After leaving Chicago as a youngster nearly 40 years ago, I recently (August 2023) returned for a trip down memory lane. I was born in Libertyville, a suburb of Chicago, in the early 1980s and my family moved to Cincinnati two years later. Since then, I have only visited Chicago on a couple of day trips.

I barely remember leaving an empty house in Libertyville, but we still had relatives in the area. My curiosity was piqued when mom and dad suggested we go back to visit Cousin Kathleen over the summer. Kathleen was my maternal grandmother’s cousin and had stayed in touch with grandma up until her passing at age 96 in 2023.

We visited Kathleen at her retirement community in Evanston, another Chicago suburb, and brought along ice cream and cupcakes to belatedly celebrate her 90th birthday. We also took her out to dinner for her favorite fried shrimp at Cluver’s.

Despite being in her 80s, Kathleen has a razor-sharp memory and loves to talk! I learned a lot about Kathleen and Evanston, but it was very difficult to get a word in! She loved to ice skate as a kid and still had one of her own hand-knitted skating outfits in a closet. Even as a child, she was very thrifty and thought the $5 fee for skating lessons was extravagant. Kathleen got her bachelor’s degree after World War II at Wells College, a small private liberal arts school near the idyllic Cayuga Lake in western New York. She never married but loved to garden and travel.

After graduating, Kathleen worked in a bank for a while and was so good with numbers that she corrected her tax returns after her accountant overlooked errors. Kathleen told us about how later she rented out apartments as a landlord and had humorous anecdotes about all the terrible renters she had over the years. Kathleen remains very thrifty to this day and recounted how much she loved looking for good deals at church rummage sales. We also learned about the family history in the Evanston area since her parents owned a grocery store in the area. Like me, Kathleen also loves to write and had participated in a fortnightly writing circle for many years. My mom, Mary, read several of Kathleen’s stories and says she is a very talented and humorous writer.

Kathleen’s mother had graduated from prestigious Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania in the early 1900s, and one of the Bryn Mawr traditions is that first-year students receive a lantern at a special ceremony which signifies passing the Light of Knowledge from one class of students to the next. My mom was delighted when Kathleen gifted her mother’s lantern to her.

I was also pleased and surprised to receive a keepsake as well – a framed certificate from the early 1800s attesting to the citizenship of a distant ancestor – Ralph Eddowes. Ralph emigrated from Britain in 1794 and became a Unitarian preacher in America. Kathleen also has some miniature portraits from the early 1800s that depict Ralph, his wife Sarah, and their children. Ralph and Sarah had several children, so they probably commissioned several copies of the portraits for the whole family. You can see copies of the same portraits being restored here: https://www.theconservationcenter.com/articles/2020/2/28/conserving-portrait-miniatures-a-tiny-step-back-in-time#eddowes

I felt a kinship with Ralph since I am also a Unitarian/Universalist. Ralph was a leader in the Philadelphia Unitarian church in the early 1800s and published a book of sermons. Although it seems like he hasn’t attracted much scholarly attention, I hope to correct it and publish an article about his role in formulating non-sectarian Unitarian theology.

While we acquired several keepsakes on this trip, we also disposed of one as well. When my grandmother passed away, my mom Mary inherited her childhood dollhouse. My great-grandfather had built the bungalow-style dollhouse, possibly from a kit, and grandma had loved it her entire life. Grandma put a pair of dolls in the house and named them Henry and Jane. She loved to tell visitors stories about the adventures she imagined Henry and Jane had from time to time, such as vacationing in Morocco. Over the years, the dollhouse was renovated and updated with electric lights. After grandma passed away, my mom kept it for awhile and eventually decided to let someone else enjoy it. She had hoped some of our cousins who have younger children would take the dollhouse, but it was too big and heavy. Mom then decided to donate the dollhouse to a museum and eventually found one in Rock Island, Illinois, that would accept it. The owners of the American Doll and Toy Museum agreed to meet us in Chicago and were thrilled to receive the dollhouse. They have more than 8,000 dolls and toys in their collection, and I hope Henry and Jane’s house fits right in!

While visiting with Kathleen was certainly the highlight of the trip, we also explored the city. The Chicago Botanic Garden was our first destination ($22), which I also vaguely remembered from my childhood. The botanic garden opened in 1972 and spans more than 385 acres along Interstate 94 north of Chicago. Being so close to the interstate was a little disruptive due to all the road noise, but it was still a very pleasant experience. The botanic garden is known for its classic English garden and its serene Japanese garden. It was too large for us to explore all in one day, but there are tram tours that help you maximize your exploration. We took a special summer butterfly tour that includes butterflies from Africa and Asia. The butterflies were very colorful, and it’s always fun when they land on your friends and family.

We stopped for lunch at the Garden View Café – I didn’t look closely enough at what I was ordering and grabbed a vegetarian curry spinach wrap by mistake. But it turned out to be a tasty error! You can also choose from salads, flatbreads, burgers, and panini sandwiches. I vaguely remembered eating hotdogs at the botanic garden as a youngster and recall lots of squirrels running around picking up the scraps!

The Field Museum was our final highlight, but getting there was a tremendous hassle! Unbeknownst to us, we made the mistake of trying to visit on the same day as a Chicago Bears preseason football game. The Field Museum is part of the Museum Campus which includes Soldier Field, home of Da Bears, as well as the Shedd Aquarium (3^rd largest in the Western hemisphere) and Adler Planetarium, both of which I would love to visit next time. First, the highway driving was nerve-wracking due to the combination of aggressive Chicago drivers and “spaghetti bowl” of highway interchanges.

When we finally arrived at the Museum Campus, we were shocked to discover that the prices at the parking lots had shot up to $50 for the football game! The game-day traffic pattern prevented us from turning around so we had little choice but to pay up. We finally made our way to the Field Museum which was built in 1984 and is one of the largest in the world. Tickets were $30 but the price increases if you want to visit some of the featured exhibits. We visited several of the regular exhibits including China, the dinosaurs, and ancient Egypt. I’ve always been enamored with ancient Egypt since I was a youngster, and I really enjoyed the recreated marketplace where you could learn all about daily life in ancient Egypt. The exhibit featuring Sue the T-Rex was also very fascinating since it highlighted all the different stories her bones could tell, such as revealing numerous injuries. I highly recommend both exhibits and there are numerous other sections related to science and the natural world (gems, dinosaurs, plants, etc.).

The museum features a casual café and a bistro. I got a cheeseburger ($14) which was very good, and my parents split a huge (12-inch) Chicago style hotdog ($14, with a poppy seed bun, mustard, relish, onion, tomato, peppers, and celery salt). Overall, I highly recommend the Field Museum.

On a prior day trip, I visited the Museum of Science and Industry ($26) which I also highly recommend, especially if you’re interested in World War II! It also features exhibits related to transportation, agriculture, architecture, and even a replica coal mine.

However, my star attraction for is U-505, the German World War II submarine located in the basement. U-505 is a Type IXC submarine launched in 1941 that conducted 12 combat patrols and sank eight Allied ships. However, U-505’s luck finally ran out on June 4, 1944, off the coast of Morocco when an Allied task force discovered and attacked the submarine. U-505 surfaced after being heavily damaged and the crew failed to properly sabotage (scuttle) the submarine when they abandoned ship. American sailors captured the submarine and managed to prevent it from sinking. Remarkably, the task force managed to tow the damaged submarine more than 1,700 miles back to Bermuda where it was intensely studied.

After the war, U-505 made a promotional tour through New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia before being mothballed. In 1954, Chicago residents raised $250,000 to transport the submarine to the museum where it was on display outdoors until 1997 when it was lowered into the basement 42 feet underground.

A separate ticket ($18) is required to tour U-505, but it’s definitely worth the price! You can appreciate how 48 sailors lived in very cramped conditions for up to two months at a time. There are interactive portions where you can decipher coded messages, practice navigation, and simulate firing a torpedo.

Again, the Chicago CityPass ($134) is a great option if you plan on visiting popular attractions including the Museum of Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, or Adler Planetarium.

Overall, it was great to finally spend a few days back in my hometown, and I’ll definitely be back. I’m glad I got to spend time with Cousin Kathleen and visit some great attractions. But, next time I’ll remember to check the football schedule before I go back to the Museum Campus!