III: Dunes, Deep Dish, and an Isthmus (IN, IL, WI)
Hi all! This is part III of my National Park/American road trip blog. Here are Part I and Part II.
It’s been a minute! Blog wise, I mean. Glad to be back. Anyways, after St. Louis ended up deserving its own post, I will be combining the next three stops here.
Indiana Dunes National Park
America’s third newest national park, the Indiana Dunes, used to be a national seashore until recently. I’m learning that the National Park Service has different “National (blanks)” for different designations; think of memorials, monuments, seashores, rivers, etc. In another example, the New River Gorge got upgraded from a National River to National Park in December 2020, as part of that month’s stimulus package.
Anyways, we only had a short trip to the Dunes. And we also got lost. We first stumbled upon the west entrance, but our National Parks pass did not include that part of the park. We then got lost again and made it to Indiana Dunes State Park. So same dunes, same area (along Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana), but different jurisdiction. As we were on a National Park trip, and not a State Park trip, this just would not do. We then finally found part of the Park in Porter Beach next door, and learned that the Indiana Dunes NP has no less than twenty entrances!
Porter Beach was a treat! Nothing too extravagant, but a lovely beach with some 50' tall dunes as a backdrop, and placid Lake Michigan as the forefront. In true rust belt fashion, a gigantic manufacturing plant was just a few mles away, in plain sight. There were lots of beachgoers. I did not think of the Midwest as having beach culture, and it was a pleasant surprise to be proven wrong.
Chicago
Chicago is less than an hour from Indiana Dunes, so we decided to soak in a megalopolis before our long journey though the midwest and Great Plains. I had never been to Chicago and was quite excited. I knew little except about the Architecture, the Bean, Deep Dish Pizza, and from watching 4 seasons of Shameless. Oh, and the L, of course. Maybe I misspoke saying I knew little about Chicago.
We stayed at a wonderful hostel in River North, the Freehand (of which there is one in Miami as well!). The location was sublime for a touristy venture of America‘s 3rd largest city. Our first meal was Deep Dish at Giordiano’s, and even a small was a behemoth. We barely finished half. But man was it delicious. Inches thick with oozing mozzarella made it much more of a winner than St. Louis style pizza.
We then took a short stroll across the Chicago River and into downtown in the evening, and wow was a pretty place. Having come off a recent venture to NYC and been clobbered by the claustrophobia and sheer weight of the city, Chicago felt urban, sure, but light, airy, and spacious. More breathable, perhaps. The collection of bridges every block going over the river were quite fun too, and of course the architecture made for some great eye candy.
The next day comprised of walking up and down a rainy Navy Pier and finding a perfectly working umbrella abandoned by a signpost. As a very wet human by that point, I was most grateful. We then did the most millennial Chicago thing and went to see the Bean, which is for some strange reason called the Cloud Gate. It’s strange because it is unarguably a bean. From there we walked South on Michican Ave past the gigantic Art Institute of Chicago (which will have to be explored on a later trip!) and down to the intimate Museum of Contemporary Photography. I enjoyed the museum a lot; there was an exhibit of overlooked American sights, like migrant workers harvesting Asparagus and the burning of a Sugar Cane field in Louisiana.
That night we had a stroke of luck, as the Freehand’s famous accompanying bar, The Broken Shaker, was having it’s soft reopening since covid, and they treated us to a drink in it’s cozy, dimly-lit, hostel-meets-Great Gatsby flair. Having had some fond memories of Miami Beach’s Broken Shaker, I was filled with both nostalgia and hope for a post-covid world.
Before we headed onto Madison, I decided I wanted to take advantage of Chicago’s Lakeshore, courtesy of their ebike program. It’s really lovely — there is a 2-way bike/pedestrian path along the entire Lakeshore, and I had the pleasure of biking all the way to Lincoln Park. I schlepped over to the L and treated myself to a trip all the way around the Loop before departing, grabbing our things, and heading onwards to Madison, Wisconsin.
Madison
Madison felt like the perfect cutesy, trendy, fun college town. Both the Capital of Wisconsin and home to the University of Wisconsin, it oozes of charm and life. Plus, Madison is situated on an isthmus, in between lakes Mendota and Monona, giving it a picturesque and compact feel. Plus, it has a huge outdoors bent. Lots of people walking, biking, paddleboarding always are a good sign in my book.
While we were not there for too long, I got to spend a good amount of time with one of my first college friends, Rachel, and her boyfriend Randy. They showed us around downtown, some great eateries, and even a short tour of UW-Madison. We even spent the last evening sitting on the campus waterfront chatting and enjoying some lovely local cheese curds. We also got to see Rachel’s super cute plant shop where she worked. Other fun sights included the Buddhist temple tucked well hidden in the back of the botanical gardens, and the majestic state capitol building that all roads lead to and is the biggest building in town. Its modeled after the US Capitol building.
That’s all for now folks. Next: Minne-soh-ta!
