What’s a farm doing in the middle of Ottawa? It’s the Central Experimental Farm attached to the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. It’s about a third petting zoo, a third agricultural science, and a third agricultural innovation. After looking at honey and bees inside the museum, visitors are treated to Read more
American art museums typically have a hodgepodge of second-rate American colonial paintings, clusters of meaningless modern sculptures, and obscure fragments of European churches. Not so in Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago consists of two wings, the old building and modern art. Its best to begin early in the morning Read more
This place in Chicago is 100% for children and amateur biologists. They have everything from tiny Nemo clownfish of the coral reef to dolphins of the Pacific. It’s not just fish, they also have spiders, frogs, cousins of alligators, and other animals that live near or around water. The special Read more
Now called the Willis Tower, the department store giant Sears once owned this Chicago landmark. The stepped-back upper floors were designed to yield a maximum window-to-floor ratio to make it attractive for tenants. Not having a gallery on the architectural ingenuity of the architecture of the tower is a missed Read more
When the John Hancock Building in Chicago was completed in 1969 it was the second tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building, but only if you include the height of its 350-foot tall spires. Today, it’s roof height of 344 meters is barely remarkable. The observation deck Read more
The MSI in Chicago is one of the better science museums I’ve visited in North America, it’s probably my second favorite on the continent after the Canada Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa and undoubtedly my favorite along the great lakes. Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit have nothing comparable to Read more
I had a field day at the Field Museum, it’s basically Chicago‘s museum of natural and human history. The entrance is graced by a titanosaurus skeleton composed of six dinosaurs looking over a pair of fighting elephants. The place is six museums in one. There are three special exhibitions, an Read more
The iconic salty and fatty pork bricks sold in over 40 countries around the world came from Austin, Minnesota. Each country sells and cooks Spam in their own way and the museum showcases the respective different packaging and recipe from major markets such as Korea, the Philippines, and China. Staff Read more
Austin, 90 minutes south of Minneapolis, is most well known to be the birthplace of Hormel’s Spam meat invented by George A. Hormel in 1937. His house is now a museum. Along with the Spam Museum, these two locations are the biggest tourism draws to the town. Parking is free Read more
The International Professional Rodeo Association based in Alberta held its 2022 Canada finals in St. Tite, a small town of 3,000 in Quebec. I’ve been to the annual Festival Western de Saint Tite in 2021 when it first reopened after the pandemic. The biggest difference between the western festival and Read more