September Festivals!

Arcola Broom Corn Festival! Sept 5, 6, and 7. Carnival, parade, arts & crafts, live music, beer & wine. Arcola has one of the best little downtowns in central Illinois. Don't miss the great prices on antiques at the Emporium.

Bruegala! Sept 5 and 6. Eighth annual festival of international beer held at the Interstate Center in Bloomington. Over 200 beers, six bands, and a bean bags (aka corn hole) tournament. Sounds perfect to me.

Havana Oktoberfest! Sept 5 and 6. German foods, arts & crafts, and carnival. Sept. 5: Oktoberfest Parade kicks off at 6 p.m. Muddy River Brass Band, Phat Kitten. Sept. 6: Polka Pace Race and 5k Walk/Run (sign-up 6:30 a.m.) at 8 a.m., followed by pancake and sausage breakfast; 3-on-3 basketball tournament, 10 a.m.; Eddie Korosa Jr. and the Boys from Illinois, Bob Dozak Band, Still Kick'n with Angela Martin.

Mt Pulaski Fall Festival. Sept 4, 5 and 6. Civil War-era encampment. Cavalry rides in festival parade; Regiment Band performs on courthouse lawn; 1854 Cast Iron Tombstone Trial reenactment in the courthouse courtroom. You shouldn't miss the donut eating contest and central Illinois band Poprocks always puts on a killer show.

Scovill Zoo fall festival! Sept 6 and 7 in Decatur. Activities, entertainment, animals, and a teddy bear repair and picnic.

Taste of Country Fair Festival & Rt 66 Reunion, Sept 5, 6, and 7 in Lexington. Parades, juried fine art show, antiques & crafts. Local food vendors and entertainment.

Chrisman Days Celebration, Sept 5, 6, and 7 in downtown Chrisman. Fish fry, garage sales, flea market, horse show, and entertainment.

New Salem Traditional Music Festival. Sept 6 and 7. Jam sessions, bluegrass, old time music. Lincoln's New Salem historic site.

Atlanta Fall Festival. Sept 11, 12, and 13 throughout Atlanta. Features music, a carnival, free petting zoo, car show, art & craft vendors, great food and pie & cake baking contest/auction.

Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival. Sept 12, 13, and 14 at the Logan County fairgrounds in Lincoln. This is a can't miss festival with railsplitting, corn shucking, tomahawk throwing and a Civil War ball.

Tower Hill Community Fall Festival! Sept 19, 20, 21. Friday, Talent Show & Karaoke. Saturday, Car & Motorcycle Show, Tractor Show, Produce "500", Kids Competition & Games, Garden Tractor Pull, Parade, Auction, Scavenger Hunt, Live Music. Sunday, Demolition Derby!!!

The Touchstone Energy Hydrofest NBRA National Hydroplane Boat Races. Sept 19, 20, 21 at the Wilborn Creek Recreation Area. This is one of the best race sites in the country with the fastest competitors. Don't miss this exciting event.

Marshall Autumn Fest! Sept 19, 20, and 21 in downtown Marshall. Arts & crafts, car show, you get the picture.

2nd Annual Gourd Festival, Sept 20, 21 (9 am to 4:30 pm) at the Clinton Jr. High School. Gourd arts & crafts. Free.

Arts in Central Park, Sept 20, 21, and 22 in downtown Decatur. Annual juried art festival.

Railroad Days: Monticello Railway Museum, Sept 20, 21. Ride the vintage passenger and freight trains as many times as you want. $12 adults, $10 seniors, and $8 children between the ages of 2 and 12.


Apple and Pork Festival! Sept 27 and 28 in Clinton. A true fall festival prominently featuring the foods of the season. Wear sturdy shoes and don't miss the fine art booths.

World Wide Day of Play, Sept 27 in Bloomington-Normal. Tipton Park, Anderson Park, and at the Children’s Discovery Museum. HUNDREDS of exciting ways to play. Visit one or all of these three locations and enjoy free, fun activities! Everything is FREE! In addition to the activities, there will be great prizes and goodie bags.

This list is not exhaustive. Please leave a comment to add your local September festival information.

Haunted Central Illinois

Here's the start to a list of haunted Central Illinois activities. I'll keep updating as I find more haunted happenings.

Oct 5-30, (Fridays & Saturdays only) 320 S Main Street, Farmer City, Haunted House
Oct 5-31, (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) Creatures Crypt Haunted House, Bloomington.
Oct 5-31, Haunted Hide-A-Way in Georgetown (South of Danville) .
Oct 11-13, 18-20, 25-31, Springfield Jaycees Haunted House at the State Fairgrounds.
Oct 12-14, 19-21, 26-31, Boo at the Zoo, Scovill Zoo, Decatur. Good for little kids.
Oct 12-13, 19-20, 26-27, Auburn Hospital for the Criminally Insane
Oct 12, 13, 19-21, 26-28, 31, Boo Crew in Rochester.
Oct 12-30 weekends, Terror on Washington, a top ten haunted house in Clinton.
Oct 12, 13, 19-21, 24, 25, 28-30 Haunted Decatur Tours. Very scary and not for kids.
Oct 12 - Nov 2, weekends Fear Factory Haunted House in Rantoul.
Oct 19-21, 26-31, Decatur Jaycees Haunted Fairgrounds. Bring a canned food donation.
Oct 19, 20, 26, 27, 31, Springfield Haunted Hayrides
Oct 19-20, 26-28, 31, Mahomet, Nightmare Pavillion.
Oct 22-30 Halloween Train, Monticello
Oct 20-21, 26-28 Ghost Train to Cemetery Road, Monticello
Oct 20, 26-28, 31 Monticello Haunted House - thanks for the tip Kiwanis Club!
Oct 31, The Avon Theater in Decatur will show the horror documentary Children of the Grave and host a meet and greet afterwards with the stars.

Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton

I took my son to Weldon Springs State Recreation area outside of Clinton on this beautiful fall morning. We had a great time walking around this well maintained park. There is a restaurant, boat launch, playground, and many picnic tables and benches every where. The Boondocks II restaurant seemed to have quite a crowd for a Tuesday. We brought our lunch so we just drove by the boat launch and restaurant area. The bathrooms were super clean for pit toilets. We parked by the playground and entered the walking trail behind it. That trail seems to go all around the lake. We saw signs for other trails as well. Lots of shore fishing spots both along the main road and in the woods.

Wonderfully maintained wood chip and gravel path around the lake mainly in the woods.
Super nice fire pits. We ate our lunch here and were besieged by flies.
Veterans Memorial. I hadn't given much thought to today's date until we climbed a hill out of the woods and saw a clearing surrounded by flags. The main flags on the lake were at half mast. B and I were on our honeymoon in Canada six years ago today with no access to TV and were buffered from the 9-11 images.

Mexican restaurants, Urbana, Springfield, Clinton

I told you we eat a lot of Mexican food. Here I go again with our old and new favorites.

In Urbana we like El Toro on Cunningham. It's easy to get to from the interstate, the service is lightening fast, the food is awesome, and all the waitstaff are super smiley towards children. I think it was opened by the original singing waiter from El Matador in Decatur. Those El Matador guys, they leave and open the nicest, most family friendly restaurants.

The first time a coworker suggested we eat at Xochimilco in Springfield I thought we'd be having Japanese. But it turned out to be a nice little Mexican restaurant in a strip mall on the west side. The original Xochimilco (I pronounce it So-She-Milk-O but that's probably wrong) is pretty similar to El Rodeo in Decatur. Serviceable but not stellar. I do really like the stand alone Xochimilco on the east side, especially for a late evening adults only meal. It's a fun place, more bar like than most Mexican restaurants.

We just discovered El Ray in Clinton. This tiny restaurant seems to be a refurbished Long John Silvers. It is a sit down restaurant but we had such super fast service it made our heads spin. Our son had a kid's burrito and rice plate which was nearly adult sized for like $3. B had the Fajita Quesadilla which was exactly the same as (west side) Fiesta in Bloomington and very similar to the beloved Mi Pueblito in Decatur. I had the Chili Colorado, which was not very good. The steak had not been cooked in the mole and the mole was very tomatoey instead of chocolaty. The mole was just drizzled on the meat.

I'm definitely willing to try again and see if I can find out what is really good. For us the location is very convenient and when you include the Ultimate Play Space in the trip, it's better than Fiesta with a side of Wal-mart. It took many meals at Fiesta to find the Pollo Encremada, which is out of this world.

Fall Festivals in Central Illinois

Google, you love the festivals, dontcha? Here's a list of September festivals in the Central Illinois counties I generally cover. This information largely comes from the 2007 Central Illinois Visitors Guide put out by the Tourism Development Office in Springfield.

Today you can still make it to:
Atlanta Fall Festival. Just off I-55 you'll find a carnival, auction, petting zoo, a car show, and craft vendors.
37th Annual Broom Corn Festival in downtown Arcola. It features broom making demonstrations, art, crafts, street and food vendors, 5 & 10 K walk, carnival.
Taste of Country Fair and Festival. Off I-55 north of Bloomington-Normal in Lexington. Features a juried fine art show, antiques, crafts, and live entertainment.
Annual Juried Fine Art & Craft Fair at Washington Park in Springfield. Artists from all over the Midwest sell art. Plus a carillon performance!

Sept 14-16 Abraham Lincoln Railsplitting Festival: Logan County Fairgrounds, Lincoln.
Sept 14-16 Arts in Central Park: Downtown Decatur. Juried arts festival. This is a great one!
Sept 14-16 NBRA Short Course Nationals: Bethany at the Wilborn Creek Recreation Area. Hydroplane boat races.
Sept 14-16 Tower Hill Fall Festival: Tower Hill Park. Car show, tractor pull, produce parade.
Sept 15 Prairie Stories: Lake of the Wood Forest Preserve, Mahomet. Families can engage in work from an earlier time.
Sept 15-16 Railroad Days: Monticello Railway Museum. Train rides! Train rides! Train rides! Awesome event for railroad lovers.
Sept 15-16 Edwards Place Fine Art Fair: Springfield. 100 artisians sell crafts on the grounds of the Edwards Place.
Sept 15-16 Balloon Fest: Eagle Creek State Park, Findlay. Hot air balloon festival and dock party.
Sept 16 Bob Galloway Memorial Amish Country Bicycle Ride: Arthur countryside. Ride your bike 1 or 100 miles though the Amish farmlands.

Sept 19-22 Pygmalion Music Festival: Champaign Urbana. Huge music festival with something like 70 live bands. Definitely something to get excited about.
Sept 22 Celebration: Downtown Monticello. Live music, pet parade, children's activities, food, art & craft vendors.

Sept 28-30 International Route 66 Mother Road Festival: Downtown Springfield. Live entertainment, HUGE antique car show.
Sept 29-30 Apple 'N Pork Festival: Clinton. Museum tour, great food, entertainment and crafts.
Sept 29-30 Wine and Cheese Festival: Rockome Gardens, Arcola. Illinois wines, cheese and jazz festival.
Sept 30, Oct 7 & 14 Oconee Fall Festival: Oconee. Hayrides, maze, crafts, pumpkins, and zoo.

Ultimate Play Space, Clinton

Last week my sister and I were driving around Clinton, Illinois on a blog research trip and boy were we impressed. The downtown area is much bigger and nicer than I expected. There seems to be some love for the square and lots of renovation going on in nearby commercial buildings. We saw one particular building with gorgeous copper work going up outside.

Why were we in Clinton? Specifically to visit the Ultimate Play Space! Located behind the YMCA is a 13 acre park with a elaborate wooden play area (fenced in!) plus a sprinkler park plus porto-potties, plus swing and the older equipment. The Ultimate Play Space is separated into a Tot Lot and an area for bigger kids. Awesome! I didn't get any photos, but you can check out the Chamber of Commerce website and photos here. Once you turn onto Alexander off Rte 54, it's a quick left following the sign for Kiwanis Park. It almost looks like you are turning into an alley or the Y parking lot.

Addendum! B is a great sport and we returned to the Ultimate Play Space this evening to test it out. It was awesome! This is such a nice park and our son had a blast running with the herds of children. Here are some of the pictures I took. The Tot Lot was a big hit for H. Perfectly sized steps and all kinds of fun hiding places. Very nice materials and deep soft mulch. These photos show about 1/3 of the big kid play structure. It was huge and packed with children. You can see the sprinkler park in the distance.Some older equipment is spread out over 13 acres of lawn. I thought the motorcycle club brick was humorous.
Hopefully we can make it back for the Apple and Pork Festival, September 29 & 30, the quintessential Midwestern fall festival. If you like crafts you'll love the Apple and Pork festival. Myself, I love apples and pork so I go for the food and stay for the art.