WTTW's Geoffrey Baer takes suburbanites back to classic vacation destinations

For 25 years, WTTW host Geoffrey Baer has been telling Chicago-area viewers the stories and histories of their hometowns.

For his latest project, Baer and his team of producers spent the better part of a year - and racked up more than 7,000 miles on their van - traveling to the places Chicagoans and suburbanites retreat to when they want to get away from home.

The crew went to more than two dozen destinations for the new 90-minute special "Chicago On Vacation With Geoffrey Baer," which debuts on WTTW at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5.

Baer said everywhere they went they were recognized by Chicago-area residents.

"They'd run up to us and would be really glad we were there," Baer said. "It really reinforced that feeling that I had intuitively when I was pitching this show for years that these places are as important to Chicagoans as their own hometowns."

The places featured included the Indiana Dunes, Illinois' Starved Rock State Park, and Mackinac Island in Michigan.

"People just love and have such a connection to these places," Baer said. "They're like these second hometowns, and, as with our own hometowns, we don't know much about the place themselves."

Baer said when he was growing up in Highland Park and Deerfield his family would often vacation at a small Lake Geneva resort in Wisconsin. As part of the special, he returns there for the first time in 50 years and finds that it is no longer a vacation spot. Instead, it's owned by Aurora University and is used as a retreat center.

Baer said he sees the special in part as a nostalgia show about the Midwest road trip, which has changed so much in his lifetime.

"Our culture is really homogeneous today," Baer said. "The road trip used to be kind of an adventure, where things along the roadside were exotic and different. Now, with interstate highways, everything looks the same and everywhere has the same fast food and budget hotels."

He said when he and his crew arrived at their destinations they were pleased to find that the local character of these places was alive and well.

"I think that's really at the heart of the show," Baer said.

In addition to the special, Baer and his crew produced several web exclusives, including a travel journal Baer kept throughout the long production process. The web content and the special will be available at wttw.com/vacation on Tuesday.