The Green Mill Jazz Club

Chicago’s rich musical history grabs a new tour treatment with Chicago Detours new interactive bus tour, “Chicago Sounds: Jazz, Blues and Beyond.” The two and a half hour tour captures insider details and little known anecdotes about Chicago’s legendary jazz and blues history. The bus tour journeys from the storied ballrooms of Uptown to the jazz lounges of Bronzeville.

The Arragon Ballroom

Kicking off at the Jazz  Record Mart at 27 E. Illinois, which in itself is a Chicago landmark brimming with history, the tour features a sleek black tour bus equipped with screens for videos and sound clips.  A clip of Chicago historian Studs Terkel ruminating about the definition of the blues begins the conversation and it continues until the tours end. Stops by famed Uptown music halls, The Green Mill and the Arragon Ballroom include details about the architecture as well as the neighborhood’s reputation as the place for good times during the 20s-30s, round out the excursion. Back on the bus, tunes by legendary jazz and blues stars like Louie Armstrong, Muddy Waters and Gene Krupa  help set the tone. A stop in Bronzeville reveals illustrations of the neighborhood’s history as the headquarters for jazz and blues with murals, old dressing rooms and  original lounge locations. The tour’s highlight is when guests are gifted with harmonicas and a personal harmonica lesson by Chicago blues musician Fernando Jones. After a brief lesson, the bus was filled with the sounds of 12-bar blues, complete with Jones ‘singing and guitar playing The 21/2 hour tour runs on Saturdays at 10AM and 1:15PM and costs $70.  After finishing the tour, head to the Bronzeville bistro,  Le Fleur de Lis and score a bowl of gumbo or jambalaya for an authentic Louisiana meets Chicago experience.

Photos courtesy of Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

Paradise Beach

Cozumel makes an excellent beach vacation destination, it offers non-stop sun as well as an easy-going atmosphere. Of course, this small island is covered with beaches but my favorite is Paradise Beach, on the eastern side of Cozumel.  The beach is pretty and it’s a popular surfer hangout but what really makes it the ideal spot is the Paradise Cafe, just steps from the beach. Read More »

The weather is beautiful. Wish I was here.

The main difference between these people and the rest of us is that they are sipping Coronas on the beach in Cancun, Mexico and we are not.

Other than that it’s just a normal Wednesday for all of us.

That hardly seems fair.

Cancun beaches offer the best in family fun, romantic vacations, mancations, girls getaway or swingin’ singles (so I’ve heard). Many of the resorts in Cancun (and throughout the entire Mexican coast) have great all-inclusive deals that make a Mexican vacation much more affordable than you would think — unless you think it is free, then it would be more than you think.

Don’t think of this as today’s Wordless Wednesday post. Think of it as today’s Where I Need to Go post. And then open a Corona.

Photo by adpowers via Flickr.

The ancient entrance to San Gervasio

Cozumel represents sandy beaches and Margarita-fueled relaxation to many but the island actually holds much historical  significance. Cozumel is the location for the  ancient shrine for the Mayan fertility goddess, Ixchel.   The shrine is tucked into the San Gervasio ruins, which is a 2,000 year old structure that covers 125 acres in the Cozumel rain forest.  Read More »