Ask a Local: Illinois

[Music] Illinois is largely flat however once you get to the southern part of the state it's much more rugged we have hills and we have floodplains and we have rocks and we have an amazing array of resources for people to enjoy just all-round outdoorsmen we even have wilderness in Southern Illinois where you can actually get away from the sounds of humanity we're in Piney Creek Nature Preserve Piney Creek holds the largest rock art site in the state of Illinois and is over at least 200 different carvings and paintings that stretch back in time for 2,000

years places that you can actually do some rock climbing would include Jackson Falls and giant city giant city is a state park it has a number of really unique rock formations the rocks separated from the bluff so it makes all these avenues or streets where you've got rock formations on both sides catch river is really a slow moving River where you just have a lot of Cypress swampy areas and you just kind of glide through it's like being back in almost prehistoric times so if you're visiting and you suddenly get hungry or feel like a

snack there's a couple of opportunities there for championship barbecue we try 17th Street fire and grill the barbecue there whether it's the ribs or the pulled pork or brisket is all sweetened with apples from nearby court sure it's just absolutely excellent head down to Jacob Illinois where the Bottoms Up Bar and Grill is located and it's called bottoms up because it serves copious amounts of beer as well as large amounts of fried chicken [Laughter] if you've never been to Springfield Illinois we're right in the middle of the state but at one time the route 66

route went right by the cozy dog place for sitting at right now Springfield is known as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln here you've got to hit the Abraham Lincoln home you definitely got to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum that's the place where the Lincoln story comes full circle we have quite a number of festivals that take place during the summer but probably one of our biggest most well attended events because our route 66 mother Road car show it is one of the biggest car shows in America the real famous thing about it is the

Friday night articles and that's when the near 2000 cars lined up and they really cruise right up 6th Street the crowd will start yelling at the cars going by light him up light him up everyone smile delighted all right and I'll tell you that is something to see so after you've been around to the sites all day no doubt you need a bit of a break and really the best place to go is going to be our micro brewery here called Obed and Isaac's they've got the beer garden with yard games and a bocce ball

court another popular stop is the made rice sandwich shop and they actually have the very first drive-thru window in America and you can pull up there and get yourself a loose steamed burger and the other thing you need to try while you're here in Springfield you can get one it pretty much any restaurant in town and that is the horseshoe it was invented here than early 1930s it's a piece of Texas toast you choose a protein like a chicken breast or hamburger patty and then the whole plate is covered in a plate full of french

fries and then it is lovingly soaked in cheese sauce you've got a good cheese sauce you got yourself a good horseshoe Chicago's a huge city each neighborhood you go into you will have a completely different experience it's really easy to get around pretty much everywhere and in Chicago there are a ton of places around here you can check out our local performing artists they have everything for last over at justice cabaret slam poetry a Loretta and green oh wow live music pretty much on every corner the one thing I recommend is dancing and to one

of our clubs like subterranean check out all the hip-hop house make it simple work music in there so footwork is super fast moving of your feet we've made our own music to it one place you should check out Fine Arts Building it is a Wanderers dream it's ten floors of just artist studios dance studios visual artists beautiful soil in the area kinda throws me all the way up to the tenth floor and you just kind of wander and wind yourself back down and you stop them whatever interests you and then obviously you have to get

some food drinks while you're here starting with Portillo's hot dogs think of a Maxwell Street polish with that chocolate cake shaker side also cheesie's is one of our grilled cheese bars probably one of the more intense Kroll Jesus you'll have in your life our arts community it is very tight-knit and we get our inspiration from each other we like to work with each other and we like to show it to anyone who's willing to watch [Music]