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Five days after agreeing to sign a one-year deal with the Bears, 39-year-old left tackle Jason Peters completed the coronavirus test intake process for unvaccinated players and practiced for the first time Thursday.

He’s scheduled to participate in pregame drills Saturday but won’t play in a game setting until the preseason finale Aug. 28 at the Titans.

Coach Matt Nagy said the Bears want to make sure that Peters feels healthy and learns the playbook, in that order, after spending the last 12 years in Philadelphia. He is expected to be the Bears’ Week 1 starter.

Nagy said he was excited to see “a guy that is that athletic, that talented,” and who cares.

“I know that he’s in a good place right now mentally,” he said. “So, yeah, there’s excitement to get out there. Even talking to the younger guys, we got a young offensive line and they’re at a point right now where I think they’re kind of eager to learn from him and to see what kind of advice he has.”

Peters has been to nine Pro Bowls, but none since 2016. In the last four seasons he’s missed an average of five starts per year because of injury. Still, the Bears are hoping he can help fill a void created when rookie Teven Jenkins, a former second-round pick who had back surgery Tuesday. Nagy said the surgery “went well” but offered no timeline update. There’s a chance Jenkins — who thanked fans on social media for their get-well-soon messages Wednesday — can return this season.

Veteran Elijah Wilkinson and rookie Larry Borom, a fifth-round pick, will continue to play left tackle in camp. Borom returned Thursday after missing two weeks with a concussion. The Bears were excited about Borom’s play at left tackle during “Family Fest” on Aug. 3.

“To me that kind of showed, ‘Hey, the stage wasn’t too big for him,'” Nagy said. “The first day of pads, out there in front of everybody, that was a different setting for our players, and he did great.”

No agent

Inside linebacker Roquan Smith, who’s in line for a massive payday, confirmed that he doesn’t currently have an agent. How, then, would he negotiate an extension with the Bears?

“I haven’t gotten there yet,” he said. “We’ll see when I get there.”

Asked whether he’d represent himself, he repeated that “I’ll get there when I get there.”

Smith had to be encouraged by extensions given to two inside linebackers: the 49ers’ Fred Warner [five years, $95.5 million] and the Colts’ Darius Leonard [five years, $98.5 million] since July.

“The contracts they’re getting, they’ve earned them,” he said.

Smith smiled when asked whether those deals set the bar.

“That’s what they call it,” he said.

Mask rule

Per the Chicago mandate that kicks in Friday, Bears fans will be required to wear masks inside indoor areas of Soldier Field on Saturday. The masks can be removed while eating or drinking.

They’re optional for fans in outdoor parts of the stadium but recommended for unvaccinated fans.

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WASHINGTON — A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings and businesses in the area.

Police did not immediately know whether there were explosives in the vehicle, but authorities were searching the truck in an effort to understand what led the man, identified by law enforcement officials as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina, to drive onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and make bomb threats to officers.

The standoff was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations, ending when Roseberry crawled out of the truck and was taken into law enforcement custody. But the incident brought the area surrounding the Capitol to a virtual standstill as police emptied buildings and cordoned off streets as a precaution. Congress is in recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.

The episode unfolded during a tense period in Washington, coming eight months after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and and one month before a planned rally in Washington that law enforcement officials have been preparing for.

The incident began about 9:15 a.m. when a truck with no license plate drove up the sidewalk outside the library. The driver told the responding officer that he had a bomb, and was holding what the officer believed to be a detonator. The truck had no license plates.

Police negotiators spent hours communicating with Roseberry as he wrote notes and showed them to authorities from inside the truck, according to the two people and a third person also briefed on the matter, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

“My negotiators are hard at work trying to have a peaceful resolution to this incident,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said earlier in the day. “We’re trying to get as much information as we can to find a way to peacefully resolve this.”

While police continued negotiations, video surfaced of Roseberry on Facebook Live inside the truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes. He was threatening explosions, making anti-government threats and talking about what he believes are the ills of the country, including the U.S. position on Afghanistan, health care and the military.

He said Democrats needed to step down, then also said he loved the president, Democrat Joe Biden. Facebook removed the videos a few hours after they were apparently filmed. Roseberry did not appear to have a specific demand for law enforcement other than to speak with Biden.

Videos posted to his Facebook before the page was taken down appears to show Roseberry at the Nov. 14 rally attended by thousands of Trump supporters to protest what they claimed was a stolen election. One video appears to be filmed by Roseberry as he’s marching with a crowd of hundreds of people carrying American flags and Trump flags and shouting “stop the steal.”

Roseberry’s ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said she had seen images of the man in the standoff at the Capitol and confirmed to The Associated Press that it was her ex-husband. She said had never known him to have explosives, but that he was an avid collector of firearms.

The nation’s capital has been tense since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Fencing that had been installed around the Capitol grounds had been up for months but was taken down this summer. A day before thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington. No one has been arrested yet for placing the bombs.

The RNC, not far away from where the truck was parked Thursday, was also evacuated over the threat. Officials are also jittery over a planned rally in September in D.C.

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Long reported from New Buffalo, Michigan. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Nathan Ellgren, Ashraf Khalil, Alex Brandon and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.

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It remains to be seen if Robert Quinn can re-start his career at 31 after a disappointing first season with the Bears. The veteran pass rusher got off to a slow start in 2020 — he missed most of training camp and was inactive for the season opener. And after a sack and forced fumble on his very first snap against the Giants in Week 2, he had just one more sack the rest of the season.

He never looked comfortable as an outside linebacker in defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano’s 3-4 alignment, lamented his ineffectiveness throughout the season and just never fired despite diligent efforts by the coaching staff to break him out of a season-long pass-rushing funk. Quinn’s two sacks were a huge drop from the 11.5 sacks he had with the Cowboys in 2019. And when it was all over, he had to live with the fact that he was a huge disappointment after signing a five-year, $70 million contract that included $30 million in guaranteed money. He had to live with a lot of stuff.

But not any more. Quinn is neither living with the disappointment nor lamenting his plight. The season he’d like to forget is all but forgotten.

“I’m in a great place mentally and spiritually,” the soft-spoken Quinn told reporters this week. “Physically is what it is. It all kind of starts with the mental. I think I’m in a great place for myself. Now it’s just see if I can continue what you all see. So come in a few weeks.”

Maybe that fresh approach will help him regain the groove that made him one of the NFL’s best pass-rushers. Even he doesn’t know. But at least he’s in the right frame of mind to give it a shot, buoyed by a “heavenly peace” he hopes will prevent the memory of last season from dragging him further into the hole this season. So far, the renewed energy he is playing with in practice is a good first step.

“I realized, don’t let the tacky-tack stuff bother you,” Quinn said. “Don’t dwell on my disappointments or [anyone’s] disappointment — because once something happens, it has happened [and] you can’t change it. So how do you move on and grow from the situation? Don’t keep yourself in that type of dark place feeling sorry for yourself. Figure out how you can grow and become a better person and player.”

Bears first-year defensive coordinator Sean Desai lauded Quinn’s approach and has been encouraged that Quinn has been receptive to ideas from new voices — including himself and new outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey.

“He’s been extremely humble, really grateful, taking advantage of all the opportunity, taking in all the coaching,” Desai said. “For a veteran guy that’s aging, his effort is unbelievable every day — his play speed is unbelievable every day. He just goes at one speed.”

Even the best pass rushers can lose it in a hurry, especially after turning 30. Quinn’s 2020 demise was a bit confounding, because he was in a defense — even without nose tackle Eddie Goldman — where he was surrounded by playmakers, including Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith.

But everyone — except the up-and-coming Smith — suffered as the Bears’ defense as a whole lost its dominant edge in 2019 and 2020. With Goldman returning and a new coordinator in Sean Desai, it’s still possible that Quinn will benefit by a defensive resurgence.

But even Desai acknowledges that it’s a work in progress.

“I’m not sure if it’s been unlocked,” Desai said. “Coach Shuey’s been tremendous with him and working with him to develop a plan that we want for him to respond to, and Robert’s been awesome in terms of responding and embracing that challenge.”

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A former Melrose Park police officer on Thursday became the latest gambling defendant in Chicago’s federal court to avoid prison time when a judge ordered him to serve six months in home detention.

U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold handed down the sentence to John Amabile after calling corruption among police “incredibly dangerous” but acknowledging Amabile immediately tried to make things right after being caught up in the federal investigation.

The sentence also came after Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney insisted Amabile should go to prison for a year for his role in what Kinney called an “organized-crime, big-time, big-stakes, manipulative gambling operation.”

Before learning his sentence, Amabile admitted he was “100 percent guilty” of working as an agent in a gambling operation. He said he was “bothered” by his portrayal as a predator, though. Rather, he said most gamblers placed bets to “enhance their excitement” while watching a game.

Amabile said he left the Melrose Park police department in November 2020 — months before he was charged. He then got involved in the logistics industry before selling his assets, giving him the money to pay $52,000 of a $100,000 forfeiture in the case. He said he hopes to pay further by selling his house.

“I will never put myself or my family through anything like this ever again,” Amabile said.

Amabile pleaded guilty in April to running an illegal gambling business with Gregory Paloian, a bookie with purported mob ties who admitted running that ring from 2015 until 2019 in Chicago, Elmwood Park and Melrose Park.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow gave Paloian a two-and-a-half year prison sentence last April, but she has since agreed to push his surrender date back until August 2022 for health reasons.

Amabile recruited, managed and supervised gamblers, gave them credentials for the gambling website Unclemicksports.com, and met with them regularly to settle up, according to his plea agreement. He shared wins and losses with Paloian on a 50% basis, it said.

The website Unclemicksports.com is also central to a separate gambling indictment filed in February 2020 against 10 individuals, including Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice and Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher. Donald Trump pardoned Urlacher, the brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher, during the final hours of Trump’s presidency last January.

That case also recently led to a 15-month prison sentence for a Chicago police officer, Nicholas Stella. But two other defendants, Eugene DelGiudice and Todd Blanken, avoided prison at sentencing.

Kinney explained in court Thursday the connection between DelGiudice and Paloian, telling the judge that Paloian ran his operation involving about 60 gamblers through DelGiudice, “who had a well-established network all set up.”

In an earlier court memo, Kinney told the judge that Amabile “was a key player and top agent” in Paloian’s organization.

Amabile’s late grandfather was a reputed mob boss and his uncle was convicted in a mob-related extortion case in 2015. Still, defense attorney George Becker complained in a fiery response to Kinney’s memo of the “great lengths” prosecutors made to tie Paloian’s gambling operation to organized crime. He wrote that “the only characteristic John Amabile has with these individuals is that he is of Italian [descent].”

“Having a last name that ends in a vowel does not mean John Amabile was or is associated with the ‘mob,'” Becker wrote. “In this case there is no evidence of John Amabile ever threatening gamblers who lost money, much less hired or used thugs to collect money.”

Becker alleged that “what this case is really about is the government not getting its cut of gambling money.” He listed several legal gambling options that continue to grow, writing that “the government feeds into the frenzy by approving of licensed gambling and taxing winnings.”

He noted that Amabile pleaded guilty, resigned his job as a police officer, started a business with his mother and “worked his butt off every day.”

“This court can say John Amabile was a police officer who disgraced his uniform and disgraced honest policemen everywhere and sentence him to jail,” Becker wrote. “Or the court can say John Amabile is an individual with a gambling disease. He is not a bad person. He needs help.”

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WASHINGTON — The man who claimed to have bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol has surrendered to law enforcement, ending an hourslong standoff on Thursday.

The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of North Carolina, crawled out of the vehicle and was being taken into custody shortly before 2:30 p.m.

He had pulled up outside the library earlier in the day and told police he had a bomb in his truck. An officer saw what appeared to be a detonator in the man’s hand.

Officials earlier evacuated a number of buildings around the Capitol and sent snipers to the area after officers saw the man holding what looked like a detonator inside the pickup, which had no license plates. Congress is in recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.

Police negotiators were communicating with him as he wrote notes and showed them to authorities from inside the truck, according to three people who were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. They were trying to determine whether it was an operable bomb, the officials said.

“My negotiators are hard at work trying to have a peaceful resolution to this incident,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “We’re trying to get as much information as we can to find a way to peacefully resolve this.”

The episode began about 9:15 a.m. when the truck drove up the sidewalk outside the library, Manger said. The driver told the responding officer that he had a bomb, and was holding what the officer believed to be a detonator, The truck had no license plates.

The nation’s capital has been tense since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Fencing that had been installed around the Capitol grounds had been up for months but was taken down this summer. A day before thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington. No one has been arrested yet for placing the bombs.

The RNC, not far away from where the truck was parked Thursday, was also evacuated over the threat.

The area was blocked off by police cars and barricades, and multiple fire trucks and ambulances were staged nearby. Also responding were the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police, FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The White House said it was monitoring the situation and was being briefed by law enforcement.

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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Nathan Ellgren, Ashraf Khalil, Alex Brandon and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.

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Explore IWC’s Big Pilot’s Watches

Over its 150-year history, IWC Schaffhausen has developed a reputation for creating functional complications, especially chronographs and calendars, which are ingenious, robust, and easy for customers to use. A pioneer in the use of titanium and ceramics, IWC today specializes in highly engineered technical watch cases manufactured from advanced materials, such as titanium aluminide and Ceratanium®. Preferring the principle of “form follows function” over decoration, the Swiss watch manufacturer’s timeless creations embody their owners’ dreams and ambitions as they journey through life.

A faithful interpretation of the iconic observation watch design, the new model features an ergonomic 43-millimetre stainless steel case. Available with either a black or blue dial, it is powered by the IWC-manufactured 82100 calibre with Pellaton winding, which is visible through a sapphire glass back. A user-friendly EasX-CHANGE system, as well as comprehensive strap options in calf leather, rubber and stainless steel, establishes the Big Pilot’s Watch 43 as the quintessential modern utility sports watch, ready for adventures in the air, on land and by water.

The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 features a stainless steel case in a compact size of 41 millimetres and is available with a blue or green dial. To underscore the brand’s expertise in the development of in-house movements, it is powered by the IWC-manufactured 69385 calibre, which is visible through a sapphire glass back. With the new EasX-CHANGE system and a choice of straps made of calfskin, rubber or stainless steel, the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 is the ultimate sports watch.

The Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage is inspired by the design of the iconic Big Pilot’s Watch Calibre 52 T.S.C. Thanks to this, the timepiece with an impressive diameter of 46 millimeters features a striking retro look. The case is made from durable and light titanium and weighs less than 150 grams. As on the famous original model, the chapter ring, the Arabic numerals and propeller-like hands are all beige. A soft-iron inner case protects the movement against the effects of magnetic fields. The watch is powered by the IWC-manufactured 52110-calibre movement. It features an efficient Pellaton automatic winding system with parts made from black or white ceramic. With the help of two barrels, it builds up a reserve of seven days. The brown calfskin strap further underscores the heritage character of this timekeeper.

In 2016, IWC took a step back toward the roots of the Big Pilot’s Watch and gave it a gentle face-lift. The IWC-manufactured 52110-calibre movement unites some of watchmaking’s greatest achievements. It features an efficient Pellaton automatic winding system with parts made from black or white ceramic. With the help of two barrels, it builds up a reserve of seven days. The display at “3 o’clock” indicates the time remaining until the movement comes to a stop. The Big Pilot’s Watch has a date display at “6 o’clock” and the central seconds essential in any watch used for flying. The 46-millimetre case, which is water-resistant to 6 bar, encloses a soft-iron inner case that protects the movement against magnetic fields. The watch also features a striking conical crown. The legendary Junkers JU-52 plane is engraved on the case back of the Big Pilot’s Watch. This model comes with a black calfskin strap, which perfectly complements the watch.

In the Big Pilot’s Watch lineup the Spitfire is one of the most stylish of them all. That said, the Annual Calendar is one of the most complicated. With a Day, Date and Month complications, this watch is truly an amazing piece of engineering and something to behold on your wrist. Plus, with a dark brown calfskin strap, Deployant buckle and a beautiful gray brushed metal dial, the Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Spitfire stands alone in the International Watch Company brand lineup — and that’s saying something with the amount of IWC heavy hitters like the Portugieser, Le Petit Prince, etc.

Learn more at: https://stores.iwc.com/united-states/il/chicago/iwc-schaffhausen-boutique—chicago

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A spire points to the heavens atop the North Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana. Photograph: Hadley Fruits

An architectural marvel, a Midwestern modernist mecca

My wife and I share a fetish: modernist architecture. The style, with its parallel horizontal lines stretching into eternity, has had a way of tracing the contours of our relationship, defining some of its most significant moments. Soon after we started dating, we joined Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond, a group of modernism enthusiasts (which, sadly, disbanded last year). A few years later, as a gentle evening snow blanketed the Loop, I proposed marriage in the most romantic setting I could imagine: Federal Plaza, beneath the crimson arches of Alexander Calder’s Flamingo, in the shadow of a trio of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe buildings.

And yet one Midwestern modernist mecca eluded us. That is, until last fall. Desperate to shake off quarantine cabin fever, we arrived in Columbus, Indiana, three and a half hours southeast of Chicago. The town of 48,000 stands, improbably, as one of the world’s great museums of modern architecture, with schools, churches, post offices, hospitals, and other buildings by some of the 20th century’s most renowned architects: Harry Weese, Kevin Roche, Robert A.M. Stern, Myron Goldsmith, and Deborah Berke, to name a few.

With walking and bus tours temporarily suspended during the pandemic (they’ve since returned), we embarked on a self-guided outing, beginning on Fifth Street, “the Avenue of the Architects.” The city’s first modernist building, the First Christian Church (1942), by Eliel Saarinen, was the place of worship of the late J. Irwin Miller, the wealthy Cummins engine company chairman, chief patron of the town’s architectural legacy. In the mid-1950s, Miller started a foundation that paid the architect’s fees for any public building designed by a notable architect. The program transformed Columbus from a prairie town into a draw for top executives and their families. Today, it is a place unlike any other, where bold modern masterworks mingle with the buildings of Main Street, USA.

Directly across from First Christian beckoned I.M. Pei’s red-brick, open-plan Cleo Rogers Memorial Library (1969), with Henry Moore’s sculpture Large Arch out front. Next door is Miller’s childhood home (1864; 1910 remodel), whose Victorian and Edwardian flourishes and Pompeii-inspired gardens are preserved as the Inn at Irwin Gardens, a bed and breakfast with rooms starting at $205 a night.

We were drawn to the Irwin Conference Center (formerly Irwin Union Bank; 1954), by Eero Saarinen. The glass-enclosed, open-plan building, capped by a roof with nine domes, represented a dramatic departure from the traditional idea of a bank as an imposing granite fortress. From there, we pointed the car to two more Eero Saarinen buildings: the North Christian Church (1964), a hexagonal sanctuary crowned with a 192-foot spire, and the Miller House (1957), the former residence of J. Irwin Miller, which features one of the earliest examples of a living room conversation pit.

Afterward, we meandered through the neighborhoods between Washington Street and the Flatrock River, observing how the modernism of the town’s landmarks had seeped into the designs of the more common, but still striking, residential developments. My wife and I daydreamed about someday owning one of Columbus’s glass-box houses. Here was a place, we told each other, that seemed made just for us. — Jake Malooley

Filament Tower, a sculpture featured in Exhibit Columbus, opening August 21, and Bartholomew County Courthouse Photography: Hadley Fruits

Writer Elizabeth Gomez finds a giant baseball glove at the FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard. Photograph: Courtesy of Elizabeth Gomez

No Trojan horses, just giant kitsch

Nothing pleases me more than seeing giant things. I’m not sure where this love comes from, but it is what makes me take a 20-minute detour to Sparta, Wisconsin, on the way back to Chicago from Menomonie. I cannot miss the FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard. We pull into a sprawling horizon of green fields filled with gargantuan shark heads, cherubic Big Boys, and weather-beaten Santa Clauses. My heart sparks as I turn to my husband and say that when I die this is what I want heaven to look like.

Round out your trip The Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum — a twofer. — Elizabeth Gomez

The atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel Photograph: Ian McSpadden/French Lick Resort

A pinnacle of elegance — and you don’t even have to leave the hotel

Get a load of the atrium. Once called the Eighth Wonder of the World, the six-story cylinder topped by a dome 200 feet across forms the heart of the 119-year-old West Baden Springs Hotel — one of two historic hotels at the French Lick Resort. A lush space populated by overstuffed divans as well as chessboards and decks of cards begging to be played, the atrium is a vast cockpit encircled by French doors and balconies hanging from well-appointed hotel rooms.

In the evening, guests filter in from their perambulations in the gardens, from golf or a visit to the spa, from bowling in the basement of the sister hotel, from shopping or rolling dice. In these hours, the atrium — manned by a pianist and crisscrossed by servers ferrying drinks from a nifty cocktail bar — never feels crowded or noisy. Even when the sunlight fades, what you hear is a murmuring report of elegance. — Tom Chiarella

(left) The driveway of the West Baden Springs Hotel; (right) the Pete Dye Course, all at the French Lick Resort Photograph: Ian McSpadden/French Lick Resort

The “big-ass tree” at the Byron Forest Preserve District Photograph: Michelle Gerke/Byron Forest Preserve District

Only God can make a tree, and this one’s a doozy

Arboreal grandeur? Northwestern Illinois doesn’t leap to mind. But the redwoods and sequoias of the West Coast are too far away for a weekend, so we have to work with what we’ve got. And what we’ve got — at the Bald Hill Prairie Preserve in Mount Morris — is still something to behold.

To see the tree ranked among the largest in the state, you’ll follow winding country roads along the Rock River to a secluded 380-acre conservation area, home to gorgeous wildflowers, a wooded expanse, birds and butterflies, and scarce native prairie plants (according to the Byron Forest Preserve District, only 0.03 percent of original prairie remains in Illinois). Up and down hills you go (hills!), until it comes into view: the lone eastern cottonwood, 122 feet tall and almost 29 feet around.

Bald Hill Prairie Preserve at the Byron Forest Preserve District Photograph: Lewis McVey

I don’t want to oversell you on the experience — it’s … a large tree. (In a Simpsons-esque touch, from certain vantages you can see the nearby nuclear power plant.) Still, there’s something sublime about it. My family and I keep returning to what we’ve come to call the “big-ass tree” to watch it change throughout the seasons. In late winter, its bare, crooked branches stand stark against moody skies. In high summer, the breeze rustles its innumerable leaves, making a sound not unlike the ocean. Under the massive green shade, it’s hard not to feel an appreciation for where you are and who you’re there with.

Round out your trip Ogle County’s hiking and biking trails; a night in Oregon in one of the nine rooms at the Patchwork Inn, a sustainability-minded B&B in a Greek Revival building dating to the 1840s (Abraham Lincoln was said to have lunched there); and burgers at the retro Jay’s Drive-In. — Deborah Shapiro

A kayak in waters near Elk Rapids, Michigan Photograph: Elk Rapids Chamber of Commerce

The Liam Hemsworth of Michigan tourism

One of my favorite spots to take the kids is Elk Rapids, just outside Traverse City in northern Michigan. If Traverse City is Chris Hemsworth, then Elk Rapids is Liam: One is beefed out and wildly popular, and the other is just better.

Spend the day at Elk Rapids Day Park, a wooded area with gigantic sculptures that opens to a sandy beach with clear, warm water. Water shoes are recommended because of the stones at the bottom of the lake. I saw families hunting for Petoskey stones there and then Googled the precious textured fossil and learned it’s the state rock of Michigan.

Round out your trip Bike, standup paddleboard, and kayak rentals from Right Tree Adventure Rentals, a nonprofit benefiting outdoor adventuring for girls; a trip to Guntzviller’s Taxidermy; U-pick farms along US 31; local brews from Townline Ciderworks; and dinner at Riverwalk Grill & Taproom. — E.G.

The Culinary Vegetable Institute includes a kitchen, a guest suite, a culinary library, root and wine cellars, experimental gardens, and event facilities. Photograph: Michelle Demuth-Bibb/The Chef’s Garden

Fine dining, down on the farm

About a decade ago, I ate a spectacular, if surreal, meal prepared entirely by Michelin-starred chefs (including Ever’s Curtis Duffy) in ruraler-than-rural Milan, Ohio. The occasion was the opening of the Culinary Vegetable Institute, an event space and research facility with a kitchen to rival that of the French Laundry. The CVI was the latest innovation from the Chef’s Garden, a nearby family farm that came to have considerable sway in the world of fine dining as it got chefs hooked on its microgreens and baby vegetables. Head farmer Lee Jones showed up routinely at black-tie food galas in denim overalls and a red bow tie, a reminder to coastal elites that “American gastronomy” springs from the heartland.

Photograph: Michelle Demuth-Bibb/The Chef’s Garden

After the dinner, I stayed in the CVI’s guest suite. It came with a fully stocked kitchen, and the next morning I had the fixings for a grand farm breakfast — churned butter, honeycomb, and fresh eggs counted among the highlights — and a basket of produce to tuck into my suitcase. Over the past year, the Jones family has begun offering this experience on Airbnb. Coupled with a tour and shopping spree at the farm, it reminds you that getting back to the earth and pampering yourself needn’t be mutually exclusive. — John Kessler

The Bavarian-style architecture of the historic Bavarian Inn hotel and restaurant adds to the city’s charm. Photograph: River North Photography

It’s always Christmas here

Call me a reformed Santa denier. I learned early on there was no such thing as Santa Claus, and at age 6, I thought my fellow first graders were naive. One day, a girl given to bursting out in song and dance started going on about what St. Nick was bringing her.

“But he’s not real,” I announced.

We went back and forth until our librarian gathered everyone in a circle and asked us to consider why we believed the things we did. She pulled out a variety of books about Santa, St. Nicholas, and Father Christmas, not telling us what to think, just how.

I could finally appreciate the Christmas spirit. And if I ever need to experience pure holiday joy midyear, I can find it in Frankenmuth, Michigan, near the thumb of the mitten-shaped state. Fueled by Mackinac Island fudge and other sweet treats, festive lights, Nativity scenes, and quirky tree ornaments, Frankenmuth is one of a handful of places in the world that celebrate Christmas all year.

Family, tradition, and sense of place anchor the picturesque town known as Little Bavaria, which was founded by German settlers. I know I’ve arrived because of the charming timber-framed buildings, the state’s largest covered bridge, a 35-bell glockenspiel, and walkable flower-lined streets that subtly invite me to tap out of the Sturm und Drang of workaday life.

Delicious high points of the Frankenmuth experience are the crispy fried chicken at the iconic Bavarian Inn, known for its German-style meals, and Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth, a 2020 James Beard winner. The menus surface memories of bygone family meals; the secret ingredient must be love.

Round out your trip The Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn Heritage Farm (a.k.a. Grandpa Tiny’s Farm), ziplining, hay or carriage rides, and farmers’ markets. — Deborah D. Douglas

(middle) Balloons Over Bavarian Inn (event), Frankenmuth; (right) Horse-drawn carriage in Frankenmuth Photography: (boat) iStock Editorial; (balloons, carriage) Courtesy of the Frankenmuth Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Taliesin living room Photograph: Travel Wisconsin

Come for Taliesin, stay for the hills

The attractions of the Spring Green area are well known: From Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin — where the docents will not mention the arson and murder of Wright’s mistress and her children even if you raise your hand and ask, with a knowing look, “So, what started that fire in 1914?” — to the American Players Theatre. Not to mention the House on the Rock, the Taj Mahal of kitschy roadside attractions that author Neil Gaiman suggests is a nexus point between the worlds of gods and humans. It’s as good an explanation for its existence as any I’ve come up with.

The town itself has weathered the pandemic well and has slowly opened back up, with a new pizza restaurant in the old bank building on Jefferson Street and the return of the local music venue, the Shitty Barn (it is, in fact, a shitty barn — bring your own chairs).

But that’s not why I come here. I come here for the hills. That’s right: The ground itself undulates, rising up in large protuberances, some higher than a quarter mile! The only thing I miss of my coastal roots after 23 years in Chicago is topography, the pleasures of cresting a rise to see a river valley or a plain, or just another hill. Spring Green is on the eastern edge of a geographical region, untouched by ancient glaciers, called the Driftless, like something also out of a Gaiman novel. I don’t know if pedaling or running up and down those hills will eventually bring me to the realm of the gods, but I do enjoy trying. — Peter Sagal

(left) Tower Hill State Park; (right) Lower Wisconsin River in Spring Green Photography: Travel Wisconsin

The Art Preserve at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Photograph: Travel Sheboygan

Step outside — for art, for nature

It’s always made sense to me that Wisconsin, with its secretive woods and shifting dunes, would be a wonderland of visionary and outsider art. The state’s scenic byways are studded with sculpture gardens and grottoes where self-taught artists have crafted stunning intuitive displays. So I was thrilled to learn earlier this spring that Sheboygan, just two and a half hours from Chicago, was about to celebrate the opening of the Art Preserve.

An extension of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center — where every iota of space is exquisitely curated, right down to the artist-painted stalls and urinals in the restrooms — the space showcases entire artist-built environments. With such holdings as the sculptures, painting, and decor of Mary Nohl’s cottage from the Milwaukee suburbs — known locally as “the witch’s house” for its arresting carved figures — the Art Preserve gives an immersive sense of the in situ appearance of work not adequately captured in other museums.

The Art Preserve alone was worth the 300 miles of round-trip driving, but happily, I discovered far more to see, including the Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden, where, beginning in 1942 and continuing until his death in 1957, James A. Tellen installed more than 30 of his cast concrete statues across the grounds of his family’s summer cottage, a magical dreamscape.

The Kohler-Andrae State Park holds a wealth of biomes, from shimmering beaches to pine forests. After hiking, I had to try a Mudpie  and chocolate-cinnamon brioche doughnut  at Johnston’s Bakery, and I foraged picnic fixings from the store inside the restaurant Il Ritrovo and ate near the Harbor Centre Marina. There, the reconstructed schooner Lottie Cooper, wrecked during a gale in 1894, awaited, a free outdoor exhibit conveying how dangerous the timber and shipping industries were and remain.

On the way home, I stopped to walk along the Lake Michigan bluffs at Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve outside Grafton and to stroll the boardwalks above the delightfully soggy Cedarburg Bog a little way inland. They didn’t turn me into a visionary artist, but these singular landscapes supplied visions for days. — Kathleen Rooney

(left) Writer Kathleen Rooney on a driftwood couch in the Kohler-Andrae State Park; (right) Bookworm Gardens Photography: (Rooney) Martin Seay; (gardens) Visit SheboyganRead More

For many, the iconic streets of London’s Soho and Camden embody a world of inclusive and unique fashion and style and, Chicago folk can grab a slice of the Brit action at the Streets Of London salon on West Diversey Parkway.  

Bangs and bobs for Brit abroad, Lisa

Established in 2008, Streets Of London is the brainchild of Lisa J, a British national who trained with Toni & Guy before moving to America.  Lisa’s vision was a non-pretentious salon which combined good vibes and great styles inspired by the trendy streets of England’s capital city – a vision that is clearly evident today.

As well as employing some of Chicago’s most talented stylists, Streets Of London offers specialist treatments including Balayage and, also, stocks Olaplex – a bond multiplier used to seek out and fix broken bonds (also known as split ends) that have been caused by damage by chemical, mechanical or thermal factors.  

Customers visiting Streets Of London rave about the sleek modern interior and the cool sounds from over the pond and, despite enduring lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the salon continues to thrive under it’s owner’s watchful eye.

“Enjoying a cup of tea while Lisa (stylist/owner) had me doubled-over laughing about an American version of Yorkshire pudding that some pub tried to serve her…I came out of here lighter and brighter from inside to out”.  Bonnie E, Phoenix

Street smart

Streets Of London’s talented stylists and funky salon mean that, post pandemic, business is once again booming.  In fact, so much so, that the salon – which offers eyebrow threading, extensions and bridal hair as well as regular color and styling, has its work cut out in keeping up with the demand for appointments.  

Like many other salon owners, Lisa J has turned to Booksy’s scheduling software in order to keep her salon as full as possible while maintaining distancing for the safety of employees and customers.  

Shaving time and cutting hassle

Booksy lends a helping hand to salons with its affordable and effective suite of tools which has been created specifically for the hair and beauty industry.  Anything but ‘just a scheduling system’, Booksy’s bag of tricks is like an extra pair of hands for salon owners who are better able to manage their businesses with a number of features including:

Appointment App 

The Booksy app allows salon customers to schedule their own appointments with just a couple of tappety taps.  They’re also able to manage their own appointments by rescheduling and cancelling through the app; saving salon owners time which can be spent doing what they do best.  This also saves salon owners money on staff as they no longer need a dedicated receptionist to take calls for appointments. 

Scheduling

AI technology packs a punch for salon owners with intelligent scheduling and management of appointments.  Unlike the humble homo sapien, this technology is able to work out how long is needed for each appointment based on previous visits and other factors within the salon, such as social distancing.  This is an incredibly important tool for salon owners looking to maximise their space while keeping customers and staff safe.

Payment

Contrary to Neil Diamond’s famous lyric, ‘hands touching hands’ is no longer considered a good thing and, as such, the handling of cash and cards within salons is very much discouraged.  Booksy can help here by allowing customers to quickly and easily make payment through the app; cutting down on hand to hand contact on the premises.  Salon owners can also take advantage of this tool by taking prepayment for appointments – something which makes the salon more efficient and, more importantly, helps to cut down on those costly and annoying no-shows. 

Marketing

In 2021, salons like Streets Of London quite literally have their hands full with serving their customers and keeping their salons as safe as possible and, this leaves little time for other tasks such as admin and marketing.  Thankfully, Booksy saves the day by serving as a marketing assistant for salons owners, providing some essential tools, including email outreach, to allow owners to keep existing customers updated with news and special offers as well as reaching out to new ones. 

Analytics

These days, it’s incredibly important to know how your small business is performing – after all, if you don’t know how you’re doing, how can you hope to do better?  Booksy has some great analytic tools to help salon owners to dig down into their performance and then to make improvements and adjustments where necessary, for a more successful business. 

Notifications

With busy lives, it’s easy to forget about appointments – which can be frustrating for customers and costly for salons.  Booksy lends a hand by sending reminders and notifications to customers in order to help cut down on no-shows.

Conclusion

In a post-pandemic world, time is tight and budgets are tighter.  Booksy allows salons to manage and grow their businesses without having to hire additional staff – meaning that they can keep profits high and overheads low.

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