Between Chicago and Milwaukee: “Chicwaukee” – Day 3
I took a 3-day tour around Chicago’s north shore suburbs and the Kenosha/Racine area to wander about and see what all was there. I left wanting to come back for more, there’s plenty of interesting places to see and visit.
Introduction
Day 1: Chicago’s north shore suburbs
Day 2: This post is about being around Kenosha
Day 3: This post is about being around Racine, and heading back home
***CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY TO HELP YOU FOLLOW ALONG IN THIS POST***
I slept a little better this time around, since I got horizontal earlier than usual. I knew at least the sun was going to be out for my next Lake Michigan stop, as opposed to Day 1, so that made me excited to be where I wanted to go.
I went to the Racine Visitor Center the previous day and gathered some places to visit both today and on a next trip. Because I still had to drive home, there wasn’t as much time for me to stay in town. However, I did get my main attraction in later in the day.
This isn’t my first time at this historic white-painted brick lighthouse, which has been lit each night since 1880. My family and I visited here about 25 years ago as lighthouses are a favorite interest of my mom’s. This large lighthouse helps navigate Lake Michigan boaters to Racine. The lighthouse itself actually is in the village of Wind Point (north of Racine), and its building also is the village’s police department. Read more about it HERE and HERE.
The lighthouse campus is neatly landscaped and well preserved as well. Plenty of signs help tell their history. Lakefront access is available, and plenty of small shells are found on the sand. The area is residential, so there’s not a lot of artificial noise to filter against the sounds of waves and birds and the rest of nature.
Private tower tours are available on certain dates in the summer: go to windpointlighthouse.org for more information.
I didn’t know what a kringle was until reading about it in one of the magazines I picked up at the visitor center – see, you learn things when you go to them! I thought it was good enough to try, and visited the place where they are still made by hand (as many have converted to machine).
Bentsen’s Bakery has been making kringles by hand for more than 90 years. What are kringles? They are oval-shaped danishes that are about a foot-and-a-half long. They come stuffed in several flavors. kringles are Racine’s favorite dish, from what I read, and I had to have at least a piece of the local cuisine. Kringles can be cut in pieces to prevent yourself from a sugar rush; I bought a butterscotch kringle that I saved to eat after I got home.
S.C. Johnson world headquarters
My second Frank Lloyd Wright attraction during the trip, the S.C. Johnson world headquarters is truly a uniquely designed place. Inside tours are available, but they are to be scheduled well in advance; I tried booking 2 weeks before going, but it was full when I wanted to go.
Curves are a big part of the architecture and interior design of the place. Since all I could see was the outside, it was interesting to see the rounded corners of the buildings. The campus also includes a vintage airplane and the former Golden Rondelle Theater from the 1964 World’s Fair in NYC, which looks like a golden flying saucer.
I’ll have to schedule an interior tour to learn more about the campus, but seeing the exterior was neat.
To the west of the complex is an old fire station that looks like a castle. You can tell I enjoy marveling at architecture.
Racine is known for being a destination for lovers of a variety of different kinds of art, especially contemporary and art glass.
Hot Shop Glass is where all sorts of art glass pieces are made, and many are sold in their gallery. The business-studio is downtown near a drawbridge over the Root River. There’s a large room with kilns and workshop tables on one end, and shelves of pieces for sale and commission on a couple of walls. It’s amazing what can be made with glass, and especially how it all can be curved and colored.
Displayed with the works on sale are backgrounds on the artists who created them, sharing their stories on what they like and enjoy about their work. There is also a selection of memorial glasses, where a loved one’s ashes can be integrated into a glass art work.
Contemporary art can be literally anything. One would have to visit themselves to get a grasp on what it’s all about.
The Racine Art Museum has the nation’s largest collection of contemporary art. These aren’t paintings and the like, but pieces made from everyday items and a whole lot more. I took pictures of some of my favorite things that I saw (start by clicking HERE and make your way across the photo album). Exhibits rotate two or three times a year.
After seeing it all, you really get an idea that you can make art out of literally ANYTHING! There was a lot of “That’s neat,” and “That’s interesting,” coming up in my mind as I walked along. You may have a bunch of random things at home, and you can put them together to create unique works of art. I think a visit here would be great inspiration to make that happen.
The museum also has an annual Peeps-themed exhibition around Easter. I’m not a fan of eating Peeps, but they do make for neat artistic creations. In pieces designed by children and adults, Peeps replace people in diorama pieces, and in drawings or pictures (start here for a short photo gallery).
Visitors could vote for their best pieces. I was torn between two: a neat piece of art honoring the late Bob Uecker, and a painting called “Peepcent Van Gogh” of a Peep with one of its ears bitten off. I went with the Van Gogh one, which was designed by a child. (Unfortunately, I failed to take a picture of that one.)
The art museum was my hallmark stop on this day, and everything else in town will be visited during another adventure. This also served as my “turn” for the trip: everywhere I went next was toward the direction home.
I love sports history. I live about 50 miles from the sites of the former Rockford Peaches (Beyer Stadium) of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (known to a later generation for its role in “A League of Their Own”), as well as the Rock Island Independents (Douglas Park; and a short stint at Browning Field in Moline) of the early NFL.
Racine’s Horlick Athletic Field had both an NFL and an AAGPBL team play on it. The stadium’s rock-themed perimeter and ticket booth from the early 1920s still stands, and the field is now turf and home to high school football. The Racine Belles baseball team and the Horlick-Racine Legion and the Racine Tornadoes football teams played here.
If it wasn’t for “A League of Their Own,” I don’t think many people would remember the AAGPBL as much. So it’s neat to see places such as this, as well as Beyer Stadium in Rockford, preserved and some of its history told to remind people that women DID have a chance to play baseball like the men did.
When seeing historic relics like this, I gaze at it for a while, and close my eyes and imagine what it ma have been like when the pro teams were playing there.
On the way home
On Day 1, I drove through the Chicago suburbs to get to my first destination. Driving back home from Racine, I took a path toward Rockford. This direction took me to Burlington, where I saw that there was a top and logic puzzle museum. It was closed when I drove by, but (saying this like a broken record), I’ll save this for next time.
Driving through Elkhorn, it began to rain. When that happens, I’m less likely to stop at places and concentrate on the drive home. However, I couldn’t help but notice a neat piece of partial architecture restoration. It was from what used to be an old downtown bank building: It’s front and pillars were preserved, while the bulk of the building was razed and converted into a courtyard. Kind of like a mini Brandenburg Gate of sorts. (Say it with me, “I’ll save this for next time.”)
I ate dinner at a tavern called the Boar’s Nest in Allen’s Grove. The place is known for having a replica of the “General Lee” from the Dukes of Hazzard on its roof, like it’s about to jump over something.
Once I hit Beloit, I considered it the end of the adventure. Everywhere else from there is familiar territory.
Overall, this trip was a great experience. There was lot to see, a lot to hear, and things to learn from. I had experiences that I could tell people about when something similar comes up. It’s very difficult to tackle everything in a city in one shot, but the best part about going on these trips is that for every 1 thing you find, there’s 1 more thing to come back to one day. I like wandering around not knowing what all I can find.
Cody’s Road Trips 