Midwest focus: travel America highlights top tourist attractions in 10 states

Travel America, May-June, 2002 by Roberta Sotonoff

WISCONSIN

THE BADGER STATE

Though Wisconsin has a lot more to offer than beer, cheese, and cows, brew is plentiful in Milwaukee's authentic German restaurants like Mader's and Karl Ratzsch's or on a Miller Brewery tour. Don't miss Milwaukee's Public Museum, zoo, and the city's new architectural wonder, Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavilion, which flaps its movable wings toward Lake Michigan. Nearby Madison has lakes, a farmers' market on the State Capitol grounds, and the modern Monona Terrace, a community and convention center that Frank Lloyd Wright designed over 50 years ago. Wright grew up in nearby Spring Green, where you can visit Taliesin, his primary home and studio. Down the road is the House on the Rock, a blufftop house with exhibits from music machines and Oriental art to dolls and suits of medieval armor. Nearby New Glarus is Switzerland without the Alps. You'll find trolls and the Mustard Museum at the neighboring Norwegian town of Mount Horeb. Travel north to Baraboo and visit the Big Top at Circus World Museum or learn about different crane species at the International Crane Foundation. America's largest water park is at the Wisconsin Dells, an amusement-filled family mecca. Take a Dells cruise boat and see the sandstone cliffs that flank the Wisconsin River. Quaint villages, state parks, lighthouses, and miles of shoreline distinguish Wisconsin's eastern "thumb," Door County.

Grape Time

On southern Illinois' Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, you can tour the wineries, taste the product, and buy a bottle or two. Antique shops and rugged scenery also lure tourists to this area by Shawnee National Forest, not far from the Mississippi River.

Classic Cars

Pangs of nostalgia attack auto buffs at the Aug. 29.-Sept. 2 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in Auburn, Indiana, where boldly styled cars were made in the 1920s and '30s.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Free travel planning information is available from the tourism offices of the following Midwestern states:

Illinois, (800) 2-CONNECT; www.enjoyilli nois.com

Indiana, (800) 291-8844; www.enjoyindi ana.com

Iowa, (800) 345-IOWA; www.traveliowa. com

Kansas, (800) 2-KANSAS; www.travel KS.com

Michigan, (800) 78-GREAT; www.michi gan.org

Minnesota, (800) 657-3700; www.explore minnesota.com

Missouri, (800) 877-1234; www. missouri tourism.org

Nebraska, (800) 228-4307; www.visitne braska.org

Ohio, (800) BUCKEYE; www.ohiotour ism.com

Wisconsin, (800) 432-8747; www.travel wisconsin.com