1 Wok-Star Airbnb Channel the culinary genius of Michael Symon. The celeb chef and his wife, Liz, renovated a home in Cleveland that is now listed on Airbnb. The house is split into two single-unit stays, both with impressive kitchens. Enjoy sleek appliances, marble counters and an arsenal of cookware from the Symon Home collection. From $90.
2 Exhibit Columbus The annual architecture and design gathering Exhibit Columbus returns August 24 to Columbus, Indiana, a small city known for world-class architecture. In odd years, the event places public art all over town. This year’s 18 installations will include XX (like the chromosome), in honor of influential Columbus women and invisible stories. View the art until December 1.
Between the Threads, a maze of craft-lace panels, dazzled visitors at Exhibit Columbus in 2017. Photo Courtesy of Exhibit Columbus.
3 Superior on Social The largest Great Lake is on Twitter, entertaining more than 30,000 followers with trivia, current lake events and heavy doses of shade and snark. A sampling: “You can’t spell inferier without Erie,” or “Entire countries I’m bigger than: Czech Republic, Sierra Leone, Ireland, Georgia, Sri Lanka… ” @lakesuperior
4 Park Makeover Go glamping or channel your inner ninja water warrior. A $35 million Nebraska Outdoor Venture Parks project has upgraded a chain of outdoor hot spots between Lincoln and Omaha. Lounge in a roll-out bed under the stars at a cabin in Platte River State Park. Tackle the Go Ape ropes course or a 40-foot climbing wall at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park. Or splash across a floating playground at Louisville State Recreation Area.
Louisville State Recreation Area. Photo Courtesy of NEBRASKALand Magazine/Nebraska Game And Parks Commission.
5 Baseball Dog Days Woof, woof, woof for the home team at Milwaukee's Miller Park on July 16. During Bark at the Park, dogs (with tickets) join their humans for a Brewers game. Other Midwest teams with upcoming dog days: Cincinnati and Kansas City (September 3), Chicago White Sox (September 10), Detroit (September 16). No word about any 7th-inning fetch.
Bark at the Park. Photo Courtesy of Scott Paulus/Milwaukee Brewers.
6 Midwest Memoir In Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America (Grand Central, $26), former CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Bill Geist from Missouri recalls with wit and affection his coming of age as a hired hand at his aunt and uncle’s resort. His first job? Shoveling the septic field.