors James Dean and Steve McQueen, entertainers and musicians Cole Porter and Michael Jackson, TV celebrity David Letterman, Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis and US President Abraham Lincoln, who spent some of his early years in the state. Fly into Indianapolis, the modern, centrally-located state capital, ascend to the top of its 284ft-tall 1902 Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument and you’ll see why Indiana is known as ‘The Crossroads of America’. For jutting out from Monument Circle like spokes from a wheel are roads going in all different directions – Indianapolis, they say, is bisected by more highways than any other city in America. Among them is America’s first
A vintage auto at South Bend’s Studebaker National Museum
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INDIANA STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Indianapolis POPULATION: 6,080,485 SIZE: 36,185 square miles NICKNAMES: Hoosier State TIME OF STATEHOOD: 11 December 1816
Monument Circle is the hub of Indianapolis; below: actor James Dean is an Indiana icon
federally funded interstate highway – the National Road, now designated an All-American Road. And among the places to which they lead are several museums exhibiting splendid automobiles dating back to the 1900s when Indiana – with 60 car manufacturers – ranked second in the USA for the number of cars it produced. But before you head out to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn or to South Bend’s Studebaker National Museum, you’ll want to visit the ‘Racing Capital of the World’s’ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. It
tells the story of such premiere annual events as the Indy 500, the Formula One United States Grand Prix and NASCAR’S Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. After you gawk at the winning cars you can spin around the speedway’s track on a bus tour – just don’t expect to travel more than 20mph! You can also visit the handsome 1888 Indiana Statehouse and the recently expanded Indianapolis Museum of Art, attend a concert or exhibition at the Artsgarden, or spend
an afternoon at White River State Park, near downtown, where you can learn more about the state’s history at the Indiana State Museum, and about its Native American heritage at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, which doubled in size in 2005. If travelling with children, make sure to include a visit to the Indianapolis Zoo’s unique new Dolphin Adventure Pavilion and to the
INDIANA
FUN THING S TO DO
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Visit Historic New Harmony in
1south-western Indiana’s scenic Wabash River Valley. Established by the early 19th-century Harmony Society as a utopian community, it has been called “a vacationer’s dream and a researcher’s paradise”.
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Rent a rustic cabin in hilly south-central Indiana's Brown County State Park, the largest in the state and full of opportunities to hike, bike and enjoy the area's artisan heritage. It's also particularly beautiful during the fall foliage season and located between Columbus, famous for its architecture, and Bloomington, home of Indiana University.
Sandy beaches and huge dunes overlook Lake Michigan
If you love the outdoors a road trip in Indiana will reveal surprising landscapes. You can enjoy towering mountains of sand at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore along Lake Michigan and follow the twists and turns of the Ohio River Scenic Byway. Dinosphere: Now You’re in Their World exhibition in the splendid Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. HIT THE ROAD If you love the outdoors a road trip in Indiana will reveal surprising landscapes. You can enjoy towering mountains of sand at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
along Lake Michigan, follow the twists and turns of the Ohio River Scenic Byway or the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail and find beauty underground at such stunning southern Indiana caves as Squire Boone Caverns, discovered in 1790 by pioneer Daniel Boone and his brother. All along the way you can bike,
Considering its passion for sports, it’s hardly surprising that some of CAPTURED the best films about Indiana have ON FILM featured baseball and basketball. Huntingburg’s League Stadium in south-western Indiana was a setting for the 1992 film A League of Their Own which followed the fortunes of a World War II women’s baseball team, including Geena Davis and Madonna, led by grumpy manager Tom Hanks. The Athenaum, a popular Indianapolis landmark known
A Father Christmas statue in Santa Claus, Indiana South Bend’s University of Notre Dame
hike, canoe, fish, golf and ski. Abraham Lincoln spent his early years (1816 – 1830) in southern Indiana and the area is now home to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial and related sites. Exhibits at the History Center in Indianapolis➤
for its theatre and beer garden, was a backdrop in Eight Men Out, inspired by a baseball scandal and featuring John Cusack and Charlie Sheen. And Hoosiers, starring Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey, was filmed in the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as well as in the Hoosier Gymnasium in Knightstown, east of Indianapolis on the Historic National Road. The small town of Milan in south-eastern Illinois was the home of the film’s inspiration – a real-life basketball team which beat all odds to win a state championship in 1954.
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Enjoy a ride on the new Voyage, one of the world’s longest, fastest roller coasters at Holiday World, and then cool off at Splashin’ Safari, Indiana’s largest water park. Both are in the same facility located in the town of Santa Claus in southern Indiana.
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Watch a fun-filled performance or visit the museum in the Circus Hall of Fame, sited in Peru in central Indiana.
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Learn more about Indiana’s farming practices and unique Native American heritage at the Museum at Prophetstown, set in a state park named for the American Indian ‘Prophet’, Tenskwatawa and his famous brother, Tecumseh, who persuaded 14 rival Indian tribes to form a coalition for their own protection.
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The world-renowned Indianapolis Motor Speedway
✈ GATEWAYS FROM THE UK AND IRELAND: Indiana is easily accessible from Cincinnati and Chicago, both served by daily direct air service from the UK. Chicago is also served by air service from Dublin.
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➤ and at Fort Wayne’s Lincoln
Museum also reflect Indiana’s Lincoln heritage. South Bend, near the northern border with Michigan and only 100-some miles east of Chicago, is not only home to the renowned University of Notre Dame, it’s also
crash in California in 1955 aged just the gateway to Elkhart and the 24, but lives on in such films as East picturesque Amish Country where you can enjoy the food, overnight of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and hospitality and 19thGiant, as well as in century lifestyle of this Fairmount’s James unique group of Dean Gallery, the people. Fairmount Historical Columbus in central Museum and in its Indiana is a showcase annual late for buildings of worldSeptember James class architects, Dean Festival. The including Eero Saarinen highlight is the and IM Pei, and the James Dean Look-aOhio River town of Like competition. It’s An Amish boy enjoying Madison is proud of its good, family fun in a watermelon mid-19th-century nice town – not just architecture – it has 133 blocks on Small Town America but Small the National Register of Historic Town America in the 1950s. Cool. Places, plus plenty of antique British freelancer shops. Tina Ediss – a If you love a good festival – and regular freelancer there are many in Indiana! – visit for Britain’s national Fairmount in east-central Indiana newspapers – “Where Cool was Born”. That’s Cool recently added Indiana to the list of as in James Dean who was born 18 American states she has visited. here in 1931. He was killed in a car
great lakes of North america
MICHIGAN
www.michigan.org
WHERE THE FOUR LAKES MEET
Michigan – the only state with shorelines on four of the five Great Lakes – is quite naturally the place to go for a swimming, boating or fishing holiday. But it’s not just the vacation opportunities offered by Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior, and their 3,200-miles of coastline, but also the rivers and smaller inland lakes that make Michigan such a favourite holiday destination. For here you can drift down a river in a canoe, catch a prize fish, climb 300ft-tall sand dunes and admire photogenic lighthouses. BY DONALD HISCOCK
A good place to base yourself is in attractive Traverse City. Set beside a bay between two peninsulas, it has sandy beaches, a charming Victorianera downtown and plenty of welcoming hotels. An easy drive north, followed by a short ferry ride, takes you across to Lake Huron’s Mackinac Island. This tranquil, car-free gem, with its Victorian architecture and spectacular hilltop fort, makes for a popular day trip or for a longer stay in a B&B or in The Grand Hotel, with its sweeping veranda and great views of the town. For a real taste of the great outdoors, continue over the Mackinaw Bridge to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, offering miles of open countryside as well as state parks, which are particularly appealing to hikers and backpackers.
MICHIGAN STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Detroit POPULATION: 5 million Downtown Detroit’s dramatic skyline
A STATE FOR ALL SEASONS The pleasures of northern Michigan aren’t confined to the long summer days. Skiing is very popular in winter and places like Crystal Mountain, 30 miles south-west of Traverse City, offer challenges and tuition for all ages and abilities. But then all of Michigan is full of winter fun, from snowmobiling to ice fishing. At Thunder Bay near Alpena horse-drawn sleighs drive up close to herds of elk, while at Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore rangers lead snowshoe hikes. Auto tycoon Henry Ford and a Model T Ford
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SIZE: 79,610 square miles (12th in size among the 50 states)
In spring, golfers start sizing up options for the season – and there are many to choose from. For instance, Gaylord, about three hours north of Detroit, has 25 courses and 24 hotel properties within a 30-mile radius. Michigan is also famed for its cherry production; there’s no nicer time to visit the orchards than in May when the trees are full of blossom. The farm shops and wineries make good places to stock up on local produce. And with all those trees, leaf peeping in the autumn becomes a state-wide pastime. Most people in Britain think only of New England in the autumn; those in the know recommend Michigan. Whatever the season, Grand Rapids’ Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park is a delight. Set in
NICKNAMES: The Great Lakes State TIME OF STATEHOOD: May 11, 1868 (32nd state)
Michigan’s second largest city, the 125-acre attraction features the state’s largest tropical conservatory, indoor and outdoor gardens and a three-storey-tall sculpture of a Leonardo da Vinci horse. While in south-west Michigan you should also swing by Lansing’s fascinating Michigan Historical Museum, which provides insight into the state from prehistoric to modern times. And then there’s the big city life in places like Detroit, which has been rapidly emerging in recent years to provide a mixture of downtown entertainment and world-class culture. For many people, the city is
MICHIGAN
FUN THING S TO DO
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Celebrate the Wright
1 Brothers’ first flight, tour the International Space Station and enjoy the amusing rides at Kalamazoo’s Air Zoo.
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Enjoy a drink or a meal of Polish cuisine in Cross Village’s Legs Inn, a medievallooking stone, timber and driftwood landmark building set on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.
Touring Mackinac Island's Knob Hill; right: there’s great golf at Thunder Bay
For a real taste of the great outdoors, continue over the Mackinaw Bridge to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula which offers miles of open countryside as well as state parks, which are particularly appealing to hikers and backpackers. forever connected with music and the history of the motorcar. Fans of both are well provided for. The Motown Historical Museum, home of the Motown Sound, is filled with rare photographs and memorabilia connected with such recording artists as the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. And The Henry Ford Museum in nearby Dearborn houses 12 acres of exhibits under one roof covering all aspects of the development of the automobile in American life. The adjacent Greenfield Village is an open-air museum devoted to the appreciation of America’s past through a collection of historic
✈ GATEWAY FROM THE UK: Detroit is served by British Airways from London Heathrow and by KLM/Northwest Airlines from London Gatwick.
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The magnificent Mackinac Bridge;
Go on a wine-tasting adventure in a 19thcentury barn at Baroda, located in the rolling hills of the state’s south-western region and offering wines, fruit brandies and microbrews.
right: Detroit’s Motown Museum
buildings. For instance, you can visit Thomas Edison’s laboratory and the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop, both carefully maintained to give visitors a unique glimpse of earlier times. For sports fans, Detroit has two modern stadiums. Comerica Park is home to baseball’s Tigers and nearby is Ford Field, home of the Lions football team. Both teams play right in the heart of downtown, making the place vibrant, especially on match
With its idyllic setting focused on the past and its popularity with honeymoon couples of today, it’s CAPTURED no wonder that Mackinac Island was chosen as the ON FILM location for the romantic 1980 movie Somewhere in Time, starring the late Christopher Reeve as a playwright staying at the Grand Hotel who travels back in time to woo an actress, portrayed by Jane Seymour, whose portrait he has seen in the hotel.
days. Just a short distance away are the cultural showpieces of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the renowned Detroit Institute of Fine Arts. With all towns in Michigan displaying a strong sense of civic pride there is always pleasure to be had from just taking potluck and exploring as your fancy takes you. In your travels you might even find a working Dutch windmill or a recreated Bavarian village. British freelance writer Donald Hiscock lived in Michigan for several years and loved it so much that he frequently takes his family back there for holidays.
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Take a scenic railway ride at Owosso’s Steam Railroading Institute. They may even put you in the driver’s seat of the famed Polar Express!
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Explore Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve. Located near Alpena, it covers 448 square miles of Lake Huron and more than 100 shipwrecks, spanning a century of Great Lakes shipping history. 15
Underwater Adventures® Aquarium
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Escape to over 520 stores, 50 restaurants and the nation’s largest indoor family amusement park. Experience leading attractions including Underwater Adventures® Aquarium, NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway, A.C.E.S. Flight Simulator, LEGO® and Dinosaur Walk Museum. For Mall of America® visitor information and hotel packages in Bloomington, Minnesota, call 952-858-8500 or visit moaspecialoffers.com. Enjoy convenient Light Rail Transit between Mall of America, Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and downtown Minneapolis.
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Tommy Bahama’s
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SHOPPING
GREAT LAKES
GREAT SHOPS Shop until you drop in the Great Lakes region? You bet! Where else can you find so many opportunities for retail therapy, such amazing bargains – particularly in the numerous discount outlet malls – such great exchange rates for your UK currency – and, at some places, absolutely no tax on clothing and shoes. For a start there’s Minnesota’s magnificent Mall of America, the largest shopping and entertainment centre in the USA with 520 shops, numerous restaurants and cinemas, and the country’s largest indoor family theme park. Not only is it conveniently sited in Bloomington between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, it’s linked by light rail with both Minneapolis and the ‘Twin Cities’ ’ international airport, regularly served by flights from London. Then there’s the treasury of shops in and around both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, both located in a state, like Minnesota, which has no sales tax on clothing. Downtown Philadelphia alone has more than 2,000 department stores and shops, including those in the Gallery at Market East, America's largest indoor urban shopping centre. And King of Prussia, only a half-hour’s drive away, claims to be the nation's largest retail shopping destination. In addition to Pittsburgh’s downtown ‘Golden Triangle’ shopping areas there’s the new Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills 33 miles north-east of the city. Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue, also known as ‘the Magnificent Mile’, is a shopaholic’s dream, offering six major department stores – Saks, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus among them – as well as numerous boutiques and designer showcases. There’s more of the same on such chic side streets as Oak Street, and
The Philadelphia area’s huge King of Prussia shopping mall
Minnesota’s Mall of America is the largest shopping and entertainment centre in the USA
don’t miss State Street’s majestic, 10 storey Marshall Field’s, the birthplace of department stores (Gordon Selfridge worked there before establishing his grand emporium in London’s Oxford Street). In Indiana’s downtown Indianapolis there’s a choice of the numerous shops in Circle Centre mall, anchored by a popular Nordstrom department store, boutiques along trendy Massachusetts Avenue and antique shops in Fountain Square. And in northern Indiana, as well as in other Amish areas throughout the region, you can find unique Pennsylvania Dutch arts, crafts and foods. Both Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin offer unique shops in picturesque areas. In Madison you can browse and buy in the eclectic speciality shops lining State Street mall, which is sited between the handsome State Capitol and the
University of Wisconsin. In Milwaukee the place to go is the trendy and historic Third Ward, a restored warehouse district crammed with art galleries, restaurants, outdoor cafes and antique shops. Visitors to Ohio will love Columbus’s Easton Center, which
artisan shops around Zanesville and Logan. When in Detroit, visit Pure D Vinyl, a clothing and record store that pays homage to all things associated with the motor-manufacturing city that also inspired the popular Motown sound. Then cruise through the three main shopping areas: Greektown, New Centre Place and The Riverfront Shops. And finally, if you’re in a Christmas mood, no matter what time of the
Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue, also known as ‘the Magnificent Mile’, is a shopaholic’s dream, offering six major department stores – Saks, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus among them – as well as numerous boutiques and designer showcases. offers not only shops but live improvisation comedy dinner shows at night; the Cleveland area’s Aurora Premium Outlets and new retail/residential Crocker Park complex, and Cincinnati’s new Cincinnati Mills. And if you’re into handcrafted pottery head for the
year, head straight for Bronners, the world’s largest Christmas shop. It’s located in Frankenmuth, Michigan's ‘Little Bavaria’, just an hour's drive north of Detroit. The Christmas presents you bring back to the UK will make somebody happy, even if it is the middle of August. 17
great lakes of North america
MINNESOTA
www.exploreminnesota.com
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Minnesota is nicknamed ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakes’ – but the true total is closer to 15,000! And that’s not counting the state’s substantial frontage, both on one of the Great Lakes, Superior, and, for more than 500 miles, on the legendary Mississippi River. You can step across it at its birthplace in Bemidji, but by the time it gets to the Iowa border it’s half a mile across. So with all this watery wonder, it’s not surprising that the native Dakota Indians named this area Minnesota, which in their language means ‘sky-tinted water’. 18
Spectacular High Falls; bottom: a Snoopy figure at A riverboat cruises down the Mississippi at Saint Paul
BY PAUL WADE
The state is huge, as large as England and Scotland combined, but with a mere five million Minnesotans. So holidays here are all about open roads, glorious woodlands, endless forest, and some of the nicest – plus some of the most entertaining – people on the planet: just think of cartoonist Charles ‘Peanuts’ Schulz, writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Garrison Keillor, singers Judy Garland, Bob Dylan and Prince.
the Mall of America’s Camp Snoopy
The main gateway, with direct international flights from Europe, is Minneapolis-Saint Paul, two friendly neighbours across the Mississippi River from one another, which have been dubbed the ‘Twin Cities’. Minutes from the airport is one of America’s biggest tourist attractions, the Mall of America in Bloomington. With 520 stores, this is a favourite weekend break for British shoppers, who also love Camp Snoopy, America’s largest indoor theme park, complete with five thrill rides. Linking Minneapolis, the mall and the airport is the new Hiawatha Line light rail transit system.
Cosmopolitan Minneapolis is spiked with skyscrapers, buzzes with students and has a vibrant music scene. Its wealth came from
MINNESOTA STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Saint Paul POPULATION: 4.9 million SIZE: 79,548 square miles NICKNAMES: North Star State TIME OF STATEHOOD: May 11, 1858
MINNESOTA
Minnesotans have mixed feelings about the double Oscar-winning Fargo. Everyone, however, is looking CAPTURED forward to the 2006 release of A Prairie Home ON FILM Companion – its name inspired by the popular local radio show hosted by humourist Garrison Keillor. Directed by Robert Altman and starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson and Keillor himself, the film was mostly shot in downtown Saint Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater where the radio show is performed.
flour; mills here used to grind enough to make 12 million loaves of bread a day. Today, with more than 100 theatres and more seats per capita than any other US city except New York, the performing arts are huge; for instance, this is where The Lion King premiered. It’s also the home of the acclaimed Guthrie Theatre, which moves into a new riverside home in 2006, and of both the recently revamped Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. By contrast, Saint Paul, the state capital, is more demure, with its own art and science museums, a cathedral and neighbourhoods of
✈ GATEWAY FROM THE UK : Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Airport is served by KLM/Northwest Airlines from London Gatwick via Detroit (direct service may be reintroduced for the peak season 2006) and by Icelandair from London Heathrow and from Glasgow, both via Reykjavik, during most of the year.
The Split Rock Lighthouse overlooking Lake Superior
Minneapolis’s landmark spoon and cherry sculpture
handsome Victorian homes, brick sidewalks and wrought iron railings. The Minnesota Children’s Museum is outstanding, while the annual Winter Carnival (January 27 – February 5, 2006) is the oldest and largest in the USA, with ice castles, a snow queen and even car races on ice. AN OUTSTANDING GREAT OUTDOORS But it is Minnesota’s endless and unspoiled great outdoors that is such a pleasure. You won’t find more dramatic views than along the North Shore Scenic Drive. This 154-mile route from Duluth to Grand Portage near the Canadian border is wedged between the Sawtooth Mountains and Lake Superior. On the rocky coast, stop to see the tumbling waters at Gooseberry Falls and photograph cliff-top lighthouses with evocative names such as Split Rock. Deep in the Midwest, the lake is like an inland ocean, flecked with sailing boats. And in the autumn (known in America as fall), the trees change colour with a fiery flourish. Another magnificent drive is the
Great River Road, running 575 miles alongside the Mississippi and one of America’s prestigious National Scenic Byways. In the north-east, on the border with Canada, there seem to be more lakes than there is land. Voyageurs National Park, 300 miles north of the Twin Cities, is the only water-based National Park in the USA. And further to the east, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, you can follow 1,500 miles of canoe trails through 1,300 lakes free of motorised craft. The pleasures of paddling a canoe or fishing for giant northern pike really are timeless. Most visitors to Voyageurs National Park go between May and August to bike, camp, fish and hike, but those in
Cosmopolitan Minneapolis is spiked with skyscrapers, buzzes with students and has a vibrant music scene. the know reckon that autumn is best, when canoeists can enjoy the fall colours with fewer visitors and few insects. Also, take time to delve into Minnesota’s past. For centuries, American Indians of all nations harvested pipestone from the quarry at the Pipestone National Monument in south-western Minnesota. And the Ojibwe have two important sites: the Mille Lacs Indian Museum (north of the Twin Cities) and the Grand Portage National Monument (near the Ontario border). The arrival of European settlers and early pioneer days are recalled at Saint Paul’s impressive Historic Fort Snelling. Prolific, awardwinning London freelancer Paul Wade frequently visits his American relatives in Minnesota.
FUN THING S TO DO
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Stroll past the 1.2 milliongallon aquarium in Bloomington’s Mall of America. It’s home to everything from sharks and a giant octopus to Minnesota walleye, muskies and catfish.
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Visit Minneapolis’s excellent, interactive Mill City Museum for great views of the city and an introduction to its flourmilling heyday.
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Attend one of Garrison Keillor’s live radio broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion at various venues throughout the Minneapolis/ Saint Paul area.
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Board a wanigan, or floating cook shack, at Grand Rapids’ Forest History Center. It will provide insight into the days when logs and men floated down the Mississippi to the sawmills.
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Turn up in Hibbing for Bob Dylan Days in May, when you can join the town folk and visiting fans for a week-long birthday bash centred on Zimmy’s bar and grill (inspired by Dylan’s real name, Bob Zimmerman).
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OHIO
www.discoverohio.com
THE ALLAMERICAN STATE Long known as the Buckeye State, thanks to its once-numerous chestnut (buckeye) trees, Ohio really is the All-American State. Set between Lake Erie to the north and the broad swing of the Ohio River along its southern border, it’s a land of farms as well as industry, with a population of diverse races and backgrounds. BY KATHY ARNOLD
Say Ohio to an American, and up pop visions of sport, from gridiron football to golf. Ohio State University football games are sell-outs, with crowds of more than 100,000, while golf’s Golden Bear, living legend Jack Nicklaus, is an Ohioan. Ohio has examples of everything that made the United States what it is, from presidents and inventors to artists and writers. No wonder there is cutting-edge space technology here as well as the best roller coasters on the planet – let alone the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Start with Cincinnati, down in the south-west corner, on the banks of the broad Ohio River. Nicknamed the ‘Queen City’, it flourished on river trade, and you can still stand on the levee, waiting for a real paddle steamer such as the Delta Queen. At nearby Paramount’s Kings Island, you
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can challenge your kids to ride the USA’s longest wooden roller coaster, The Beast. But do it before you sip your brew in German-style beer gardens and order Cincinnati’s favourite dish: a mild chili served ‘three, four, or five ways,’ piled with spaghetti or onions or beans or the lot! With the southern state of Kentucky just over the water, slavery was an issue in Cincinnati in the 19th century. At the new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, you can learn about the debate and war that tore America apart some 140 years ago. Then visit the former home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. So moved was she by the tales she heard here, that she incorporated some of them in her book, particularly the true story of how a slave she called Eliza dramatically escaped to freedom across the frozen Ohio River.
Cedar Point on Lake Erie is renowned for its roller coasters
Where is the best theme park in the world? Many argue it is in Sandusky, in northern Ohio. Here, on the shore of Lake Erie, Cedar Point has received that accolade not once, but for eight years in a row. What's more, the Millennium Force and Top Thrills Dragster, along with Cedar Point's other thrill rides, offer some of the fastest, tallest and scariest rides in the universe. CLEVELAND’S ROCK’N’ROLL TRIBUTE An hour to the east, Cleveland has blossomed as a destination for pop music lovers, thanks to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. This opened in 1995, some 40 years after disk jockey Alan Freed popularised the term rock ’n’ roll on local radio station WJW. He played ‘black music’ that caught on with white audiences ... and the rest is living history. The dramatic glass and steel museum is chock-full of memorabilia such as Jimi
Hendrix’s guitar and John Lennon’s mock-military Sergeant Pepper uniform. Next door, kids of all ages explore the Great Lakes Science Center, with its sixstorey domed screen OMNIMAX theatre. The city also boasts world-class classical culture, with a fine Museum of Art
OHIO STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Columbus POPULATION: 11,353,140 SIZE: 40,952.6 square miles NICKNAMES: Buckeye State TIME OF STATEHOOD: March 1, 1803
OHIO
An Amish farmer on the way to market
The superb 1994 Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as fellow prisoners who CAPTURED redeem themselves through an unlikely friendship, ON FILM was shot in Mansfield’s Ohio State Reformatory. Oscarwinning Ohio film stars and directors include Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Halle Berry and Steven Spielberg. Martin Sheen, who portrays the US president in TV’s popular West Wing series is also from Ohio.
(where admission is free) and the renowned Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Ohio and aeroplanes go together. Two years ago Dayton celebrated the centenary of an achievement that changed the way we live. In 1904, a couple of brothers, who were engineers and also ran a bicycle shop, decided that flying was a better way to travel. They were the Wright Brothers, inventors of the aeroplane. Their 1905 Wright Flyer III, the first plane that could actually manoeuvre in the air, is the main attraction at Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park. On the edge of town, at the Wright-
✈GATEWAY FROM THE UK AND IRELAND: Continental Airlines provides summer flights to Cleveland International Airport in the north of the state from London Gatwick and Delta Air Lines provides year-round service from London Gatwick to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to the south. Continental also offers connections from Dublin and Shannon to Cleveland over Newark, New Jersey.
Patterson air base, The National Museum of the United States Air Force keeps aviation fans happy for hours, with more than 300 missiles and aircraft from the Wright Brothers to the present day. Ohio natives like to travel in style: John Glenn, later a US Senator, was the first American in space orbit, while fellow-Ohioan Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. In the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, north-west of Columbus, you can see a moon rock that Armstrong collected after his size 9 left boot made that ‘one small step for mankind’. Ohioans are an inventive lot, dreaming up everything from disposable nappies to Formica. But the greatest inventor of them all was born in a brick cottage in Milan, near Lake Erie. Fronted by a low, white picket fence, Thomas Edison’s modest birthplace has family photographs – and, next door, models of his inventions, which ranged from the electric light to the phonograph and talking pictures. And, your guide could well be one of his great-great-great-grand-nieces! This is a land of four distinct seasons. Summers are long and hot, ideal for the annual county fairs (88 of them!) as well as for roadside stands laden with the
sweetest corn on earth. In the autumn, the leaves turn gold and scarlet, while bright orange pumpkins, carved for Halloween, decorate porches. Winter can be cold, with a couple of heavy snowfalls; spring is a concentrated jumble of colour, not a long, slow progression as in England. Down in the south are the pretty Hocking Hills, rolling along the Ohio River. But some of the undulations in the state’s landscape are man-made. Long before Europeans arrived, the local Native Americans had a structured civilisation that has left some 10,000 burial mounds. One of the largest and best-preserved in the USA is the 2,500 year-old Serpent Mound, some 90 minutes east of Cincinnati. Most impressive from the air, this 20foot wide and five-foot high bank of earth snakes its way through trees for some 440 yards. Also giving an insight into a past way of life are the 35,000 members of the world’s largest Amish community. Located between Columbus and Cleveland, most of them are farmers, but the community also includes fine woodworkers and cabinet-makers. Visit the region to see horse-drawn buggies and wagons and farmers working without modern machinery. Men wear black, wide-brimmed hats; women still wear white bonnets. They all have hearty appetites, as you’ll see from the portions at any Amish restaurant. And what about Columbus, the state capital? A favourite spot is the turn-ofthe-century, red-brick German Village, with its trendy art galleries and restaurants. Other highlights include the hands-on COSI, Ohio’s Center of Science and Industry, and the fine Museum of Art. And out on the Statehouse lawn are monuments that proudly commemorate famous Ohio sons, including four of the seven US Presidents born in the state, all of whom were ‘proud to be a Buckeye!’
FUN THING S TO DO
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Sit under the stars in Chillicothe, watching Tecumseh!, a drama about an 18th-century American Indian chieftain. It finishes with the Shawnee leader, on horseback, silhouetted against the moonlit sky.
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Join a thrilling Italian Job-type car chase at Cincinnati’s Paramount’s Kings Island. Your vehicle will be a fast-track coaster.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
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View memorabilia from guitargreat Buddy Guy, the Pretenders and U2, all 2005 inductees to Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
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Experience real Americana by attending the annual Ohio State Fair in Columbus – it’s reputedly still the biggest in America.
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Enjoy watery fun and palm trees year-round at Sandusky’s Kalahari Waterpark Resort. The state’s largest indoor waterpark covers 80,000 square feet of wet and wild fun, including indoor surfing on the patented Flow Rider®.
Long resident in the UK, award-winning travel writer Kathy Arnold was born in Columbus, Ohio. The Cleveland Museum of Art
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Authentic America. Discover it in Ohio. From rural relaxation to urban excitement. From farmers' fields to beautiful hills and lakes. If it's a complete, authentic American experience you're looking for, look no farther than Ohio.
Discover a simple and charming side of American culture when you watch an Amish community come together for a barn raising. Or feel the power of the past when you sit in a basement that housed escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. Take a trip back in time down the Ohio River on a Mark Twain era sternwheeler. Experience the thrill of a racing enthusiast's need for speed at the
Honda Racing School. Or cast your line in hopes of reeling in “the big one” when you charter a fishing adventure on beautiful Lake Erie. And, of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - a true American phenomenon. Whether it's sports, adventure, history, culture, excitement, or relaxation you're looking for, when you're ready to discover America's heart and soul, discover Ohio.
Shhh . DON’T TELL ANYBODY, but we keep the GOOD STUFF OUTSIDE THE CITIES.
See more of America with a USA Rail Pass. The train is a SM
great way to experience America, and the USA Rail Pass makes it affordable and convenient. Choose a 5-day, 15-day or 30-day pass, good for travel to more than 500 destinations across the country.
Visit Amtrak.com or call your travel agent today.
Schedules, fares, routes and offers are subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply. Amtrak and USA Rail are service marks of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
PENNSYLVANIA
great lakes of North america
PENNSYLVANIA THROUGH BEN FRANKLIN’S EYES
If America’s own Renaissance Man, Benjamin Franklin, were to return to his adopted state during his 300th birthday celebrations this year he would be mighty pleased – not just with the commemorations but with the fact that his adopted city of Philadelphia www.visitpa.com and the surrounding state have turned out so well. BY SALLY MONTGOMERY
He doubtless would still feel right at home in Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continuously-occupied street in the USA, at Independence Hall where he was a guiding light to America’s founding fathers, and at the numerous local establishments he helped to found – such as the American Philosophical Society (today boasting more than 200 Nobel Prize winners), the Pennsylvania Hospital (the first public hospital in America) and the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. He also would be amazed, possibly amused, by the numerous likenesses of his folksy visage that adorn the city. Although his home at Franklin Court has long since disappeared, he would be interested in the site’s museum dedicated to his lifetime achievements as well as in The Franklin Institute Science Museum’s Ben’s Electrical
Spectacular exhibition. After all, he was the inventor of the lightning rod – among other things we now take for granted. You can imagine him fiddling with the 21st-century technology at the new National Constitution Center, where a visitor can be sworn in on a TV screen as the next president of the USA, or even sitting down for a fusion cuisine meal under a huge statue of Buddha at the Buddakan restaurant – though rarely a churchgoer, he believed in freedom of all religions and, reputedly, loved good food and wine. As a well-travelled man who served as a diplomat in both London and Paris, Franklin probably would be impressed by the great interstate highways and scenic byways that now span his state. Among them: Interstate 30, also known as The Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway in the USA; Interstate 76, America’s first modern toll road, and Route 6, rated by National Geographic as one of America’s most scenic drives. Being an adventuresome fellow as well, he might even borrow a HarleyDavidson from the York motorcycle factory in south-central Pennsylvania and zoom off through Lancaster County, admiring the Amish farmers’ neat homes and impressive barns
The Philadelphia skyline; below: a bust of Benjamin Franklin
while wondering why they still choose to travel by horse and buggy. Upon reaching vibrant skyscraper Pittsburgh in south-western Pennsylvania, he would be impressed by its dramatic setting and its three outstanding museums – the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum and the recently expanded PENNSYLVANIA STATE FACTS Carnegie Museum of Natural History. STATE CAPITAL: Harrisburg And as a musician who played four instruments and was the inventor of POPULATION: 12,200,000 the glass armonica musical SIZE: 45,000 square miles instrument, he might also want to ➤
Although his home at Franklin Court has long since disappeared, he would be interested in the site’s museum dedicated to his lifetime achievements.
NICKNAMES: The Keystone State TIME OF STATEHOOD: Dec 12, 1787
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PENNSYLVANIA
FUN THING S TO DO
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✈ GATEWAY FROM THE UK: USAirways offers daily flights year-round from London Gatwick and Manchester and seasonal service from Glasgow. British Airways links London Heathrow with Philadelphia.
Strolling along Pittsburgh’s Allegheny River; right: Philadelphia’s Independence Hall
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attend a concert of the worldrenowned Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Then he would be off again, this time to the north-west for a visit to the Lake Erie Maritime Museum and perhaps for a paddle off the sandy shores of Presque Isle State Park. After all, as a man who charted the Gulf Stream currents on his trips across the Atlantic and who invented swim fins (flippers), he should feel right a home
on the water. His role as a former journalist and publisher might also inspire him to look into the region’s newsworthy form of energy known as ‘black gold’ by visiting Titusville, where America’s first oil well was drilled. Heading back toward Philadelphia, he would be relieved to learn at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, the state’s capital, and again at the Gettysburg National Military Park, how the republic he helped found survived a brutal mid19th-century Civil War and how President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. And, as one interested in botany, he might also be tempted to swing south past Philadelphia for a quick look at some of the 11,000 kinds of plants and the numerous illuminated fountains in the 1,050-acre Longwood Gardens. But that still would leave so much for Franklin to see before he retired to his resting place in Philadelphia’s
Christ Church Cemetery. There are the great forests of north-central Pennsylvania with their elk, deer, bears and bird life; the appealing Pocono Mountain resorts to the north-east, the charming Delaware and Brandywine river towns and the great Valley Forge Revolutionary War battlefield to the south-east, and the beautiful Southern Allegheny and Laurel Highlands Regions in the central and south-west regions. And that’s without even mentioning those things that modern Americans seem to particularly value – numerous golf courses, great shopping malls, and theme parks that would entertain their children for hours. Franklin would just have to come back again, perhaps on his 400th birthday. Although journalist Sally Montgomery now lives and works in London, she has a particular fondness for Pennsylvania, the state – then a British colony – to which her ScotchIrish ancestors emigrated in the early 18th-century.
Can it really be 30 years since the first of the five Rocky films burst across our screens starring an unknown Sylvester CAPTURED Stallone as its prize-fighter hero? (And there’s another one ON FILM in the pipeline!) Or for that matter, just over 20 years since Harrison Ford, disguised as an Amish farmer, set out to solve a murder in Witness? Both films have numerous associations with Philadelphia. For instance, who can forget Stallone’s triumphant race up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts or ignore his statue, inspired by Rocky III, outside the First Union Spectrum sports and entertainment complex in South Philly? And then there was the memorable 30th Street Station scene where a young Amish boy, later befriended by Ford, witnesses the murder of an undercover agent, not to forget the wonderful footage of traditional Amish life around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which occupies most of the film.
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Celebrate Ben Franklin’s 300th
1birthday by taking a walking tour of his favourite sites in Philadelphia (www.gophila. com /itineraries) or by attending some of the entertaining 2006 commemorative events. www.benfranklin300.org
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Ascend Mount Washington by incline railroad to admire what USA Today praises as one America’s most spectacular views – of peninsula-sited Pittsburgh and its three rivers, the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio.
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Learn more about the interesting history and unique lifestyle of the Amish people on a Lancaster County Farm and House Tour while sampling their delicious food and shopping for their appealing crafts, particularly handmade quilts www.amishfarmandhouse.com.
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Explore 1,000ft-deep, 50mile-long Pine Creek Gorge, ‘Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon’ before continuing west to Lake Erie along Route 6, one of America’s most scenic byways.
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Admire two of iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces – Fallingwater, his only remaining house with its setting, original furnishing and artwork still intact, and nearby Kentuck Knob, both in the beautiful Laurel Highlands, south-east of Pittsburgh.
great lakes of North america
WISCONSIN
www.travelwisconsin.com
CITY AND COUNTRY ADVENTURES Wisconsin is a great state for visitors who love fishing, boating, hiking and exploring wild and wonderful outback country, as well as savouring locally-brewed beer in colourful city pubs, admiring (even riding) Harley-Davidson motorcycles and cheering on one of America’s most legendary professional football teams, the Green Bay Packers. BY VIRGINIA BLAIR
Before you visit, decide whether you are more a city or outdoors type of person. If the former, begin your visit in southern Wisconsin’s lively waterfront Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, or in lovely, lakeside Madison, its state capital. If the latter – particularly if you are into water sports and wildlife watching – head first for northern Wisconsin. The state’s rugged scenery is defined by its two Great Lakes – Michigan to its east and Superior to
WISCONSIN STATE FACTS STATE CAPITAL: Madison POPULATION: 5,453,450 SIZE: 56,138 square miles NICKNAMES: The Badger State TIME OF STATEHOOD: May 29, 1848
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its north – and by a western border marked by the mighty Mississippi River. There are also some 15,000 inland lakes, many scooped out by the great Ice Age glaciers that created a landscape ranging from deep forests in the north to rich prairie land and gentle dells to the south. Milwaukee has a wealth of colourful waterfront areas. Its Lake Michigan frontage is punctuated by the sail-like roof structure of its recently expanded Milwaukee Art Museum, and by the new Pier Wisconsin™ leading to Discovery World – the James Lovell Museum of Science Technology and Economics and the three-masted S/V Denis Sullivan, a re-creation of a Great Lakes schooner. The Milwaukee River’s RiverWalk, on the other hand, is lined by restaurants, brewpubs, nightclubs, shops and art exhibitions. If you’re also interested in the visual and performing arts you should head for the Historic Third Ward Arts District, where converted warehouses and new buildings house theatres, an opera company, art galleries and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. There are even more opportunities to view theatre and ballet as well as to
Fishing on one of Wisconsin's 15,000 inland lakes
attend a concert of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the downtown theatre district. Known as the ‘City of Festivals’, Milwaukee is home to the eleven-day Summerfest!, rated by the Guinness World Records 2006 book as the world’s largest music festival. Founded in the 1840s by Germans and known for its breweries, the city also offers tours of the Miller Brewery as well as of the local HarleyDavidson factory and museum. Other sights of note include the Milwaukee Public Museum with its acclaimed Butterfly Wing exhibits, the William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design, the Boerner
Botanical Gardens and a zoo. Madison has its own dramatic setting – on an isthmus between two large lakes. It’s dominated by the majestic, domed State Capitol and by the University of Wisconsin campus sprawling on lakeside hills and linked with the Capitol by State Street. Great for people-watching, this pedestrian-only promenade is home not only to restaurants and shops but to the new Overture Center for the Arts, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Madison Children’s Museum. Nearby Spring Green is the site of Taliesin, iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, studio and school,
WISCONSIN
But it is northern Wisconsin – a land of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, beaches, forests and islands – that is particularly attractive to those who love the great outdoors. The impressive recently-expanded Milwaukee Art Museum
Madison’s scenically-sited State Capitol and nearby University of Wisconsin were backdrops for I Love Trouble, CAPTURED a 1994 film starring Nick Nolte as a Pulitzer-Prize-winning ON FILM columnist and Julia Roberts as a cub reporter on the trail of a corporate conspiracy story. More recently the same sites have featured in Last Kiss, a film produced by former University of Wisconsin student Tom Rosenberg , the Oscar-winning producer of Million Dollar Baby and starring Zach Braff, who made a name for himself in the film Garden State, with US TV actress Rachel Bilsen, Harold Ramis and Blythe Danner.
and of the House on the Rock, a stunning complex atop a high rock outcrop. Its interior is nearly as impressive as the exterior ,with an awesome ‘Infinity Room’ extending 218ft above the valley. Also in this region are Lake Geneva, a 19thcentury resort known for its millionaires’ mansions; the pretty Wisconsin River town of Prairie du Chien, founded by early French fur traders; Baraboo, once the winter home of the famous Ringling Brothers circus and now the site of the Circus World Museum, and the surrounding Wisconsin Dells with their numerous family attractions. Central Wisconsin communities
✈ GATEWAY FROM THE UK AND IRELAND: Although there are no direct flights from the UK or Ireland into Wisconsin its key destinations can be reached by flights from the UK into Chicago or Minneapolis/Saint Paul, which are one to two hours’ drive away. There are also direct flights from Ireland into Chicago.
Wisconsin is home to 11 Native American tribes
range from picturesque Mississippi River towns to Oshkosh – renowned as the site of the world’s largest aviation event, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh – and industrial Green Bay, founded in the 17th century by French fur traders, Wisconsin’s oldest community and best known for its football team, the Green Bay Packers. But it is northern Wisconsin – a land of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, beaches, forests and islands – that is particularly attractive to those who love the great outdoors. Lake Superior’s 21 Apostle Islands, most
easily reached by ferry from mainland Bayfield, are known for their stunning rock formations, sea caves, beaches and six lighthouses which can be seen by boat or by 50 miles of hiking trails. The 250 miles of St. Croix Scenic Riverway is wonderful for canoeing, wildlife watching and hiking. And the picturesque, 75-mile-long Door County peninsula, jutting out into Lake Michigan, boasts more state parks (five), lighthouses (10) and miles of shoreline (250) than any other county in the USA. Among its attractions are quaint villages, numerous art galleries, scuba diving among 19th-century shipwrecks, sailing and sea kayaking. It’s also worth mentioning that Wisconsin is home to the largest number of Native American tribes (11) east of the Mississippi River. The majority of their 5,000 earthen mounds (98 per cent of all those in America) are found in central and western Wisconsin; the Oneida Nation hosts five-day tours of four northern Wisconsin reservations (www.oneidanation.org), and other attractions include tribal museums and festive pow-wows involving food, arts and crafts, music and dancing. Virginia Blair, an American outdoor writer now living in London, recently visited Wisconsin for the first time and returned full of praise for its spectacular scenery, canoeing, fishing and handsome men.
FUN THING S TO DO
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Visit the elegant Ten Chimneys estate of legendary stage actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine. Located in Genesse Depot in southeastern Wisconsin (a short drive from either Milwaukee or Chicago) it was a frequent retreat for such stage and screen luminaries as Katharine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward. www.tenchimneys. org
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Take a Waterfall Tour of northeastern Marinette County, the ‘Wisconsin Waterfall Capital’, located within an hour of Green Bay and its interesting National Railroad Museum. www.marinettecounty.com/ waterfls.htm
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Learn about the late 19thcentury/early 20th-century settlement of Wisconsin by Germans, Swiss, Scandinavians, Irish and other Europeans at Old World Wisconsin, the Midwest’s largest outdoor museum of rural life. Set on 600 acres at Eagle, 35 miles from Milwaukee, it includes more than 60 original historic buildings. www.wisconsinhistory .org
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Shop for Wisconsin cheeses, other speciality food and fresh fruit and vegetables at Milwaukee’s new Public Market. It’s set in the historic Third Ward District, which is alive with art galleries, antique shops, cafés and restaurants.
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Kayak or canoe along the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, known for its wealth of stunning rock formations, sea caves, unspoiled beaches and historic lighthouses, or along the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, one of the most picturesque and leastdeveloped areas of the Midwest and also great for wildlife- and birdwatching. For the Apostle Islands, visit www.nps.gov/apis; for the scenic riverway, www.nps.gov/ sacn/ index.htm
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great lakes of North america
TOUR ONE THE GREAT LAKES FLY-DRIVE 14 DAYS/13 NIGHTS • Gateway: Chicago Day 1 ARRIVAL CHICAGO Transfer to your Chicago hotel and spend the afternoon discovering the Windy City. This city offers excellent cultural and sports activities. This evening try a famous Chicago-style pizza and afterwards check out some of the many famous Chicago Blues and Jazz clubs. Overnight: Chicago, Illinois
Grand Rapids 5 MINNESOTA
Minneapolis 3 4 Saint Paul
6 Ashland
7 Marquette 8 9 St. Ignace WISCONSIN Madison 2
Detroit/ 10 1 13 14 Dearborn 12 Chicago South Bend
Day 2 CHICAGO TO MADISON 196 miles/312 km Begin your morning with a walking tour of Chicago, Illinois, noted for its architecture, particularly around the area known as the Loop. En route, shop along the ‘Magnificent Mile’ of Michigan Avenue and stroll along the Lakefront of Lake Michigan. Then take in one of the best views of the city from the top of the Sears Tower Skydeck. In the afternoon
ILLINOIS
drive to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, enjoying beautiful lakeside views along the way. Overnight: Madison, Wisconsin
MADISON TO MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL
State Capital
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PENNSYLVANIA
Cleveland
OHIO
INDIANA
Day 3
Madison, Wisconsin’s charming
MICHIGAN
270 miles/432 km Continue your travels across Wisconsin, America's freshwater playground, to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. Suggested stops along the way include Baraboo, where you can visit the Circus World Museum, and the resort towns of the Wisconsin Dells. Here boat and amphibious ‘duck’ tours of the Wisconsin River offer magnificent views of the Sandstone bluffs of the Lower and Upper Dells. Overnight: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Day 4 MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL Take a morning tour to discover the unique attractions of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and in the afternoon ‘shop 'til you drop’ at Bloomington’s famous Mall of America. With more than 500 stores, 14 movie theatres, Camp Snoopy, and Underwater Adventures, there will be no shortage of activities. Overnight: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Day 5 MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL TO GRAND RAPIDS 173 miles/279 km Travel north through the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes’ to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Nestled in tall timber on the western edge of the Mesabi Iron Range, the city was not only
the birthplace of Judy Garland, but is rich with the dual heritage of iron mining and logging. Overnight: Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Day 6 GRAND RAPIDS TO ASHLAND 175 miles/280 km Return to Wisconsin for Bayfield, the gateway to the Apostle Island National Lakeshore, a magnificent natural wilderness region. A cruise among the islands of Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world, will give you a memorable and lasting impression of this unspoiled area. Later, take a ferry to Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands, where you can tour the old trading post and Indian burial grounds. Overnight: Ashland, Wisconsin
Great drives with A cruise among the islands of Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world, will give you a memorable and lasting impression of this unspoiled area. Day 12 CLEVELAND TO SOUTH BEND 260 miles/416 km Drive to Indiana, the ‘Hoosier State’ to visit the Northern Indiana Amish Community. Then continue to South Bend, home of world-famous Notre Dame University and home to one of America's great industrial legacies, the Studebaker Corporation. Overnight: South Bend, Indiana
Day 13
Spend a memorable evening at Blue Chicago
Day 7
Day 9
Day 11
ASHLAND TO MARQUETTE 185 miles/298 km Continue into Michigan and explore the picturesque Keweenaw Peninsula. See historic Fort Wilkens and visit the Delaware Copper Mine before travelling on via the L'Ansse Indian Reservation to Marquette. Overnight: Marquette, Michigan
ST. IGNACE Take the ferry to spend the day on Mackinac Island, a timeless resort island of the 19th century where no motor vehicles are allowed. Take a horse-drawn carriage or rent bicycles. Visit Fort Mackinac, perched on a bluff overlooking the harbour. Be sure to stop by the Grand Hotel to enjoy the magnificent view from the veranda. Return to St. Ignace in the late afternoon. Overnight: St. Ignace, Michigan
DEARBORN TO CLEVELAND 140 miles/225 km Make your way to the ‘New American City’, Cleveland, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. In the evening enjoy one of the many restaurants located in the riverside Flats. Overnight: Cleveland, Ohio
Day 8 MARQUETTE TO ST. IGNACE 162 miles/261 km Follow scenic State Road 28 to Munising for a cruise past Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore with its sandstone cliffs, caves, arches and columns. Afterwards drive to Tahquamenon Falls State Park near Newberry to view two striking waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River and to Paradise where you can visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Whitefish Point Lighthouse in this Lake Superior ‘Graveyard of Ships’ is also open for tours. Then take State Route 123 to St. Ignace. Overnight: St. Ignace, Michigan
SOUTH BEND TO CHICAGO 99 miles/158 km Stop at the pristine Indiana Dunes en route to Chicago. Spend your last afternoon shopping along State Street and Michigan Avenue before your final evening of exciting nightlife.
Day 14 DEPART FOR HOME
Day 10 ST. IGNACE TO DETROIT 288 miles/461 km Journey through Michigan to Detroit and the Motor City, USA, home of Motown. Stay in nearby Dearborn, home of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, a living history museum which explores the industrial revolution and achievements of famous Americans such as the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison. Overnight: Dearborn, Michigan
Visit the twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul
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great lakes of North america
TOUR TWO CIRCLE LAKE MICHIGAN TOUR 11 DAYS/10 NIGHTS • Gateway: Chicago DAY 1 ARRIVAL CHICAGO Spend your first night at a resort in Chicagoland. Play a round of golf, enjoy a spa or try your luck at a casino. Overnight: Chicagoland area
MINNESOTA
Escanaba
6 Mackinac Island 5 Petoskey
7
Door County 8 9
Day 2
WISCONSIN
CHICAGO Spend the day touring Chicago's many attractions such as the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum and the Field Museum or take a Chicago Architecture Foundation cruise on the Chicago River. Overnight: Chicago, Illinois
4
Milwaukee 10
MICHIGAN
Grand Haven
2 1 11 Chicago
PENNSYLVANIA
3 Elkhart
ILLINOIS
OHIO INDIANA
Day 3 CHICAGO TO ELKHART 96 miles/160 km Travel through Northern Indiana and visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park. Then journey through the back roads to Amish Country. Overnight: Elkhart, Indiana
Day 4 ELKHART TO GRAND HAVEN 128 miles/201 km Depart for Holland where proud Dutch heritage abounds. In May
you'll see millions of tulips in bloom in preparation for the annual Tulip Time Festival. Continue to Saugatuck, a quaint artists' community and the nationally recognized Oval Beach. A trip out on the Star of Saugatuck will offer you a view of the ghost town, Singapore. Downtown Grand Haven boasts unique shops and restaurants, as well as nightly summer performances of the ‘World's Largest Musical Fountain’. Overnight: Grand Haven, Michigan
Day 5
Exploring the Indiana Dunes National Seashore Park
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GRAND HAVEN TO PETOSKEY 223 miles/359 km Travel up the coast of Lake Michigan to Sleeping Bear Dunes, a picturesque National Park. Time permitting, take a side trip along the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive near Empire for a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan. The trip north on US-
31 takes you through Elk Rapids, Charlevoix and Bay Harbor, a new community located on the southern shore of Little Traverse Bay. Then, take a quick jaunt to nearby Walloon Lake where Ernest Hemingway spent his childhood summers. Overnight: Petoskey, Michigan
Day 6 PETOSKEY TO MACKINAC ISLAND 36 miles/58 km As you head north, stop off for a visit in Harbor Springs. From here the scenic M-119 ‘Tunnel of Trees’ brings you to Cross Village and the famed Legs Inn Restaurant offering authentic Polish cuisine, unique architecture and spectacular views. Once you arrive in Mackinaw City, head for the Mackinaw Crossings and Center Stage Theatre for a live performance. Walk the streets in
search of maritime souvenirs and the ultimate sweet treat: Michigan fudge. The Mackinac State Historic Parks operates three properties in Mackinaw City, including Mill Creek, Colonial Michilimackinac and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. Take a ferry to Mackinac Island, and enjoy a horse-drawn carriage ride. Overnight: Mackinac Island, Michigan
Day 7 MACKINAC ISLAND TO ESCANABA 147 miles/235 km Cross the famous Mackinac Bridge to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Rising nearly 200 feet above the ground is Castle Rock, offering magnificent views of the Straits of Mackinac. The Museum of Ojibwa Culture is a National Historic Landmark portraying Native American life in this
Great drives with
area more than 300 years ago. Travel through Gulliver to visit the "haunted" Seul Choix Point Lighthouse & Museum and on to Garden to view the Fayette ghost town. In Escanaba, find out more about what inspired Michigan’s own Jeff Daniels to write, direct and star in Escanaba in da Moonlight, an hilarious film about local guys on a hunting trip. Overnight: Escanaba, Michigan
first sailing vessel on the lakes, was lost on a voyage starting in Green Bay waters in 1679. As you cross the state line into Door County, you'll be greeted by quaint communities with unique shops and exceptional restaurants. Stop by Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay to see the goats grazing on the grass roof. Door County is also home to several wineries and tasting rooms. Overnight: Door County, Wisconsin
Day 8 ESCANABA TO DOOR COUNTY 142 miles/227 km Follow the 125 miles of shoreline around Menominee County. At the heart of the community of Menomonie’s historical downtown district is the Great Lakes Memorial Park Marina. It is dedicated to all sailors of the Great Lakes who have lost their lives since the Griffon, the
Day 9 DOOR COUNTY Spend the day relaxing and exploring the quaint harbour towns of Door County, where you'll find more miles of shoreline, more lighthouses and more state parks than any other county in the nation. No trip here would be complete without the experience of a fish boil. This tradition
dates back to the Scandinavian settlers and lumberjacks, and features whitefish steaks, onions and potatoes in salted water boiled in a huge pot over an open fire. Overnight: Door County, Wisconsin
built by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson rolled out. Miller Brewing Company offers a free plant tour which provides an up-close look at the brewhouse, packaging centre and historic caves. Overnight: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Day 10 DOOR COUNTY TO MILWAUKEE 170 miles/272 km Follow the Lake Michigan shoreline south through Two Rivers – home of the Ice Cream Sundae – to Manitowoc. A visit to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum offers you a chance to tour an actual submarine, the SS Cobia. In Milwaukee, try one of the ethnic neighbourhood restaurants in the ‘City of Festivals’. The two biggest names in Milwaukee are Harley-Davidson and Miller Beer. Harley-Davidson's history dates back to 1903, when the first motorcycle
Day 11 MILWAUKEE TO CHICAGO 92 miles/147 km As you head south toward the ‘Windy City’, be sure to stop off in Racine and Kenosha before crossing the state line into Illinois. If shopping is your bag, plan a visit to Gurnee Mills Mall, a shopping destination located next to Six Flags Great America. Or, stop in Woodfield, ‘Chicago's City in the Suburbs’, for a world-class shopping experience before arriving at Chicago O'Hare to depart for home.
Published on behalf of the Great Lakes of North America by Phoenix International Publishing Ltd, PO Box 615, Horsham, Sussex RH 13 5WF, E-mail: postmaster@phoenixip.com. Editor: Mary Moore Mason, Tel + 44 (0) 207 243 6954, E-mail:marymooremason@phoenixip.com. Although every effort has been made to achieve accuracy, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any mistake or omissions. The publication may not be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publishers.
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