List your favorite things about Illinois (Chicago, Springfield: budget, hotels, travel)

[geeminee]

Allerton Park in Monticello is often overlooked, but really a fantastic place to spend the day.

Matthiesen (sp?) State park is pretty cool too.

[M TYPE X]

So far this summer, there have been more tornados in Iowa and Wisconsin than Illinois. The gas prices are the highest in the country, especially on the north side of Chicago. My favorite restaurants in Champaign are closed for the summer.

Ask me about Illinois next summer ... I was in Iowa last weekend, I'll be in Indiana this weekend, and Missouri the next. Illinois is a great place to pick up a paycheck, and if you're the governor, it's a great place to fly on the taxpayer's dollar. The rest of us people have to drive across miles and miles of flat prairie to get anywhere interesting.

[anntadair]

Ok Drinking on the metra is pretty cool, but there is also-
-Shawnee National Forest
-Glacial Park (just north of McHnery on rt 31)
-blues fest, jazz fest etc
-Navy pier and the lakefront
-all the stuff at Grant Park
-Concerts at Northerly Island are really cool with the skyline behind the performers!
-Christmas in Chicago
-the Sox, Cubs, Bears, Wolves and Blackhawks (although better in the Stadium)
-SIU and U of I
-Long Grove

Have a great day!

[cavewoman]

Oh..all the food., The pizza, the lIthunian, the polish, the mexican, the italian.,
why is all the good food in Chicago????

Cannot find a decent pizza in Rockford, Wiscosnin or Minnesota.
(uch)
Let alone a decent beef, hot dog or taco.

The diversity

[hazelnut]

Originally Posted by Bex

Favorite thing about Illinois......ummmmm...it's not Texas

Oh no! My husband just took a job in Texas and I hate the thought of leaving the Chicagoland area...can it really be that bad there?

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by hazelnut

Oh no! My husband just took a job in Texas and I hate the thought of leaving the Chicagoland area...can it really be that bad there?

If you like massive heat and humidity, and being away from Chicago.

[2beamissourian]

the bluffs over the river ........ In Alton illinois there is a part over the bluffs called River View. I grew up in this park marching with the clowns with the live music that would play. Watching fireworks from here were awesome.

I always thought that I would get married there.

[pipntisha]

I've lived all over the country and live in Seattle now. This post is making me homesick. Despite all the natural beauty out West, it is the memories I have of Illinois that are the strongest and the best.

1. Chicago humor - Second City and the whole history of comedy in that city - Belushi, Ackroyd, Leno, Joan Rivers, Chris Farley, etc. I used to go second city every chance I got.

2. Chicago hot dogs. I've tried a lot of "Chicago style dogs" in a lot of cities and NO ONE can make them like Chicagoans. I sometimes miss them so much, I've considered calling SuperDawg and having them flown out.

3. Buckingham Fountain on a soft summer night when the lights are on.

4. The museums - the Art Institute, the Field Museum, Shed Aquarium, The Museum of Science and Industry.

5. Christmas trees around the world at the Museum of Science and Industry and walking down Michigan Avenue to look in the windows at Christmas.

6. The people - Midwesterners are the nicest of all, believe it or not. People out West say Chicagoans are the nicest of any city they have ever visited.

7. My mom and dad - still in Chicago.

8. Snow - not this infernal Seattle rain.

9. Summer fairs - the Midwest has the best ones, no matter how small.

10. Sox games in the summer (but I miss the old park) and the fireworks.

11. Midwestern beef and Midwestern sweet corn. Not the Angus beef out West.

12. Riding up to a Supper club in Wisconsin on a snowmobile (okay, not Illinois).

13. Seeing real theater, ballets - the last time I was home I saw the Bolshoi Ballet. Amazing.

14. Public transportation.

15. The hole in the wall jazz clubs.

16. Just walking down the crowded city streets on hot summer nights - looking at the cafes, stores, everyone out with their kids and dogs.

Yet, when I talk about these things to Westerners, all they can say about Chicago is that it's too cold and there are too many bugs. Of course, most of them have just flown into O'Hare in winter and left or went to a conference in Peoria in the summer. I try to explain how special the State is but they don't get it.

Thanks for this post. It brought back nice memories.

[ff40184]

Driving through the country when the corn is around 7 feet tall and the smell of it.

Hunting quail

boating on the big Wabash

High school basketball games

watching heat lightning on hot summer evening

[Scribbler]

-Tiny, early 1800s settler cemeteries in grown-up prairie grass plots, lining dusty gravel roads.

-Small railroading heyday towns with historic depots.

-The view of the Chicago skyline from the end of Navy Pier at night

-The view of the state's first wind farms dotting the cornfields in Lee and LaSalle Counties.

-The mural-painted retaining wall/benches at the lakefront in Rogers Park, at the end of Pratt/Morse.

-Deep dish.

-Tanner's Orchard and and Pumpkin Farm in rural Speer, en route to Peoria.

-Starved Rock State Park, on the Illinois River at Utica.

-Lorado Taft's sculptures, from the "Black Hawk" at Oregon to the Fountain of Time in Hyde Park, to the "Eternal Silence" grave marker in Graceland Cemetery.

-The smell of summer cornfields after a cloudburst.