Help please!! Moving to Bloomington-Normal and know nothing about it!!

[M TYPE X]

OK, Illinois runs counter to the typical national situation on airport location.

[ohjodi]

I lived in B-N for 18 years until last year :-) I already miss it, and I'm only 40 miles away, lol

There is ALWAYS tons of things to do. I think the Thursday issue of the Pantagraph has the big entertainment section, with everything in B-N and Central Illinois. And buy the Saturday edition for the Homes section....there's a city map in it every week.

Buy your groceries at Schnucks. I worked there for ten years, so I'm biased, lol. Seriously, though....they have award-winning meat and seafood departments, as well as liquor and produce. The bakery is the best, and for everything floral, it's the greatest. Cheaper than a regular florist, and they deliver. Tell them that Jodi sent you, lol People will say that the store is expensive, but it's absolutely not. They have bigger sales, more stuff on sale every week, than any other store in town. And really, the meat is outstanding. I've seen other meat departments and I just about want to gag, lol. The new Schnucks on the north side of town is a bit smaller than the older Schnucks by Eastland Mall. I worked at that one. There's more selection there.

People are INCREDIBLY friendly in B-N, I've found.

One funny thing about B-N is that while traffic can be a bit heavy during the day, after 10:30 pm the town just DROPS DEAD, lol. Seriously, you could spend hours driving all over and not see more than a few cars, total. For a city close to 120,000 now, it's amazing that everyone is tucked in at night.

Some of my favorite places are the Normal Theater (vintage and independent films), Schooner's, Mugsy's, the Lucca Grill (pub food and italian). The Shakespeare Festival in August. The Third Sunday Market at the fairgrounds. the Sugar Creek Arts Festival in downtown Normal in July, and the Corn Fest in August, too.

Good luck! I think you'll really like B-N