Midwest travel: Explore Chicago's Little India on Spice of Life Tour

Chicago

The fever breaks

Break cabin fever with a spicy tour of Chicago's Indian community. Chicago Detours and Spice of Life Tours partner for an afternoon of culture and cuisine including tastings of South Asian cuisine, trying on traditional Indian dress, learning how to ring a "singing bowl," examining architectural fine points and visiting a Sikh temple. Stops along the .06 mile tour are indoors along Devon Avenue, home to the cultures of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 28. Tickets cost $75 per person and include the tour, snacks, entrees and dessert, an Indian beer and a Pakistani soda and special gifts. Online reservations required at chicagodetours.com.

Stay over easy

If a backyard plastic egg search has become ho-hum, get in on the Thompson Chicago's second annual Golden Egg in the Gold Coast event. Spend the Easter holiday at the luxe hotel and you'll have the opportunity to win complimentary offerings during your overnight stay on Saturday, April 4. You'll hunt for color-coded eggs hidden throughout 10 hotel guest rooms, which hold special prizes such as free in-room dining, drinks in Salone Nico, and the treasured golden egg hiding a complimentary overnight stay. Then just present your egg finds at the front desk to redeem your reward.

Saturday, April 4, at Thompson Chicago, 21 E. Bellevue, Chicago. Make reservations at thompsonhotels.com/hotels/thompson-chicago or call (312) 266-2100.

June busting out all over

Chicagoans are so pumped for the arrival of spring that the first dandelions will elicit feelings of absolute glee. For a greater sense of spring, explore the annual Spring Flower Show at the historic Lincoln Park Conservatory. The changing collection of spring blooming plants includes Azaleas, spring flowering annuals and perennials. Take advantage of the rare opportunity to see the direct descendants of the great Azaleas that first bloomed at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, now through May 10 at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, 2391 N Stockton Drive. Free. (312) 742-7736.

Midwest

Take me to the Mission

Mission Creek Festival is a weeklong celebration that takes over various venues and spaces of downtown Iowa City creating a nexus of music, literature, food and art. Expect national, international and regional musicians, writers and artists performing and exhibiting their work in traditional and nontraditional venues, each within five minutes of each other. In between events, dine, grab a beer or stroll by the Grant Wood artist-in-residence house. Celebrating its 10th year, the fest will feature artists such as Ben Frost, Real Estate, NE-HI, Shovels and Rope and others.

Tuesday through Sunday, March 31-April 5, at various times and venues in downtown Iowa City, Iowa. Some events are free, and others require tickets. missionfreak.com.

Sticky note

It may be your last chance to see the tapping of the trees this year. The Maple Syrup Festival at the MacKenzie Environmental Center (between Wisconsin Dells and Madison), serves up a full morning of fun. It includes a pancake breakfast, guided tours of the sugarbush, demonstrations of tapping and syrup-making, interpretive talks about how Native Americans and pioneers made syrup, old-time music and horse-drawn wagon rides. Plus, watch homemade ice cream being churned with an antique engine.

8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 4. Pancake breakfast is $7 for adults and $5 for kids in the lodge; guided tours and demonstrations are free. MacKenzie Environmental Education Center is at County Road CS & Q, Poynette, Wisconsin. dnr.wi.gov/education/mackenzie or (608) 635-8105.

Fort Wayne getaway

Consider a super affordable spring break getaway to Indiana's second largest city, Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo always find itself on lists of the top 10 zoos in the country, and the city has been named the #1 City for Minor League Sports and home of the #1 Minor League Ball Park Experience. Just 148 miles from Chicago, the Fort Wayne Convention and Visitors Bureau has prepared custom itineraries for every week this spring and offers many low-cost lodging options.

(800) 767-7752 or visitfort wayne.com.