Illinois: Not just Chicago- Part 1

When someone asks "where are you from" and I tell them "Illinois", many times they will ask some form of "oh, how far is that from Chicago?" As someone growing up in downstate Illinois, it is frustrating to see that our state tourism only lists Chicago when appealing to tourists--like there is nothing else worth doing in the whole entire rest of the state. Yes, Chicago is worth seeing; and yes, most of the rest of the state consists of farmland, but Illinois has so much more to offer! We have weird museums, road-side attractions (that are actually WORTH seeing), zip-lines, and some BEAUTIFUL State Parks where you can picnic, horseback ride, kayak, hike, camp, and even explore a few caves. Since we can't travel out of our own country this year, we have decided to make the most of our area and explore everything that we can!

So my husband and I have decided to find small towns to visit and obscure things to do, right here in our own backyard. Having been working hard for over a month now on something big (I can't share quite yet what it is...soon though!!!) we were ready to take a day and go do something just the two of us.

So today, we used this GORGEOUS, sunny Saturday to visit Grafton, IL. Seated on top of the Mississippi River, we opted to take the Great River Road to this small, historic town.

I have had heard people mention this trip to us a couple of times now in the year that we have been living over here, but we had never really had the time or the curiosity to do it. The Mississippi River on one side of you, and the rocky cliffs on the other make this 20 minute drive a very enjoyable one as you wind around the banks of the Mississippi River. 

We drove through downtown Grafton, passing a few little restaurants, and antiques store, and an ice cream parlor. Just outside of the main drag, at the top of a huge hill is Aerie's Winery. At the bottom of the hill is Grafton Winery, and across the street is another little winery, but we chose Aerie's because it was at the top of the hill and I knew that they had an outdoor observation deck. Aerie's also has cabins available for rental as well as a zip-line tour, which we decided against doing today, although my husband and I did zip-lines in the Dominican Republic and he loved them. 

Now, I don't recommend eating here if you are super hungry, as their portions are "lunch sized", but I had the Spinach Salad (pictured below) and it was delicious! It was spinach leaves, candied walnuts, goat cheese, raspberry vinaigrette, and dried dates. 

You can't beat the view! And we got there are just the right time because they had a table open right in the front row of the deck, and as we were leaving we walked back through the winery to a large group of people waiting to be seated outside. 

I mean, how could you not love this view of the Mississippi River?

We sat enjoying the view for about an hour and decided that we should probably go and let someone else enjoy the table we were at, as well as my skin is fair and I didn't want to get a sunburn. 

So we headed back down the winding road back to the river's edge and took the same route back home. The view was even better coming back.

I would love to go back to Grafton and walk though downtown. At only a 40 minute drive from our current apartment, we could certainly take a day to appreciate this small little town. (If nothing else, we can go try out the other wineries!) We had other plans to stop in Alton, IL on our way back, but what we had planned was closed today :( but that's alright! Gives us an excuse to go back that way. 

I have already been researching our next area of Illinois to visit, but if you have any suggestions please let me know! I love hearing from others on places they enjoyed visiting! (again, please nothing in Chicago, as this is the point of us exploring the REST OF our state in greater depth) But I am excited for the weekend trips that are in our near future. Luckily for me, my husband is amazing and doesn't mind driving or doing random things :)