Welcome to Wheeling! This water tower rises over the Ram restaurant and the Prairie Park condominium community along Milwaukee Avenue.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
The assignment: Spend some time in Wheeling, my hometown, taking pictures of the obvious and the obscure.
I spent most of my time at the town's recently renovated Heritage Park. I loved every minute of it.
Heritage Park was a part of my life when I was a preteen floor hockey player, but my Oct. 1 visit was my first since my days as a mulleted, Blackhawks jersey-wearing freshman at Wheeling High School — to say a lot has changed would be an understatement!
The $38 million renovation project had its grand opening this past June, and it includes a 1.3-mile path around Lake Heritage and its six floodwater basins. On the pleasantly chilly fall afternoon I visited, fall and spring colors collided and birds dominated the ground and the air.
Other Wheeling highlights include Friendship Park, famous restaurants, friendly neighborhoods and welcoming hotels and shops.
If you have some great photos of Wheeling's parks, restaurants, schools and more, share them on social media with the hashtag #shareyoursuburb.
Look for a new town gallery every Sunday at dailyherald.com/galleries and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
The beautiful fountains in front of the Prairie Park community in Wheeling are ready for fall with pumpkins and hay bales.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Just across Milwaukee Avenue sits the Westin North Shore hotel and surrounding restaurants and stores.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Fall colors brighten a drab October day at the Lakeside Villas neighborhood off Hintz Road.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
At the corner of Milwaukee and Dundee in Wheeling stands Friendship Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Flowers bloom inside Friendship Park's gazebo.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Maurie and Flaurie stand atop Superdawg Drive-In on Milwaukee Avenue.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
This Easter Island head can be found right next door to Superdawg, which can mean only one thing ...
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
... we've found Wheeling's legendary Bob Chinn's Crab House! I can smell the garlic from here.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Well, as long as I'm here taking pictures, I might as well have a nice, light prime rib lunch.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
OK, let's walk off that Bob Chinn's lunch at Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Geese float past a water fountain at Wheeling's expansive Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
I think I've been spotted ...
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A 1.3-mile pathway encircles Lake Heritage at Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Fall colors are on display at Heritage Park in Wheeling
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
Some of spring's colors are sticking around, too.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A white gull soars high above Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
These rocky steps lead picnickers at a pavilion on the east side of Lake Heritage back down to the walking path.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
I was surrounded by geese at Heritage Park in Wheeling.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A crane joins two ducks in the waterway on Heritage Park's eastern border.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
The view from the bottom of a light tower.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
This bridge connects Wheeling's Heritage Park to a sidewalk on the west side of Wolf Road, across from Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A number of community facilities, including the police station, are adjacent to Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A number of community facilities, including village hall, are adjacent to Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com
A number of facilities, including the community recreation center, are adjacent to Wheeling's Heritage Park.
Sean Stangland/sstangland@dailyherald.com