April 2018 – Annikin fotoblogi

Great Lakes area

We continue to explore the Great Lakes area. From Chicago we took a Greyhound bus to Appleton, where I had my only working day a half day meeting to select candidates for the Hall of Fame of paper making area. The day also happened to be my birthday and in the evening Pekka took me to see the Broadway musical School of Rock that was on a tour just in Appleton on those days.

We came to the Northern Wisconsin mainly to visit mom and grandma of Pekka’s daughter in law, but I was also interested to see the area where Finnish immigrants moved to work in the logging and mining early 1900. In this area you can still see the Finnish influence in the names and culture. As we went shopping the young cashier was delighted to hear we came from Finland and told her grandfather came from Finland. Here are Finnish museum, Sisu skiing and several Finnish names of the roads.

When we arrived here it was cold and still snow on the heaps, but today and the coming days temperature around 20 C degrees have been forecasted.

After Lake Michigan I really waited for to see the lake Superior. It has been an important route for fur trade and later for ore ships. Several ship wrecks also have occurred there when storms came and wind bowed from the arctic areas of Canada. We were there now off season time, but on the shores of the Lake there were nice little towns and villages with beautiful restaurants. Had a white fish lunch in one of those which was open.

Amerca’s Dairyland. On the way here we could see many small farms with cows outside and milk trucks are frequently driving on the road.

Lake Superior is still mainly covered with ice

Little Finland is a museum area in Hurley, now it was closed

Sauna is familiar to Finnish descendants, at least to grandma Heikkila when she has visited us in Finland she wants to have sauna.

You need more time for this city

We have spent here eight whole days but this city is so huge and there is so much to see like several small towns inside this city. Friendliness of people has several times surprised us. We have walked miles everyday, the pedometer of my phone has shown even 19 000 steps one day and every day more than 10 000. The weather has been cool around 10 C , but that fits both of us well.

House watching was one of our joys.

House were Obama lived before becoming a president.

The street greenwood was blocked for presidential drives only, but along the sidewalk you could walk.

Did not spend so much time in downtown.

Enjoyed Loyola beach near our apartment.

Homework, there were washing machines down in the basement.

This is famous old Chicago theater. However we chose a small theater close to the apartment at Edgewater. A play by Phili Dawkins Gentleman caller. It was a story about the relationship between Tennessee Williams and William Inge.

The best show may have been the morning view to the lake.

Impressions of first days in Chicago

Today visited the History museum of Chicago. It helped to understand this huge city. Immigrants from different parts of the world have brought their habits and culture, black people from the south and Mississippi area have brought their music, and blues is still thriving. There are still names like Andersonville, Ukrainian village etc. In our corner there is Ann Sather cafe, which is advertised as a Swedish chain with its famous cinnamon rolls. One of those was brought to us even before lunch and it was covered with very sweet sugar sauce. Did not taste very Swedish to me.

So far we have used our days by walking around different areas. Outside the city center “Loop” the scale is more human and atmosphere is relaxed.

Found a bookshop in Lakeview and had a nice chat with the friendly owner. People are very easy to talk to.

Getting from one place to another needs time although the public transportation is good and easy to use. The main system is the elevated train “L” , which was built already end of 19th century. Buses drive along the crossing streets and stop every second block. But the distances are long and you easily need more than an hour if you need to move between the L train lines. Our choice was to take the train to a new area and then explore it by foot.

A walking path like ” Baana” is built on an old elevated railway , blue line is crossing it.

L- train is elevated outside the city center, but inside it is underground, this photo from the corner of Graceland cemetery.

Typical residential streets outside the city center

In History museum you are taught to play blues. The museum was very interactive. It was divided in different departments, we used more than four hours there.

Marimekko and Tapio Wirkkala’s beer glass in the History museum. This is one example of that multiculturalism.

Home sweet home every time you come back from a days tourney.

Our home base in Chicago

We chose Air BNB from the Northern part of the city near Loyola university and close to the L- train station. An extra plus is view to the Lake Michigan from the ninth floor. This is a 12 store high block made of bricks, so it must be quite old.. The first day we just used to stroll around, find the shops and cafes around. Bought traffic card, sim card and took. Visited the host who taught us how to use the gas stove where to put the garbage etc.

Even the hall downstairs has some old fashioned charm

Stepping in looks precious. However, people living here seem to be quite ordinary.

The apartment as such is modern and walls covered with modern paintings. The best its however the view to the lake.

You can see the lake, it is changing all the time.

After this it is time to start exploring downtown.

Flying to Midwest

So unfortunately flying is practically only way traveling to US. We are heading first to Chicago, after that small university town Appleton and finally visit almost relatives in Northern Wisconsin near Lake Superior. My husband Pekka follows me, what I am happy about.

One of my entertainments during flight was to use drawing table, meant for kids.

We flew Icelandair, which is fast cheap and changing planes in Keflavik is easy due to the small airport. Luckily part of the flight was bright so we could see the Greenland icy mountains and open fjords. Flying over Lake Michigan gave some idea how large the Great Lakes really are.