I work in downtown Chicago so you name it. The closest most interesting place would probably be the Civic Opera Building, since my office is actually in it.
I live in the Rogers Park neighborhood and right around the block from me is a really nice looking house designed by **Frank Lloyd Wright **. Didn’t even know it was there for the first year I lived in the area.
Just north of where I live is the only Baha’i House of Worshipin the country, which is an incredibly beautiful and impressive place to visit.
All within a few miles of home and work: Monument of States- it’s also the burial site of the creator of the monument.
Ever seen Bait Shop? It’s filmed in Kissimmee along the shoreline of Lake Tohopekaliga, which is a short walk away from the MoS.
There’s also Grissom Funeral Home, Crematorium and Playground. Yes, a funeral home with a playground in its parking lot-- an unusual idea, but it makes sense for many grieving families with young members.
Lastly, there’s Gatorland, the “Alligator Capital of the World”; it’s really neat to view during this time of year, as everything is either mating or hatching.
A few years ago, I lived about a block from Weta Digital. And there used to be a lot of vehicles with really interesting signage parked outside, sometimes. Swordsmiths were among the least of them.
And, yeah, at least once during the filming of LOTR I looked out the window and saw a crew wheeling a huge piece of stonework down the street on casters.
To be clear, that was Lemon Twp, not City of Monroe, hahahaha. Anyway, the best part of the newspaper story was the one cop laughing at the other getting bit by the pig.
Probably a bit of a cheat, living in the Athens of the North, but:
I live 5 minutes away from the main Edinburgh Fringe venue, on the same street.
J. K. Rowling, Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith all live nearby. The coffeeshop where Rowling wrote Harry Potter is a short walk away. I also live virtually next door to Rebus’s police station.
The cliffs where Hutton founded modern geology are directly behind my flat. You can still see his axe marks in places.
The Royal Mile crosses the bottom of my street: on one end is Edinburgh Castle, on the other is the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyrood, the Queen’s residence in Edinburgh.
The list of eminent scientists, authors and philosophers associated with this city is too big to recite in full. The most famous are probably Adam Smith, James Clarke Maxwell, Robert Napier, Alexander Graham Bell, David Hume and Sir Walter Scott.
Within a 6-mile radius of my home are:
[ul]
[li]The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum[/li][li]Lincoln’s Home, where Abraham Lincoln lived for [sub]mumblemumble[/sub] years[/li][li]Lincoln’s Tomb[/li][li]The Lincoln-Herndon Law Office, where Abraham Lincoln practiced law for [sub]mumblemumble[/sub]years (can you believe I’ve never set foot there?)[/li][li]The Susan Laurence Dana House*, a stunning example of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture[/li][li]The site where the Donner Party set off (at least, initially)[/li][li]Santa Ana’s Leg (can you believe I’ve never seen it?)[/li][li]A number of other attractions of varying interest, including Route 66 attractions, historic buildings associated with Illinois history and/or culture, etc.[/li][/ul]
*I refuse to call this house its official name, The Dana-Thomas House. For a number of years, the Thompson Publishing Company used the building as a factory to produce books. To me, this insults the home. Once it was restored to its former glory, you could never tell that it was used a factory for decades.
Isn’t it great living near the Solid Rock Church (http://www.solidrockchurch.org/), a megachurch that was (purportedly) funded with oceans of drug money? Actually, it’s in the news today (http://tinyurl.com/ycyy9la). Getting a bit of a touch up I see. Oh dear lord.
Any chance that might be in Mississauga? I once played a round of golf at Mississauga Golf Club, where my host pointed out the native burial mounds that dotted the course. As I recall the local rules from playing our round, a ball landing on a mound was deemed lost and could not be played or retrieved, owing to the need to respect the sacred land and the mound’s occupant.
Neat. In the early 1990s I worked for the Smithsonian on the Mall and had an office in one of the turrets in the Arts and Industries building that was reached by a spiral metal staircase. Coolest office ever!
Swordsmiths were among the least of them.
