Chicago travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Canada’s largest annual Icewine Festival is about to be launched this weekend with a myriad of wintry events along Niagara famous wine route. Starting Friday September 16th, Montebello Park in downtown St. Catharines will be the place to be for the next two weekends as the Balderson Wine Cheese and Food Experience brings over 40 Ontario wineries and restaurants together. Sample the best Niagara and Ontario has to offer, while enjoying wine seminars, art shows, children’s Grapeland, grape stomps, cooking demonstrations and big name jazz, blues and pop recording artists on the Main Stage. This year’s weekend headliners include Tributes to Chicago and Ray Charles on Friday evening, Sue Foley on Saturday night, and Ian Thomas on Sunday evening. Over 40 wineries are nestled in the rolling landscape of the Niagara Peninsula. The Niagara Peninsula is recognized globally as an outstanding wine producing region. Its soils are excellent and the climate is similar to that of great wine producing regions of the world such as Burgundy and Loire Valley of France plus New Zealand.

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Known to locals as “L5P”, Atlanta’s Little Five Points has long been one of the city’s most distinctive areas, a neighborhood whose offbeat flavor and affinity for the avant-garde have made it a favorite haunt of scores of artists and musicians. Come late October, those same folks must share the streets with a veritable cavalcade of ghouls, ghosts and goblins – all in the “spirit” of good fun, of course. In addition to the colorful parade, this annual celebration of costumes includes plenty of jack-o-lanterns, lots for the kids to do, and tons of spectacular sights.

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InterContinental Chicago is ideally situated on the Magnificent Mile. With its art deco exterior and Roman-style swimming pool, this Chicago hotel was originally built as the Medinah Athletic Club in 1929 and is a historic Chicago landmark. Extensive renovation translates into the highest standards for guest comfort, set within an old-world elegance that is combined with the best in modern amenities.
The InterContinental Chicago is one of the city’s most luxurious hotels and landmarks referenced in architectural tours of Chicago, the hotel displays a stunning blend of architecture and art from all over the world. This unique Chicago hotel combines historic charm with contemporary elegance and modern efficiency.
InterContinental Hotels, renowned for its international portfolio of historic restorations, purchased the property in 1988 and immediately began renovations. It was the original athletic club’s 1930 yearbook, the SCIMITAR, which guided much of the original work which was used to replicate the restore entire rooms – right down to the detailing in the draperies, carpets, and murals, throughout the entire hotel.

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The building probably featured on more postcards than any other contemporary building. Even the whole area, the Flatiron district, was named after the building. Originally the Flatiron building featured an observatory on the top floor, but taller buildings have taken over this function. It is still however a popular tourist attraction, and one of the most photographed landmarks in New York.The Flatiron Building was constructed between 1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue, at the time one of the most prominent sites. It is located near Madison Square at the end of the Ladies Mile, one of Manhattan’s most important shopping districts at the turn of the 19th century.

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Alcatraz. The Rock. Perhaps the most famous prison in the world; certainly few place names are as evocative. From the mid 1930s until the mid 1960s, this small rocky island in San Francisco Bay was home to America’s premier maximum-security prison, created to incarcerate a small number of inmates who were so dangerous, so violent, and so escape-prone that they could not be managed safely in other prisons.
Many people, though, are unaware of the wealth of other stories to be learned on the island. Alcatraz is now home to rare flowers and plants, marine wildlife, and thousands of roosting and nesting sea birds. Civil War-era buildings dotting the island give insight into the 19th century when the island served as both a harbor defense fort and a military prison. You can also see visible reminders of the American Indian Occupation that started in 1969 after the prison closed, highlighting an important milestone in the American Indian rights movement.

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Broadway, as its name implies is a big, wide avenue that runs the entire length of Manhattan in New York City. It passes through the middle of the Theater district concentrated around Times Square and has lent its name to those spectacular musical productions known as the Broadway play. No visit to New York City would be complete without seeing at least one Broadway musical production.

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