Let's Go Places: Rockford, Illinois

 

Friends, it's time to start dishing the deets on Mega Vacation 2024.  If you're new here, the rest of my family spends all of their spare time at Boy Scouts, so I have a lot of solo time on my hands.  When they go camping, I go "glamping" - aka I take solo trips.

In the summer they go on an extended camp, so for the second year in a row, I've gone on an extended vacation.  Last year I did an island bender, and this year I'm doing a Frank Lloyd Wright Binge/Cool Blogger Meetup in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, with a bonus stop in Minneapolis.

How This Trip Came to Be

Prior to the fall of 2022, if anyone said "Frank Lloyd Wright", the association that I had was "a pompous man that I know nothing about".

In November of 2022 I made a day trip to Pennsylvania to visit Polymath Park and Fallingwater (I didn't write about it at the time, but the recap of going back with my fam is here).

FLW status after that first taste: "if I ever had the chance I'd go to another FLW house but I'm not obsessed" 

In January 2023 the chance to go to the Wescott House in Springfield, Ohio came up (places not identified, but that post is here)

FLW status after Springfield: "Ok, fine I'm obsessed.  I'm going to seek out FLW sites within reasonable driving distance".  

The "reasonable driving distance" phase lasted a long time, with the definition of "reasonable" getting longer and longer.

Current FLW status: "I will block off a week to make an insanely long drive to see as many FLW sites as I can."

My target of "a week" ended up being a long weekend in May plus 10 days in June to hit as many of the northern IL/Wisconsin goodies and I can get.  I started with the FLW Public Sites list, and then it was a huge game of Tetris to figure out when I could go where.  Some sites are open seven days a week, and some are only open 1-2 days a month.

In May I took on the Racine and Milwaukee area sites, and now I'm bouncing all around the place to get the rest.  I spent the weekend in Rockford IL, on Monday I went to Two Rivers WI, then I bounced over to Minneapolis, and I am currently in the Madison area, which will be my home base to take on the rest of the trip.

Today I'd like to tell you about the Rockford part of the trip.

Friday - Wheels Up

Rockford is west of Chicago and in theory it isn't much further away than going to see my SIL in Chicago.  In reality, I have to get through CHI to get to Rockford, so it's a bit longer than advertised.

Early on Friday I packed up everything that I could possibly need, kissed my husband and the dog goodbye, and then I backed my car out of the garage.  My next move was to pick up my back seat driver, Bikie McBikerson - and when I say "pick up", I mean that literally.  Bikie is the small folding bike that I got last year for my island adventures, and he fits nicely into the back seat of my car.  At first I wasn't going to bring Bikie, but all of the places that I was staying had biking trails nearby, so that was how Bikie earned an invitation to the party.

I fired up an audio book and headed for the highway.  My first destination was Indiana Dunes National Park.

It's a great place to stretch your legs before you head into Chicago.  Heads up that you can't just "stop there", you have to get a pass from the main visitors center.  I'd gotten an annual pass on the way home from my last trip, and since I've now used it twice, I'm ahead on the cost of getting two single use passes, and I can just bebop in anytime that I want in the next year.

I spent about an hour there before getting back in the car and tackling the drive through Chicago.  All that I will say about that is that I made it through.

After I was on the west side of CHI, my next destination was a rest stop.  But not for the reason that you're probably thinking. Specifically I was headed for the Belvidere Oasis on I-90.

I read a bajillion blogs, and it's true that I forget the majority of what I read as soon as I read it...but for other things I take notes.  Ok fine, these notes are mental notes but nevertheless, I do have some very specific memories of things that I've read on blogs over the years.  One of those things is that there was a rest stop somewhere in the CHI area with epic popcorn.  Engie wrote years ago about getting a bag of jalapeno and caramel popcorn and mixing the two together, and I read that and started drooling.

And now, two years later I was on the scene and I was going to Get Some.

Or not...

Anywayz, I headed on for Rockford and arrived at my Airbnb.  This was the view from the backyard.

I was starving when I arrived, and I knew where I was having dinner.  Last month when I met Kim, she recommended a vegan restaurant called Pig Minds.

Pig Minds is a brewery that serves vegan food, but the only part that I registered was the vegan food.  I'm not vegan, I'm just someone who likes good food, and I've found a high correlation between vegan restaurants and good food.  I wasn't even thinking about beer.

Pig Minds made it very easy to think about beer.  They have about 10 beers on their menu, and you can get 5oz servings of any beer for very cheap.  Based on the names, I got 5oz servings of Death Grip (an IPA) and Pina Kloude (an IPA with hints of pineapple and vanilla).  Both of these beers were somewhat risky choices - folks can get aggressive with IPAs so if they're calling it Death Grip the odds are that they might have gone too far, and on the Pina Kloude side my past experience has been that beer and vanilla are two great tastes that do not taste great together.

Death Grip - was a good strong IPA that was not aggressive.  It was exactly what I was looking for.

Pina Kloude - the vanilla was a very subtle finish that fit right in with the beer instead of trying to overpower it.

Oh yeah the food was good too.  I got the crispy tofu lemongrass bowl.

I left with cans of both beers to take home with me.

Saturday - the adventure begins

I only had one FLW tour for Saturday.  The challenge was to see what else I could find to do in Rockford.

Travel Advisor suggested the Burpee Museum, which was within walking distance of the Airbnb.  It was on the list of reciprocal admissions from a museum membership that I have for a museum at home, so it was free for me to go. 

Now of course if you're at all into fitness, you probably think you know what the Burpee Museum is about.  Sorry folks, it's not a museum dedicated to the history of burpees.  It's a natural history museum.  Their star exhibit is Jane the Juvenile T Rex.

I left Burpee and headed out to see Frank.  My destination was the Laurent House.

Every FLW site that I've visited is unique in its own way, and the Laurent House's claim to fame is that it is the only known house that was designed to accommodate the owner's disability.  The owner was in a wheelchair.

On the surface, the Laurent house looks like many other FLW houses, but with more floor space to give the wheel chair room to move.  The light switches and doorknobs are all a bit lower than standard so that they were easy to reach from the chair.

After Laurent, I headed out to Belvidere to visit the Petit Chapel.  The only thing is that it wasn't open, so the trip was a bit of a bust. 

 

Well, the trip would have been a bust except that it gave me an excuse to visit the Belvidere Oasis again.  The popcorn shop was now open for business, so I can back up Engie's raves on the wonder that is jalapeno and caramel popcorn mixed together.

The day's adventures weren't over yet.  Travel Advisor had another lead for me in Rockford.  You know, FLW is alright and all, but what I really like is a good ol' 19th century Rich Guy who travels to Europe and gets inspired to build his own Swiss Chalet in Rockford IL.  This is the Tinker Swiss Cottage.

The Tinkers' story is wild.  Once upon a time in the 1850's Mrs. Tinker was married her first husband, who owned a reaper company.  A Big Corporate Fat Cat Reaper Company tried to muscle in on their business and sued them for patent infringement.  The first Mrs. Tinker's husband reached out to a lawyer that he knew and sent the Big Corporate Fat Cats packing.  You may have heard of his lawyer, a gentleman named Abraham Lincoln.

Anyways, the first Mrs. Tinker's husband died, which was very sad BUT Illinois was one of the very few states where widows could inherit their husband's property.  Mrs. Tinker took over the reaper business and ran it successfully.  She got a headhunter to go out and find the best and brightest minds for her to hire, and one of those hirees was Mr. Tinker.  Mr. and Mrs. Tinker took a liking to each other, but kept their romance under wraps since she was his boss.  Tinker went to Europe and got inspired to build his chalet, and she was happy to keep living in her mansion across the river.  After a decade together they went public with the romance and got married and divided their time between the two houses.

But rich people end up with the same crap that the rest of us have to deal with.  After many happy years together, Mrs. Tinker died.  A number of her relatives were living with them, and those folks started to die off as well.  In the end Mr. Tinker and Mrs. Tinker's niece were the only family members left, and since they were not blood relatives, the dictates of society were that they could not live together.  But there was a loophole that would make it OK and aw yiss if you're keeping score this is the third uncle and niece marriage that I've encountered on my travels.  Hey, it worked for the Blennerhassetts, it worked for President Harrison, and it worked for the Tinkers. 

Let's hear from someone who knows what they're talking about:
 

After Tinker Swiss Cottage, it was dinnertime and I found myself heading right back for Pig Minds.  This time I got the Nashville hot chik'n sandwich and more beer.  Sure enough I ended up buying more of the beer to take home with me.

Sunday - time to move on

I started my Sunday with a bike ride on one of Rockford's many bike trails.  Then I packed up my stuff and checked out of the Airbnb.  The theme of the day was "FLW: Farmhouse Edition".

This is Fabyan Villa in Geneva, IL.  Better known as "that time that FLW picked up some easy money".

Back in the day, Mr. and Mrs. Fabyan were wealthy Chicagoans who wanted a place outside of the city.  They bought a bunch of land out in Geneva, and the property included a farmhouse.  The only thing was that the farmhouse needed a little fixing up.

No one knows why FLW took on this project, since renovating farmhouses wasn't exactly his thing, but he was in the area working on two other houses.  The theory is that since he was out here anyway, renovating the Fabyan property was an easy enough way to get some extra cash.

From here the story is less about FLW and more about Crazy Rich Early 20th Century Chicagoans.  The Fabyans built a fabulous estate, and opened it up to the public on Sundays.  Their attractions included bears.  The bear cage is still standing, though today the estate is a public park and the bear cage is now a picnic pavilion.

There is a river on the estate, and Fabyan of course built a lighthouse as one does.

But the real juicy story about Fabyan is that he started a research lab nearby.  He hired a team to conduct some Very Important Research.  Namely, to unearth the conspiracy that the works of Shakespeare were really written by Sir Francis Bacon.  The team set to work and...well it's neither here nor there about the Shakespeare/Bacon thing but the work that the team did led to a code breaking project that was used in WWI and WWII - and here is the entrance to the rabbit hole on that that I will be chasing once I get back home.

My head was buzzing with all of the good stories.  If I'd had the time, I could have spent several more hours in the park, and maybe someday I will.  But as it was I needed to make tracks for nearby Muirhead Farmhouse.

Muirhead Farmhouse is one of those places that has a very limited tour schedule: two days a month for six months out of the year.  There is a very good reason for that: it is still occupied by the granddaughter of the original owner.  They have to put just a bit of work into cleaning up the place for tours, and yes this is one of those places where they ask you to take your shoes off and ask that you do not go poking into any cupboards.

The husband gave the tour while the wife took the dog away to hang out in the barn.  Their cat usually hides somewhere during the tours, but Kitty was feeling social during our visit.

The original owners had five children, so the house is huge. So huge that at one point the current owners opened a bed and breakfast.  Today they just do the tours.

At the end of the tour, Kitty was hanging out in the mud room to say goodbye.

And with that, it was time to leave Illinois and head north.  But that's a story for another day.

Who's been to Rockford?