Looking for something fun and FREE to do in Chicago? Rain or shine, the Garfield Park Conservatory east of downtown is a great pick. We popped into this indoor garden on a rainy March morning and immediately felt happier, thanks to being surrounded by flowers.
The Garfield Park Conservatory is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Wednesday, when it remains open until 8:00 p.m. Parking at the conservatory is no problem, with plenty of street-side spots available. Upon our arrival at around 10:00 a.m. we saw quite a few large busses, so I was a bit worried about crowds. Fortunately, these groups seemed to be on site for special events and we rarely saw them during our tour.
This facility is rather sprawling, with one room leading willy-nilly into the next. Visitors must choose between 1) touring each room in its entirety before backtracking to move onto the next; and 2) heading down the left (or right) side of each room until reaching the end of the road and heading back down the opposite side. We picked the latter method of touring but in retrospect I think the former would probably have been easier.
When we visited the conservatory, the Spring Flower Show was in bloom, making for a nice contrast to the dreary day. This space smelled fabulous and had plenty of benches from which to sit and contemplate the foliage. The floral displays themselves were not as elaborate as those in the show garden of Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes, about an hour north, but the overall effect was still quite pleasant. This show ended in mid-May, but you can see the Summer Tropical Flower Show beginning May 29, 2010.
We also spent some time in the desert garden, which was chock-full of cacti large and small. That cactus to the far left apparently lives for 100 years, then shoots up a single blossom, then dies. Way to go out in a blaze of glory, I suppose!
There are also several “green” rooms at the Garfield Park Conservatory. The Moss Room, to the left, was my favorite. It was wet, humid, and tranquil, with moss clinging to virtually every available service. The Koi Pond pictured at center was also awesome because it had tons of fish and a Dale Chihuly sculpture! Finally, the Palm House at the right was pretty standard, but of course every greenhouse has to have some tropical plants and flowers.
The Garfield Park Conservatory’s outdoor gardens weren’t really up and running when we visited. We’d definitely consider returning to see these and to attend one of the facility’s many events, which include everything from an evening Walking Club to a gardening class for kids. This conservatory is truly a hidden gem and I love it that it doesn’t cost a penny to enjoy.
Let me tell you about the new love of my life, Zingerman’s. This fabulous company dominates the Ann Arbor food scene, one bite at a time, with its tasty restaurants and manufacturing operations. We visited several of Zingerman’s franchises during our weekend of eating, ending up at the Creamery and Bakehouse for some goodies and an afternoon tour.
Surprisingly, these two upscale food-making businesses are tucked away in a rather unassuming industrial park a couple of miles outside the city center. The whole affair looks rather like a rent-by-the-month storage center. Zingerman’s must not be aiming to reel in the casual passerby, as this area gets no foot traffic.
Fortunately, the facility’s interior is much classier than its in exterior. In addition to three different on-site stores (the Bakehouse, Creamery, and in-progress Coffee Company), we explored various eating/lounging spaces, demonstration kitchens, and wall displays discussing the company’s history and future plans.
One of the highlights of our visit was checking the wedding cake gallery, full of artistically designed cakes which almost certainly cost more per person than our entire wedding meal. I love the black and white one to the far right the most, but the draped one to far left was also stunning in person.
The tour we took was the Creamery Tour scheduled for 1:30 p.m., which is priced at $5.00 per person. We arrived in the creamery early and spent the half hour before it sampling the store’s wares until our stomachs hurt. We tried lots of cheeses (Manchester, Mozzarella, Manchego, Great Lakes Cheshire) salami (Felino – literally the best salami I’ve ever had), and gelato (dark chocolate, chocolate chip mint, vanilla). By the time we finished, the tour was almost beside the point as we’d gotten more than our $5.00 worth in samples and a discount coupon for that price.
The actual tour was good but not great, as there isn’t really much to see and 45 minutes was kind of long. We did enjoy a demo of mozzarella cheesemaking and then got to taste the freshly made cheese. We also watched gelato being run through a mixer and then got to taste that too. Are you seeing a pattern here?
After the tour, we bought some cheese and the amazing Felino salami which was $19.99 a pound but well worth it. We also hit up the Bakehouse for bagels and Zaaang! candy bars which are one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. We ended up leaving the Zingerman’s about two hours, $40, and 2 million calories after we arrived. Overall, it was an afternoon well spent!
I love IMAX movies, to the point that I regularly watch them in video when I can’t find one in theater that I want to see. Well, now through March 18, 2010, my all-time favorite IMAX – Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France – is playing at the Museum of Science and Industry’s Omnimax theater.
This film follows racers Baden Cook and Jimmy Casper of France’s elite FDJeux team throughout their preparation for and riding in the 2003 tour, while also teaching about the brain and its role in athletics. While this may not sound particularly interesting, this movie is seriously SO good that I am still raving about it more than two years after seeing it. You can read my full review here.
Wired to Win is currently playing at 10:00 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 11:40 a.m. on Sunday. You can buy tickets online on the museum’s website.
Yes, I know Christmas is long past, but consider this tardy post an early entry for next year’s holiday season! Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is well-known for its annual holiday celebration – Christmas Around the World. We visited for the first time this year to check out the decorated trees as well as the museum’s newest exhibit, “You! the experience.” The final verdict? I would definitely return for the Christmas display, if not for You!
The Museum of Science and Industry is located about ten minutes from downtown Chicago. We often ride the Southshore Railroad and exit at the museum stop. The museum is also accessible via Metra from downtown. If you drive, there is a nice attached parking garage available. Current museum hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day except Sunday, when the facility opens at 11:00 a.m.
Standard adult museum admission costs $15.00, which is a substantial increase from a few years ago. Kids are $10.00. The Christmas Around the World display is included with standard admission, but there are always several extra cost experiences. During our recent visit these were The White House: A Look Inside ($5.00), U-505 Submarine optional on-board tour ($8.00), and Omnimax movies Wired to Win, The Human Body, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes. Because of the museum’s large size, we rarely do the extra charge exhibits. I will say that I saw Wired to Win in Louisville and it was fabulous.
The Christmas Around the World display is dominated by a central giant tree flanked by dozens of trees dedicated to countries around the world. We explored the trees in a counter-clockwise pattern. It took about forty-five minutes to see them all, and we didn’t even read every word of the plaques detailing holiday customs in various countries.
Here are a few of the trees. My absolute favorites were Greece (far left) and Japan (far right). I’m not sure how “authentic” any of the trees are in terms of being what would actually be on display at the holidays in the listed countries. They seem more like symbolic representations with iconography specific to these places. In any event, they’re very pretty.
We had a very difficult time finding the tree for Poland, where my people are from. Finally we reached it – it just happened to be the last one we came to! Near the display, there is a little gift store set up where visitors can buy ornaments representative of their heritage.
After we finished admiring the trees, we headed over to check out You! the experience. This newish exhibit is an “interactive” look at the human mind, body, and spirit. Quite frankly, it seems a little redundant to me in that some of these themes are already touched on in the museum’s Genetics display.
The You! gallery, while offering some interesting exhibits, suffers from many of the same problems as most displays of its type – long lines and frequent malfunctions of the interactive experiences. We very much wanted to try a game where visitors can move a ball back and forth with their brain waves, but after waiting fifteen minutes behind a mother and son who had camped out there we gave up and moved on. We attempted to play with a touch screen maze but found the table to be non-responsive to our touching. I did like the simple display pictured to the bottom right which allowed guests to lift the weight gain associated with eating the pictured snacks each day for a year. Not that it had much effect, in that I’m drinking a soda while writing this entry and will probably enjoy a candy bar shortly!
After fighting our way through the crowds at You! we stopped in to experience two of my favorite things at the Museum of Science and Industry – the Brain Food Court and Mold-A-Rama! The museum’s food court is one of the best I’ve seen at this type of facility, offering a wide variety of tasty healthy and not-so-healthy foods. My mom opted for the taco salad, while I had a tasty pretzel bread sandwich. Christmas cookies were also available during our visit.
As for Mold-A-Rama, The Museum of Science and Industry offers several different types. This visit, I made myself a lovely grey wax U-505 submarine to add to my collection.
We had a great day at the Museum of Science and Industry. Although we don’t visit here as often as the Field Museum or Shedd Aquarium, we are going to make an effort to make the trip more frequently. Perhaps we’ll go in March to see Science Storms, the soon-to-be-opened addition to the museum’s collection.
Really, Frankenmuth is one big dose of Christmas spirit. It’s also the subject of many Travel Channel specials and highway billboards, which combined led us to drive four hours each way to enjoy this “World’s Largest Christmas Store.”
Don’t let the title mislead you – there’s a whole lot to do here besides just shop. We watched a film called “The Wally Bronner Story,” admired the holiday decoration displays, had a quiet moment in the Silent Night Memorial Chapel, and enjoyed frosted Christmas cookies and hot chocolate – in October!
Of course, the shopping itself can’t be beat. Bronner’s offers ornaments, nutcrackers, Christmas dishes, holiday greeting cards, collectibles, stockings, advent calendars, snacks, trees, wreaths, and more. I personally got a jump start on my holiday shopping by picking out ornaments for everyone in my family. Many items can be personalized on the spot – and for free – by a Bronner’s artist.
Bronner’s is open year round. From January through May, hours are Monday through Thursday and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5:30 p.m. The rest of the year, the facility remains open until 9:00 p.m. every day except Sunday. Bronner’s is closed (perhaps ironically?) on Christmas day as well as on New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The exterior light displays are left on until 11:00 p.m., however, so those arriving in town late can still enjoy part of the show.
You can read my full write-up from our visit here. Some of my favorite photos from my trip are below.
OUTSIDE:
INSIDE:
To get a true idea of the size and scope of Bronner’s, you should check out the store map!
Also, if you can’t make the trek to Michigan, many Bronner’s products are available online. We bought a couple more ornaments after we returned home and were happy with the service we received. I do think going to the store makes for a more special experience.
