Will H's USA Trip

Booked a tasting tour of the Goose Island Brewery in Chicago.  Goose Island began as a brewpub in the Lincoln Park neighborhood named after an island in the north branch of the Chicago River.  The brewery opened in 1995 and the company was purchased by Anheuser Busch in 2011.  They make a couple of my favorite beers, the Honker's Ale and Goose IPA which are widely available around the country.      The tour started off as pretty standard, with a look at the production facility and fermentation tanks.  A little more interesting was the bottling line, which was operating while we were visiting. Better still was the barrel aging room where we sampled several varieties that weren't available to he public yet.  One was an attempt to recreate an 17th century English ale using the ingredients and technology available at the time.  It was a labor of love that made no economic sense but was driven by brew master's interest in the histor...

Found out there was a Six Flags about an hour north of Chicago so I decided to pay a visit.      It was a good time, much better than my last visit in Atlanta where every ride broke down.  The park was overwhelmingly superhero themed - looks like they have an association with DC comics.           Not shown was the extensive flood damage surrounding the park.  It was so bad that all the rides were shutdown the previous day and several of the roads leading the park were impassible.  Had a good time.

Quick Update - made it back out to Museum Campus to visit the planetarium.  Not sure when the last time I've seen one.  The Adler Planetarium was founded in 1930 and has exhibits covering the history of astronomy (early telescopes, astrolabes, etc.), the history of space flight, and planets, comets, asteroids. An early space capsule A replica of an early telescope Replica of a Mars rover It was an OK visit, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the place.  A couple of issues, one which isn't their fault and one that is.  First, there were a bunch of annoying kids there.  I suppose that's to be expected.  However, I felt that the explanations for several of the exhibits were lacking.  They have about a dozen examples of astrolabes, but after viewing them I still don't know how they work.  Several exhibits included names of objects but no detail.  Also, there are several areas that require additional fees to visit, which I found to be exces...

Visited a couple of parks - one outside the city and one near the heart of the city.       The Spear Woods is a collection of flat wooded areas with several trails for walking, biking, and horseback riding. Horseback riding is apparently quite popular based on the number of land mines I had to dodge on my bike.  The lakes are a little swampy and there are lots of bugs in the area.  A lot of flowers too. There was a small visitors center with a few exhibits for kids.  Outside of that, I spied something unusual in the cell phone age.      Back in the city, I rode the bike around Humboldt Park for a bit.  It had more of the same flora as Spears Woods, but a lot fewer bugs.           That evening I booked a sunset architecture tour on the river.  Chicago is well known for having a multitude of building styles throughout the downtown skyline.  The tour spends abo...

Spent the afternoon exploring the area Grant and Millennium park.  The Cultural Center originally opened as library in 1897 before being converted in 1977 as a cultural and arts center. It houses rotating art and performance exhibitions.  The building itself has quite a few impressive artistic touches with intricately detailed stairways, doors, and ceilings.          The Architecture Foundation is fairly small, really just a large bookstore and a model of the city on the ground floor of an office building.  However, the model is pretty detailed and it's interesting to view. Millennium and Grant Park hug the coast of Lake Michigan just west of the Loop and is a huge draw for locals and tourists at all hours of the day.  Many of the city's iconic landmarks are located here and they are surrounded by very nicely landscaped paths and gardens.                 

Quick update - took a bike ride towards Douglas Park to visit the Lagunitas Brewery in Chicago.  Originally founded in California, the company opened up the Chicago facility in 2012 both to expand capacity and cut down on transportation costs to the east coast markets.  This was one of the cooler breweries I've visited.  You quickly get feel for the vibe of the place just walking down the hallway past the reception desk as the theme from "Willy Wonka" plays. The tap house is built above the factory floor, and the tour follows a catwalk that loops around the floor which provides a more complete view of the operation than all of the ground level tours I've taken thus far. The space itself used to be a steel factory and is being leased from a movie studio.  Several movies and TV show scenes are still filmed here (e.g. Chicago Fire, Transformers, Superman, others.) The founders also have a fascination with marijuana, which is expressed throughout the buil...