On Sort of Hiatus While the Editorial Staff Bums

Hotel Florence in the Pullman Historic District

You may, or may not have noticed not sparkling fresh blog post yesterday.  That’s because Kathy and I have hit the road bumming our way around a Midwestern vacation

We started close to home checking out sites that one or both of us have never made it to.  First day out—Saturday—after a late start we made it to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum in Pilsen and the magnificent Fountain of Time sculpture by Lorado Taft on the Midway Plaisance in Hyde Park.

Sunday we started in the Pullman Historic District on the city’s far South Side, a must for any history buff.  Then on to the very impressive DuSable Museum of African American History and capped off the day with a stroll through the Prairie Avenue Historic District where George Pullman and his fellow plutocrats hobnobbed with each other and ostentatiously enjoyed their pilfered wealth.  Then a pleasant drive up to Wisconsin.

We overnighted in East Troy so we could visit the Trolly Museum there and enjoy the ten mile ride to Mukwonago.  But alas, they only run the cars on weekends and even the museum in the depot was closed.  Then it was on to a very full day at Old World Wisconsin in a huge living history museum operated by the State of Wisconsin. The best of its kind I have ever seen. Docents are well informed and always costumed correctly from head to toe including underwear and shoes. All of the buildings, equipment and furnishings are original and brought from all over the state representing several ethnic waves of settlement, all in a wonderful setting. Actually work fields in traditional ways, raise heirloom crops and livestock, and cook in the kitchens. And a picture perfect day.

Refreshed after a night near Madison, we are preparing for a trip to Spring Green and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin home and studio and other local sites.  After that plans are fuzzy.  We will probably head back to the Flatlands of Illinois on Thursday.

In the meantime, posts here will be sporadic at best.  I will get up an old Independence Day chestnut for sure.

But some of you will have to get your history and bloviating fixes elsewhere for a couple of days.

Danish farmstead at Old World Wisconsin