Ford's Theatre

Ford's Theatre: 511 Tenth St, NW, Washington, DC 20004

• Directions: Take the Red Line Metro to the Metro Center station. Head out to F Street, and turn right. Head to 11th Street, and turn right again. The theatre will be just down the street.

I have always been interested in the Civil War era. The first time I was out to DC, the theatre was closed for renovation. Last spring I made it a must stop on our trip. My sister and I didn't bother to reserve tickets online for a dollar, we decided to wait in line at the theatre to get tickets. What we didn't know is that we should've reserved online...a few weeks before getting out there. When we were waiting in line at about 10 or 11am, we were told they were out of tickets for the day, and we may be able to get tickets for the next day. We were able to get tickets for that day because people didn't want the tickets anymore. I was so excited about it! First, when we got back to the theatre, we had to wait in line almost all the way down to the end of the block. When we finally got into the theatre, we were ushered to the balcony and given a speech as to the history of the building, the night Lincoln was shot, and what the building was used for after Lincoln was shot. The person speaking to us wasn't dressed in period clothes, she was just a park ranger since the theatre is run by the National Park system. We then find out that the theatre was gutted and used as offices until it was renovated again back after WW2 (or sometime around there). Nothing that was in there was there when Lincoln was shot, except for a portrait of Lincoln himself. We wanted to go to the museum, but found out the museum at the theatre wasn't open during peak times. The whole thing was done in about 20-30 minutes. Afterwards, you're then able to go across the street to see the house where Lincoln died. It was interesting, but you wait in line again with the same people from the theatre. There are so many people trying to get through, that you really can't take pictures or appreciate the house. I was really disappointed in the whole experience, and friends who have been have felt the same way. Maybe they'll make it better in the next few years, and I'll try to give it another chance.

Ben's Chili Bowl

Ben's Chili Bowl: 1213 U Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C

• Directions: Take the Green Line metro to the U Street station, go up to the street level, and it's right across the street.

I wouldn't call this restaurant a tourist trap, it's like the sign says, it's an institution. People from Bill Cosby to the First Family have eaten here. I've been to DC a few times now, and every time I'm here, I keep saying I'm going to come up here. My sister and I decided we wanted to make this our first stop when we got in this morning. We got up there at about 1:3oish, and there was a line out the door, to the point where we had the door closed on us because there were too many people inside! It was worth the wait. Once we got inside, the people were friendly and helpful. It was mind blowing the amount of diversity inside. Small children, senior citizens, business men in suits, to teenagers having fun. The whole staff was friendly, and worked together like a well oiled machine. Once we put in our order, our food was right to us. I looked at my chili half smoke, and wondered how I was going to attack it. It was smothered in chili, and I knew I was going to be wandering around DC after this. I decided that I was going to start with a knife and a fork. That changed when I saw the man in the business suit sitting next to me pick his up and eat it without getting it all over him. I decided that I could do that too. I didn't get anything on my clothes, but all over my face and hands. It was nice seeing everything cooked in front of me as well. This is definitely a spot I will be returning to!

McDonald's Museum

McDonald's Museum/Store No. 1: 400 N. Lee St., Des Plaines, IL

• Directions: From the Leaning Tower in Niles: Keep heading west on Touhy Ave. Once you get to 294, you will take the first right after 294, which will be River Road. Take River Road north a few miles (will turn into Des Plaines Ave). The store should be where Lee and Des Plaines meet.
  

Let me start out by saying this was our last stop, we had been driving for days, were on each other's last nerve, and I had possibly been driving with road rage in Chicago. We got to the McDonald's across the street from the museum to see that...it was closed. We all were quite upset that it was closed. I had been talking about it, and planned on seeing it, and we showed up to find it closed. I was ready to pull a Wally World (from National Lampoon's Vacation). We took a few pictures and went into the McDonald's to get lunch. They said it was closed for renovations or something, but it would've been nice to know that before we got there!

This was our last stop for our trip. We were glad to get back on the Interstate and only 3 hours from home!

Leaning Tower of Niles

Leaning Tower of Niles: 6300 Touhy Avenue, Niles, IL

• Directions: From I-94: Take exit 39B onto Touhy Ave. Turn left at the bottom of the ramp. The tower will be after Lehigh Ave.

On our trip to the South, I felt as if I had been around the world. We had gone through exotic cities (named for cities in other countries), and seen landmarks from famous places. One of our last stops for the trip was the Leaning Tower of Niles. It looked like the one in Pisa. We all got out of the car excited, and planning out our posed pictures. We got some good pictures of us trying to "hold" it up. It was such a nice day, we took our time taking pictures and enjoying being out of the car for awhile. We all had fun on this stop. Thankfully, no one was giving us weird looks there!

Radio Flyer

Large Radio Flyer Wagon: 6515 W. Grand Ave., Elmwood Park, IL

• Directions: From I-90/94: Take exit 47A. Head south on N. Western Ave. Turn right onto W. Fullerton Ave. Keep following Fullerton, it will eventually turn into Grand Ave. It will be on Grand Ave.

I never had a Radio Flyer wagon, that I recall, but I remember riding in friend's Radio Flyers as kids. Just the thought of Radio Flyer makes me want to go back to my childhood. I was SO excited to see it!! I felt like a kid again when walking up to it. We couldn't get into the factory to get close to it, but we got some good pictures through the gate. It was reminiscent of taking pictures of the White House through the gate in Washington, DC. It would've been nice to get up close to it, but this was good too. It was totally worth more time in the car with my sisters to see this.

Frankenmuffler

Frankenmuffler: 7759 S Harlem Ave, Burbank, IL

• Directions: From I-90/94: Take I-55 South. Exit onto Hwy 43/Harlem Ave. Keep following for a few miles until the Haunted Trails Family Amusement Park.

The Chicago area is also a great place for tacky things to be seen. We stopped at a few while we drove through to get back to Wisconsin.
Since I had seen a few muffler men this summer, I felt I needed to see Frankenmuffler. We drove and drove and drove for what felt like forever to find this one. It's just inside a mini-golf place, and they had other things that would've been worthy of pictures as well. We all got out and took our pictures, and didn't want to get back in to drive any more! We could all see the end of the trip was near though.

Duct Man

Giant Duct Man: 1366 Hopple St., Cincinnati, OH

• Directions: From I-75: Take exit 3. Turn right onto Hopple St., then drive four blocks. On the right, at the corner of Meeker St. In Camp Washington area of Cincinnati. Outside of Jacobs Mechanical.

This guy isn't in the nicest of neighborhoods, but we didn't know that as we were trying to find him. We had to come to see him because my sister and I like to refer to a family friend as a "robot." It was worth seeing, even though we were wondering about our welfare in the neighborhood. This robot is made entirely of duct work. It was also worth it because my sister and I kept singing the theme song to WKRP in Cincinnati as we were looking for it. :)