Even the people who live in Illinois don't always agree on just one
thing that makes the state so special. You can explore the world-class
attractions and exciting nightlife of Chicago, or experience the
presidential history of Springfield, home to more Abraham Lincoln
landmarks than anywhere else in the country. Illinois also has a
well-preserved stretch of Route 66, where classic diners and quirky
roadside attractions still dot the landscape. Wherever you go, you’ll be
greeted with Midwestern hospitality.
Trip Idea in Illinois
Millennium Park
Take in some spectacular contemporary art—without going inside
Grant Park, otherwise known as Chicago’s front
lawn, has been one of America’s greatest civic spaces for over a
century, and it’s still a work in progress. Since its establishment in
1844, it’s been enhanced by additions such as the Art Institute of Chicago
and the beloved Buckingham Fountain. More recently, it’s been further
transformed with the addition of the Museum Campus and Millennium Park, a
sweeping redevelopment of a railway yard at the north end.
Spearheaded by Mayor Richard M. Daley, the hugely ambitious
24-acre Millennium Park was plagued by delays and costly
over-expenditure, but what a beauty it turned out to be. An estimated
300,000 people turned up for the inaugural festivities in 2004, and the
park has remained wildly popular since.
Its centrepiece is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a stunning band shell
named in memory of the philanthropist and Hyatt Hotels founder who, with
his wife, Cindy, established architecture’s most prestigious prize in
1979. Honours for the pavilion design went to 1989 Pritzker Prize winner
Frank Gehry, and its exterior bears his signature billowing sheets of
stainless steel. A steel trellis, which holds a state-of-the-art speaker
system, extends over 4,000 fixed seats and the Great Lawn (with space
for 7,000), distributing indoor-quality sound to the farthest reaches of
the audience. The resident Grant Park Orchestra gives free summer time
concerts, just as it has done in the park since the 1930s, and the
adjacent Harris Theater provides indoor music and dance programmes. 
Two of Millennium Park’s top attractions are major additions to
Chicago’s collection of public art. Anish Kapoor’s 110-ton 33-by-66-foot
‛Cloud Gate’ dominates AT&T Plaza, offering ‘house of mirror’
reflections of sky, skyline and spectators in its highly polished steel
surface. (Chicagoans call it by the more tangibly descriptive nickname
‘The Bean’.) South of the plaza is the Crown Fountain by Spanish artist
Jaume Plensa, which features two 50-foot glass towers on either side of a
very shallow reflecting pool. LED screens behind the glass blocks
display faces of Chicago citizens from a broad social spectrum; in an
ingenious twist on the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, spouts
in the glass walls convey the illusion of water issuing from the
images’ mouths. 
At the northwest corner of the park is the Millennium Monument, a
replica of the semi-circular colonnade, or peristyle, that sat on this
same spot from 1917 to 1953. At the opposite corner is the Lurie Garden,
a lush urban retreat with shrubs, grasses, flowering plants, a canal
and walkways. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, the garden is meant to
reflect the city’s natural and cultural history, and the 15-foot
‘shoulder’ hedge evokes Carl Sandburg’s famous description of Chicago as
the ‘City of Big Shoulders’.