Yes, Virginia there is a Chicago River.  Perhaps Chicago is most known for its vast Lake Michigan or for its towering Sears (Willis) Tower or its old, ivy-covered Wrigley Field. But lest we forget this amazing thoroughfare that serpentines right through the heart of the city. It carries commuters on water taxis. It’s crossed by 38 bridges. For forty years, it has been dyed a bright green every St Patrick’s Day. And its direction was magically reversed away from Lake Michigan in an engineering feat back in 1900 to help improve sanitary conditions of Chicago’s drinking water.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging public interest in architecture and design. CAF gives hundreds of tours (by boat, bus, bike, Segway, or on foot) exhibitions, lectures, and special events all around this city very famous for its skyline and architecture. From Daniel Burnham to Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry, Chicago has been progressive and innovative since it was burned to the ground back in 1871, creating that blank slate and canvas for something well-planned and truly amazing.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be invited by the CAF to take their wonderful and informative Chicago River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady.   I had taken the river cruise years earlier and had frequently recommended it to others. It’s fun to be on the river and also cool to learn more about the buildings that surround us everyday.

Expert volunteer tour guides—called docents—interpret more than 50 buildings along the Chicago River, revealing how the city grew from a small back-country outpost into one of the world’s most important crossroads in less than 100 years.

For more info or to sign up for the CAF River Cruise, click here.

Looking for an evening of sheer fun and non-stop smiles? This will do the trick: Dancing at dusk in Chicago with the beautiful Chicago skyline above. Good music. Good people. And great fun. Plus…it’s free.  Summer Dance is an annual Chicago program that takes place all summer, 4 days a week in Grant Park providing free dance lessons, live music, and good times.

(more…)

A few weeks ago a friend called me from the Appalachian Trail.   I’d originally met Jeremy at my hostel in Rome and then coincidentally months later saw him again for a day in Jerusalem, and then we met up yet again in New Jersey as he was driving through on his way to his sister’s in NYC  (you’d be amazed how many new traveler friends I’ve seen–planned and unplanned–more than once in different corners of the globe).  And now  Jeremy was literally walking the Appalachian Trail.

The Appalachian Trail is a hiking trail that runs nearly the entire length of the United States on the east coast from Georgia to Maine. At approximately 2,179 miles (3,507 km) long, the trail passes through the states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Growing up on the east coast, I’d learned about the trail early on in school and had crossed it or been near it several times, but of course never really walked any bit of it.  Later on I’d read Bill Bryson’s humorous and sarcastic account of his trail trials in his book, A Walk in the Woods.

It’s famous for its many hikers, some of whom, called thru-hikers, attempt to hike it in its entirety in a single season.  Jeremy had decided to take his summer to literally walk the trail from Georgia back to near his home in Maryland. Like long distance runners who hit that ‘wall’ around the 20-mile mark, Jeremy was hitting his own wall. On the morning of his 48^th day of hiking, he called me at about 600 miles into his hike. That’s six hundred miles of walking; walking nearly every day sun-up to sundown.  He was having a tough time, was burning out, and was looking for help.  I heard his message and the sound of his voice and called him right back.

He said, “I was looking through my cell phone numbers at which friends to call and I saw your name and thought, she’s been ‘here,’ she can help me.”

Now, although I traveled around the world solo for a couple years and challenged myself in physical and mental ways, it was still vastly different from what Jeremy was attempting.  I couldn’t imagine doing what he was doing – besides carrying all his belongings on his back all day long in the summer heat, he was walking the same looking ‘scene’ alone for weeks on end, basically doing the same exact thing everyday, with very few variables.

Jeremy explained, “while hostel-jumping or WWOOFing [volunteering on organic farms around the world – a common activity of some long term world travelers] or whatever, an explorer has the right-of-way in their plans, and can alter a decision on a moment’s notice (time and money allowing), long-distance hiking (LDH) does not give that leeway.  Instead, there is a tunnel.  Speed is the most encompassing variable on the Trail: time spent at any one campsite, time in a town, miles per day, hours per day.  Besides that, everyone has the same goals: move north (or south, as the case may be), sleep well, eat comfortably, have intense emotions constantly.  Okay, the last one might not be at the forefront of every to-do list, but it certainly tags alongside the others.”

But why exactly was he doing this?  Like myself, many traveler-types that I met like a challenge and like to keep pushing themselves. I often questioned myself about this — at what point do I push myself so far outside my ‘comfort-zone’ that I am just too uncomfortable?  Toward the end of my trip, I realized I was ready for some more ‘normalcy’ and was ready to settle down a bit more, maybe not end my adventures entirely, but take a break. But I often still wonder ‘what’s next?’ Should I do something more challenging so I can grow even more? So after traveling around the world for several months, Jeremy felt the need to push himself even further with a new challenge.  Jeremy’s original intent was to just be alone and away from it all.

(more…)

So we all know I love to eat. And I love being in love. I guess you could say I don’t pray too much (okay, not at all) unless it’s for love…or some really tasty cheese.  Mmm…cheese.

The much-hyped movie Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts comes out this weekend.  Based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling book of the same name, it tells her story of chucking it all to travel around the world while doing some eating in Italy, loving in Bali, and praying in India. Sound familiar? Well, as I mentioned I didn’t do much praying unless you count praying for certain rickety buses to make it to their destinations safely.   You’ve probably already been bombarded with the marketing machine for the film, but just in case you have not… here’s some more for you.

(more…)

As I’ve mentioned many times before…my travels were ultimately all about the people I have met. I’ve made some amazing friends and learned so much. But who says I loved everyone? When not ‘feeling it’ with my human counterparts, I always connected nicely with some international furry friends. I am not talking about Greek guys here (ouch!)…I am talking animals. I encountered many house pets and other creatures in the wild. I hung out with my share of cats, dogs, a guinea pig, a snake, a turtle, goats, kangaroos, camels, and other assorted friends.  In actuality, the reason I was originally able to go on my journey at all was because my 11-year-old cat, Sneakers, had to be euthanized due to an illness he was unable to overcome. Until recently, it was one of the saddest and most heartbreaking moments of my life. But because of it, I realized I was able to go on this journey, a journey that changed my life. So along the way, it was always comforting for me to hang with a furry friend from time to time and think about my little “Sneaky Beast.”