USA | Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

Chicago’s Bid For The 2016 Olympics Would Forever Change The City’s South Side

Published September 10, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

Metal angel sculptures line pathways in wildflower choked Northerly Island, previous home of Meigs Field. The old runway, now a mowed grassy strip, is still visible in the background.

During my recent trip to Chicago, I took an afternoon stroll around Northerly Island, located just behind the downtown Museum Campus on the lakefront. This narrow peninsula was once home to Meigs Field, a tiny airport that opened on December 10, 1948 and by 1955 was the busiest single-strip airfield in the country. In its latter years, the airfield served mostly private planes, but I have a vivid recollection of landing at Meigs in a prop engine puddle-jumper many years ago, so commercial airlines must have used the field at one time. Landing and taking off from Meigs Field was a scary proposition. The runway was short and dead-ended into Lake Michigan; my first landing was my last – purposely. I was certain my plane was going into the drink.

In 1994, Chicago’s Mayor Daley announced plans to close the airport and build a park in its place. Nine years of legal battles ensued until, in a controversial move on March 30, 2003, the Mayor ordered private crews to destroy the runway in the middle of the night, bulldozing large X-shaped gouges into the runway surface. Daley subsequently excused his actions, insisting that post-9/11 risks of terrorist-controlled aircraft attacking the downtown waterfront necessitated the closing of Meigs Field.

Closeup of sculpture on Northerly Island

These days, Northerly Island is strewn with wildflowers. Metallic angel sculptures rise amidst blossoms, pointing the way down narrow asphalt paths winding between the Adler Planetarium and the old air tower. Butterflies drift from bloom to bloom and songbirds warble melodies from nests secreted in tall grasses. Eerily, concrete runway markers – the only remnant of the once busy airfield – poke their heads above thick vegetation growing on the old landing strip. Walking through this idyllic park, it is hard to imagine that it may soon undergo yet another radical transformation. Continue reading →

Posted in Midwest US travel |

Tagged 2016 Olympics, Art, aviation, blogsherpa, Chicago, Daniel Burnham, Illinois, Meigs Field, Michael Reese Hospital, Northerly Island, Olympic Village, parks, photos, Plan of Chicago, Sculpture, Travel, USA, wildflowers |

8 Comments

Upper Whitewater Falls – Highest Waterfall East Of The Rockies

Published September 8, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

Plunging an amazing 411 feet, Upper Whitewater Falls in southwest North Carolina is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies. Located in a fairly rugged, little-visited area, the upper falls are easily accessible via a short paved path bordered by wildflowers, moss-covered boulders, and dense forest.

Upper Whitewater Falls in Sapphire, North Carolina

Tiny wildflowers border the path through dense forest

More wildflowers

Continue reading →

Posted in North Carolina travel |

Tagged blogsherpa, Cashiers, Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, north carolina mountains, photos, Sapphire, the south, Transylvania County, Travel, Upper Whitewater Falls, USA, waterfalls, wildflowers |

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New Gorges State Park In North Carolina – The Beauty In Ugly

Published September 5, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

After five weeks on the road it was time to head home, but not before one last day of hiking. From the North Carolina mountain town of Cashiers, I mapped a route past Gorges State Park, which opened to the public this past May. Located atop the Blue Ridge Escarpment, this newest North Carolina park is the source of five mountain streams that gradually descend toward the South Carolina border, where they suddenly plunge over spectacular falls and rush through steep-walled gorges.

With only one afternoon at my disposal I decided on a duo of one-mile round-trip hikes. The first, marked “strenuous,” descended sharply to a wooden platform overhanging Bearwalow Creek, where Upper Bearwallow Falls dropped 200 feet into the gorge. Pretty – but a bit anticlimactic after others I have seen around Transylvania County. And almost not worth the straight-up, half-mile ascent that had me gasping for air.

Upper Bearwallow Falls in North Carolina's new Gorges State Park

After catching my breath I crossed the parking lot to access the “moderate” Bearwallow Valley Overlook trail. I eyeballed the spongy, leaf-littered path Continue reading →

Posted in North Carolina travel |

Tagged blogsherpa, Gorges State Park, hiking, Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, north carolina mountains, photos, Sapphire, the south, trails, Transylvania County, Travel, Upper Bearwallow Falls, USA, waterfalls |

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Tour of Chicago’s Board of Trade Building Combines Architecture and Commodities Trading

Published September 1, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

The meaning of the term “skyscraper” has changed dramatically over the centuries. Originally a nautical term referring to a tall mast or main sail on a sailing ship, the word was first used to describe buildings when the ten-story steel-framed Home Insurance Building was constructed in Chicago in 1885. Although later demolished, the structure forever marked Chicago as the birthplace of the skyscraper. Chicago today has an unrivaled collection of skyscrapers that makes the city a premiere destination in the world for the study of architecture.

Chicago Model City display in the lobby of the Architecture Foundation documents the history of architecture in the city

Chief among the city’s spectacular skyscrapers is the Chicago Board of Trade Building, which anchors the southern end of the downtown financial district on LaSalle Street and is the world’s oldest futures and options exchange. Built to provide a centralized location where buyers and sellers could meet, negotiate, and enter into contracts to buy and sell commodities produced in the Midwest, farmers flocked to the CBOT with samples of their wheat, corn, and soybean crops. Over time, the function of the exchange evolved into one of buying and selling forward contracts for commodities. Today, more than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading from the floor of the open exchange.

Art deco designed Chicago Board of Trade Building anchors the south end of the LaSalle Street financial district

Growing up in Chicago, I had always wanted to tour the Board of Trade building and watch the commodity traders in the “pit” but, like most locals who never visit the attractions in their own back yard, I just never got around to it. I moved away and forgot about CBOT until recently, when I returned to the city for a conference scheduled to be held in the Loop. In years past, anyone could visit the Chicago Board of Trade, but since 9/11, security concerns have necessitated limiting access to the facility. Fortunately, tours are still available through the Chicago Architecture Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and design. The CBOT is one of 16 “Lunchtime Tours” of historic buildings available through the Foundation. In this instance, the timing was perfect; not only would I learn the history of the skyscraper and see its unique architectural details up close, at the conclusion of the tour I would have an opportunity to witness live commodities trading in the pit from an overhead observation gallery.

I arrived early and strolled around the massive granite tower to kill time. Courtyards on two sides of the building provided seating for harried traders clad in the bright blue, red, or gold jackets of their particular brokerage houses. They rushed in and out of revolving doors for quick breaks, gulping coffee while talking on cell phones and puffing furiously on cigarettes, generating a billowing cloud of smoke. Wading through the billowing smoke, I was reminded that not so long ago I was living the same kind of harried and stressed-out life and I gave silent thanks that this part of my life is over. Continue reading →

Posted in Midwest US travel |

Tagged Architecture Foundation, art deco, blogsherpa, Board of Trade building, Chicago, commodities trading, downtown, Illinois, photos, Travel, USA |

21 Comments

Cherokee, North Carolina Is More Than Phony Teepees and Taiwan Trinkets

Published August 27, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

Phony teepees, gold panning operations, and stores overflowing with “Indian” souvenirs stamped “Made in Taiwan” dominate the main street in Cherokee, North Carolina. On the sidewalks, performers with not a whit of Indian blood don garish costumes and perform steps bearing little resemblance to actual Cherokee ceremonial dance. In a shopping center parking lot, kids line up to ride a mechanical bull, while down the street, giant arrows direct tourists to a live bear display. Although located within the Reservation lands of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, it would be easy to dismiss the town of Cherokee as just another tourist trap and drive right on through. But don’t. Instead, turn at the Cherokee Museum and drive to the top of hill to Oconaluftee Indian Village, where an authentic Cherokee experience awaits.

Main highway running through Cherokee, North Carolina is strewn with touristy attractions and gift stores

The Cherokees in Western North Carolina today descend from those who those who hid in the hills, defying removal during the infamous Trail of Tears mandated by President Andrew Jackson, and others who returned, many on foot. Gradually they created a sovereign nation of 100 square miles and, in 1948, established the Cherokee Historical Association to carry out their mission of preserving the history and culture of the Cherokee People. Oconaluftee Indian Village and its sister operation, the Unto These Hills Outdoor Drama are central to those efforts. Continue reading →

Posted in North Carolina travel |

Tagged blogsherpa, Cherokee, Eastern Nation, North Carolina, north carolina mountains, Oconaluftee Indian Village, outdoor drama, photos, the south, Travel, tribal, tribe, Unto These Hills, USA |

4 Comments

Cades Cove, Smoky Mountain National Park – There’s Wild In Them Thar’ Hills

Published August 25, 2009 | By Barbara Weibel

Tucked into the northwest corner of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Cades Cove is one of very few places in the entire national park system where nature and human history mingle. Cherokees were the first to discover this relatively flat valley between mountains; they camped in the Cove for weeks or months at a time, hunting deer, elk, bison and bears. By 1821 white settlers had discovered the idyllic site. They cleared the land, building log homes, barns, corncribs, smokehouses, and grist mills. The bottom land was rich and fertile and produced abundant crops, while the surrounding forest provided plentiful game; life was hard but good. Although the occasional Cherokee was spotted, aside from one reported incident of a hunter being killed by an Indian, the settlers and Cherokees co-existed peacefully, perhaps because the Cherokee had never built permanent villages in Cades Cove.

Cades Cove is an idyllic valley between mountain ridges in the northwest corner of Great Smoky Mountain National Park

My intended route between Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Cherokee, North Carolina took me up and over the Smokies and past the road leading to Cades Cove. I was on no specific schedule and had never investigated the Tennessee side of the park, so I detoured twenty-some miles on a serpentine road, following a sparkling creek tripping its way over stone ledges and giant boulders as it rushed down the mountainside. At the end of the road, cars, hikers, and cyclists shared a narrow one-way eleven-mile road that loops around the valley. Continue reading →

Posted in Southeast US travel |