Destination: Oak Park

It may seem like an incongruous statement, but one of the most fascinating places I've visited in recent years is Oak Park, Illinois. A quiet, quaint suburb of Chicago, the village of Oak Park is a wealth of cultural sights to see at almost every turn.

Not only is Oak Park home to one of America's greatest architects (see my short ode to Frank Lloyd Wright on LookGirl gets cultured), but Oak Park is also the birthplace and boyhood home of one of America's literary masters, Ernest Hemingway. A cultural twofer, if you will.

Thanks to the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, Hemingway fans can take a guided tour of his birthplace home and visit a museum covering his life. Wright devotees can tour Wright's home and studio, and take in multiple examples of his work throughout Oak Park. Wright fans, note: In mid May, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust is holding its 34th annual Wright Plus housewalk, which includes rare interior tours of eight private homes.

Oak Park Tourist is a good Web resource to begin planning your trip. If you want to see the sights relating to both of these cultural icons, set aside at least two to three days to get to them all. Though there's much to do and see in metro Chicago, a few days in Oak Park is time well spent.