The region offers tour planners a number of new attractions that will freshen up their itineraries
Midwest on our radar
Here’s a quick look at what is going on in America’s heartland: ILLINOIS The International Walldog and Mural Museum is set to open this summer in the downtown historic district of Pontiac. Dedicated to the history and art of outdoor advertising signage, the museum is inspired by the Walldogs, a loosely knit group of muralists and sign painters who gather each summer to paint large murals in a selected town. During a four-day span last summer they painted 18 new murals in Pontiac, a town rich in Route 66 heritage. The museum will recognize outdoor advertising art found along the iconic highway. Also included will be a public art gallery where members of the Walldogs can sell their preliminary sketches and finished works. Pontiac, home of the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, also has plans to install, by mid-summer, several new outdoor interpretive wayside exhibits dealing with local history and Route 66. (800-835-2055, visitpontiac.org) Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry just unveiled Science Storms, a new permanent exhibit that reveals the science behind some of nature’s most powerful phenomena—tornadoes, light-
Science Storms just blew into Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
ning, fire, tsunamis, sunlight, avalanches and atoms in motion. Inside the 24,000-square-foot exhibit, guests can immerse themselves in a 40-foot tornado to experiment with air pressure and wind speed inside a towering vortex of vapor; create a highvoltage lightning storm by discharging volts of energy from a giant Tesla coil to discover electricity and magnetism; trigger a 20-foot avalanche to reveal the beauty of granular dynamics; and discover the power and motion of waves
Missouri’s newest gaming center is River City Casino in St. Louis County. 50 April 2010
by unleashing a tsunami across a 30foot wave tank. The exhibit is part of an overall plan by the Museum of Science and Industry to change or update nearly 90 percent of its exhibit space by 2011. (msichicago.org) Chicago Pizza Tours is a new company that offers a three-hour bus tour with stops at four pizza restaurants. Along the way the guide discusses Chicago deep-dish and other varieties of pizza while pointing out the sights. Guests receive a slice of pizza at Gino’s East in River North, Edwardo’s in Printers Row, Coalfire in West Town and Marcello’s in Lincoln Park. Private tours can be arranged for groups up to 15. (630-842-0372, chicagopizzatours.com) INDIANA The Indianapolis Zoo opens its newest exhibit on May 29—Cheetah: The Race for Survival. Admired for their speed and grace, cheetahs face an uncertain future as their numbers are dwindling. Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and executive director of the Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund, is working with the zoo on the exhibit, which will LeisureGroupTravel.com