For those of you that have been on a recent tour during the SIGMA conventions, I think you know that we have had a lot of fun – highlights include the Sonoma Wine Country tour and the Painted Ladies tour in San Francisco and the Margaritas and a Mission tour in San Antonio.

For Chicago, we have two great tours planned – the first one will be a trip to the 1154 Lill Studio on Friday, November 13^th at 1 p.m. where we will design our own purses – you get to choose the style and the fabric (40 styles and over 100 different fabrics) and they will make the purse for you and send it to you in about 3 weeks – or you can choose from dozens of bags right off the rack and take it with you. Included in the price of the tour is a $75 gift certificate to use towards any purchase in the store (prices range from $28-210). After the purse party, the group will get to explore the many boutiques along Armitage before returning to the hotel by 4 p.m. in plenty of time to get ready for the Welcome reception.

On Saturday, November 14^th the tour will leave at 10 a.m. after the spouse/guest breakfast, for a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park house that he designed and built for his growing family. The next stop on the tour will be Unity Temple, a church that he designed and called “my little jewel box”, which is still in use today as a Unitarian church. Then we will head to lunch at Winberie’s where a docent will discuss Nancy Horan’s “Loving Frank” – a fictionalized account of his affair with Mameh Cheney in the early 1900’s. The group will return to the hotel by 2:30.

Of special interest is the opening of the new glass bottom Sky Deck at the Sear’s Tower (which will be renamed The Willis Tower later this summer). Scheduled to open in June, the new attraction, called The Ledge, will feature four feet of glass only an inch-and-a-half thick jutting out from the observation deck. Visitors will be able to see straight down to the city streets 103 stories below. Tickets can be purchased online (tickets for November will not be available until June) and range from $18-33, with service charge.

Please don’t hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions.

Cathi

703-375-0490

ceifert@sigma.org