In Honor of Black History Month our February artist of the month is Jonathon Romain from Peoria. Romain is a local artist who travels to various cities and states each month in hopes of catching an art show.

 How long have you been an artist or when did you start? I have been a professional artist for over 20 years. As far back as I can remember I’ve loved creating artistically. I won my first art award at 15 and a year later first place, at a Chicago city-wide arts competition called the Buckingham Fountain Art Fair in 1983. The prize was a check for $150. I had all the signs early on that I was destined to be an artist, but I never thought I was good enough when I compared my work to professional artists. Consequently, I only halfheartedly played around with it.

According to HomeSnacks, Western Springs is the best place to live in Illinois.

HomeSnacks ranked cities by a number of criteria from one to 327, with one being the best. The criteria considered included median home values, median incomes, unemployment rates, average commute time, crime, education levels and more.

HomeSnacks recognized Western Springs for its “impressive history” and “low unemployment rates and high incomes.”

Several organizations who rank top travel destinations have recognized the city of Chicago as one of the nation’s best places to visit.

Conde Nast Traveler named Chicago the best city in America on its 2018 list of the best U.S. cities, recognizing the Windy City for its architecture, world class restaurants and friendly residents. A survey of 2,000 U.S. citizens conducted by Provision Living also ranked Chicago 16^th among bucket list travel destinations. Chicago is also the number one 2019 destination for families according to TripSavvy.

The city also rated highly in several other categories.

• TripAdvisor rated some of Chicago’s hotels among the best in the country in their Traveler’s Choice Awards.
• The digital party invitation platform Evite named Chicago its number two party city of 2018. The Windy City had over 62,000 events listed on the platform last year with over 2.4 million guests invited.
• Chicago was named the fifth most romantic city in the world by SpaSeekers. The organization also listed the city fourth for marriage proposals.

For more information about visiting the city of Chicago, click here.

With the recent inclement weather, a lot of Illinoisans are missing summer. Although there are a few more months left before the sunshine and warm weather arrive, there is still a way to enjoy one favorite summertime activity indoors.

The greater Chicagoland area has two indoor water parks: The Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee and The Water Works in Schaumburg.

The first settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. He was born in 1745 in Santa Domingo, Haiti, to a French mariner and a mother who was a slave from Congo. His father provided him with education, and he worked as a seaman for his father’s ships.

Before settling in Chicago, records show that Du Sable was in the Louisiana Territory in the 1760s, then moved to St. Louis. Ten years later he established an exchange post along the river in what today is Chicago.

Du Sable was an explorer in the Northwest Territory of United States and spoke fluent French, Spanish and English. When English colonists came to Chicago, Du Sable was the main supply station for them. He was known to be handsome, have exquisite taste and even built his home from French imported wood. Fellow explorers said he had a feather bed, couch and mirrors.