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Cantigny Park in Fall - Wheaton, Ilinois

Cantigny Park in Fall

Tay Explores

Hello folks, today I have another beautiful fall post for your eyes to admire! My nieces are here so we are constantly trying to find places to take them and since it hasn’t gotten as cold yet, parks are the perfect place! I recently found a park in Wheaton, Illinois which is about 15ish minutes from me in Glen Ellyn. It’s called Cantigny Park and costs only $5 per car! However, it’s $10 per car on summer weekends. It’s all worth it in my opinion because there are tons of gorgeous gardens to walk through as well as museums with activities for kids! Unfortunately, the museums are closed on Mondays which is the day of the week we chose to go. Even though we were sad about that, it still turned out amazing because my nieces thoroughly enjoyed being outside in nature. The three year old ran around everywhere in happiness. (And as you will…

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Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 3

Architecture

The next stop on the Open House Chicago was the Nineteenth Century Club House and Oak Park Art League. Nineteenth Century Club House in Oak Park, IL This clubhouse was established by a group of women who believed that education, charitable activities, and civic involvement were an important elements to a prosperous community. (Girl power!) This neoclassical structure was built in 1928 and designed by James L. Fyfe who had ties to the club through his wife and mother-in-law. The clubhouse is still used to support educational and cultural endeavors. At the time of my visit there was a dance class going on, which was fun to watch! Oak Park Art League in Oak Park, IL The Oak Park Art League was founded after World War I and this structure was designed in 1902 by Eben Ezra Roberts. (I like how colorful and fun this building’s exterior is) It was a place for artist collaboration…

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Saint Edmund Parish in Oak Park, Chicago

Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 2

Architecture

Saint Edmund Catholic Parish in Oak Park, Chicago Another site on the Open House Chicago 2016 was the Saint Edmund Catholic Parish. It is the first Catholic Parish in Oak Park, IL and was founded by Archbishop James Quigley in 1907. It is a 14th Century English Gothic style church which was designed by Henry Schlacks and dedicated in 1910. For a more detailed history, you can click here. It is one of those places which one has to see in person because the photographs do not do justice. The details of the ceiling is impeccable. It all looks like tiles, but if you got closer to it, you would see that it’s actually little squares of paint that are made to imitate tiles, so brilliant! I could not get enough of it but we had to move on if we wanted to see more sites on the tour!

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Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 1

Tay Explores

Last weekend there was something called the Open House Chicago which I participated in and it was AMAZING! Basically what it is, is that the city of Chicago opens some beautiful architectural land marks to the public for FREE! Everything about this event was screaming my name. Although I’m not a practicing interior designer, I’ve always had a love for beautiful architecture and well designed spaces. Chicago has so much architectural history that I could not pass up this opportunity. While studying interior design in school, one of the big names that came up often was Frank Lloyd Wright who is from Chicago! His home and studio was on this list of places to see too! He essentially is the one who started the Prairie Style Architecture which is the style of the houses in Oak Park, the area that I chose to visit. In this post I will show you…

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Washington Monument

Six Hours in Washington D.C.

Tay Explores

Remember when I was telling you about a friend of mine who was visiting from the UK this summer and I took her around? Well, another place that we went to was Washington D.C. And remember when I told you we were on a time crunch? We saw D.C. in approximately six hours! Also it was the day that there was a heat wave warning…so it was quite a day! We took the metro from the Glenmont Metro Station to the Metro Center Station which was the closest to the White House, our first stop! 1. White House We could only see this from far away. There was another fence in front of that black fence which you can’t see in this photograph that we had to stand behind. I remember being able to go right up to that black fence a few years ago. I guess there’s extra security…

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Frederick, Maryland

Eating Out

Another city that I went to over the summer was Frederick, Maryland. While living in Maryland I had gone here only a handful of times to visit friends at their homes but never knew it was such a poppin’ town! I always thought it was farmland for some reason (mostly because one of the friends I visited actually lived on a farm). I guess when you are young you see the world in a different way. That same friend told me Frederick downtown is becoming a very popular place so I thought okay, let’s check it out with my new adult eyes! I parked next to Baker Park which is what we walked around in first before heading into downtown. The park was really cute and at this angle had a European look to it. After strolling around in the park and working up an appetite, it was time to…

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An Evening in Annapolis, MD

Tay Explores

Another city I had the opportunity to visit this summer was Annapolis which is the capital of the state of Maryland. I lived in Silver Spring, MD for 9 years and I never made it out here before! So I decided it was about time that I went since I visit my siblings in the east coast all the time anyway. It is such a cute town and fun to walk around in. Our goal was to go inside the State House first thing but we didn’t make it in time to do that which is okay because I can always go back another time (hopefully). This building is actually the oldest state capitol that’s been in continuous use dating back to 1772! How cool is that?! We walked around this area and then wandered off to Main St. which was pretty lively at the time (even though it may…

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New York City in 2 Days – Part 2

Eating Out

*This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on them will not cost you anything* Since we did so much the day before, it was so hard to wake up on day 2! But knowing that we had a day ahead of more fun, we managed to get up and start the day at 9 AM! ANSEL DOMINIQUE BAKERY – CRONUT We got ready and went straight to Ansel Dominique Bakery in SoHo to find ourselves the much talked about cronut. Since we got there at 10, I thought we wouldn’t have made it in time to get one because they only make a certain amount each day and once they are out, they are out. We got lucky because we managed to get two, one for each of us to try! We excitedly bought them and headed out to their back patio which was so cute! I loved the neutral color choices…

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New York City in 2 days! – Part 1

Tay Explores

*This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on them will not cost you anything* As summer is coming to an end, I believe it’s time to share all that I’ve been up to these past few weeks! It all started when a friend of mine from the UK called me up and asked if I’d be free to show her around while she was visiting here for a wedding that we both were going to attend. And so since I am always ready for adventures, I said yes! The big thing on her list of places to see was New York City which ended up working out nicely because it was a 3 hour drive to NYC from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where we both would be. Between the wedding festivities and sight seeing, we only had two days for NYC, so I knew it would be hard to fit everything in. But somehow, we…

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