This past weekend my friends and I went to the Lake County Fair. We go every year, but this year seemed to be the best one yet! It was the fair's 80th anniversary which was exciting. It seemed like everyone visiting and working the fair were all having a great time.

One thing that I always have to do each year at the fair is eat. There are so many different choices of what to eat; no matter what you want it is probably there. I always have to have a huge corn on the cob, that's my favorite. For desert I always know exactly where to go, the Dutch Annie booth. Who ever made up putting vanilla ice-cream between two fresh made waffles is a genius.

My favorite ride at the has to be the Ferris Wheel. It is nice to be able to sit and relax after walking around the fairgrounds. The best part of the ride is when you get to the top and get to see the entire fair. The fairgrounds is so big, you don't even realize it when you are walking. I would have to say the best time to go on the Ferris Wheel is when it is dark. Then you will be able to see all of the vendors' lights on and the fair really sparkles.

When I was little I remember that my favorite part of the fair was going to the demo derby. This year I actually had a friend in it; and it seemed like they had a lot more cars, actually 40 different cars signed up. The demo derby is full of non-stop action. It definitely made for an exciting day.

The was the fair's last year at the Route 45 location. It is sad, but after seeing the plans for the new location on East Peterson Road, I can not wait until the fair in 2009!

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I recently went to a show at the Ravinia and had such an amazing experience. I went with a few friends to see Feist. She is best known for her song “1 2 3 4” from the apple ipod nano commercials. I had never been there before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My friends have described it to me, but you really have to go there to get the full experience.

We took the train out of Waukegan and it dropped us off right at the gates at Ravinia Park. It was so convenient. It was nice not to have to deal with parking. There were a bunch of other people on the train with their picnic baskets and blankets also going to the show, so we had people to show us where to go. They were all definitely regular Ravinia goers.
Walking into the venue was an experience in itself. There were a bunch of people walking around with their coolers and picnic baskets finding the perfect place to sit. There were people there with candles lit and different food trays. Everybody was having fun and was all there to relax and to enjoy the music.

I was not as prepared as I thought I was. We did bring blankets, drinks, and bug spray, but didn’t think to bring any food. Luckily Ravinia has different restaurants right on site with different types of food. Everyone wanted something different, but that wasn’t a problem at all. One restaurant fed us all with different foods from hot dogs and burgers to really good Asian chicken nachos.

The actual show was amazing. The sound was great and everyone was having a good time. When it was time to leave I thought it was going to be really chaotic. I wasn’t planning on getting home until really late after seeing all of the people that were leaving. I was so wrong! The train was parked and waiting as the show was letting out. The Ravinia had a bunch of employees outside by the train directing people where to go. They had a train ready going north towards Wisconsin, and one going south towards Chicago. We got right on the train, no waiting and no pushing and within 10 minutes we were on our way home.

I had such a good time. I have never had a concert experience like the one I had at the Ravinia. I already bought my tickets for the show next weekend. I would love to go there at least 2 more times before the season is over.

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There always seem to be fun festivals and fairs going on during the summer. We look forward to going to these every year. On Saturday we went to one we had never heard of before called Scoopin Genesee. This festival is set-up in downtown Waukegan. They have live music and lots of booths and activities for the whole family.

The festival has free admission, some of the activities once you are in are free and for the others you can buy tickets. There were animated characters walking around and waving at the kids which was fun. We started out near the animals. They had pony rides and a petting zoo where you can feed the animals. There were sheep and goats who seemed awfully hungry because as soon as you enter, they swarm you for the food! We had a good time petting the animals and getting up close.

While we were with the animals Reese spotted a little train driving by which got her all excited. We decided to go find out about that next. The train is not on a track which was neat, so the driver takes you through a little bit of the festival which helped us determine what else we wanted to do while we were there. Right after we got off the train, we spotted a booth where free ice cream was being given out, even though we hadn’t had lunch yet we decided we couldn’t pass it up.

One of the parts that I enjoyed the most was the demonstration with the K-9 police dog and trainer. We heard all about how the dogs are chosen and what they are tested on in order to become a K-9. There are a lot of German Sheppard’s who do not pass the test because the tasks the dog have to do are very detailed. It is amazing how trained and smart these dogs are and how they signal to their partner when they’ve lost the scent of someone, etc. At the end of the presentation, the trainer put on a puffy suit and showed us how the dog would bite someone they were pursuing who was not cooperating. I definitely would not want to be pursued by or on this dogs bad side!

There was also an area set-up where the kids could dress in fireman uniforms and do an obstacle course including holding the fire hose and trying to knock down a target. That looked like a lot of fun.

We of course had to stop and use the moonwalk. I went in with Reese for fun and she loved it. We had to drag her out of there after 15 minutes of jumping. Before leaving the festival we wanted to check out the food booths. There were a lot of choices and everything looked good. We had hotdogs and then headed home. Scoopin’ Genesee also featured a a car show along with pre-1980 vehicles cruising up and down Genesee Street, and a performance by the band Starship that evening. We had a great afternoon at the festival and hope to attend next year too.

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After seeing an ad in the local newspaper, my wife and I decided to bypass the City’s July 4th event and take our children and two neighbors and their children in three vehicles to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois in Lake County to celebrate USA’s 232 years of independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain (July 4, 1776). This was the 1st time since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001 that the Naval Training Station has held a 4th of July celebration open to the general public. Because of this, the security at the Station was thorough but not too intrusive or time consuming; although, random searches of vehicles were done for guns and explosives and guard/explosive sniffing dogs were used. The children were fascinated by this process and had a myriad of questions about becoming a Sailor or Marine. Traffic control to the vast amount of parking available was the best we have ever experienced at any big event.
As we left our vehicle we were greeted by the sounds from the rock band that was playing in the bandstand in the central area where food & beverage and game booths were set-up, not to mention the Farris wheel, tilt-a-whirl and an assortment of rides for children of all ages had been set up. Although, it was crowed, crowd control was excellent. We found a spot and laid out a blankets and lawn chairs which served as our own control center to see the fireworks later in the evening.
Not only did the children enjoy the rides and food, there was the Navy Museum to see and many pieces on military equipment, including a rocket lunching vehicle and camouflaged Hummers. One Marine tent even had full military backpacks, which weighed 40 lbs for the kids to put on to see how hard it was to carry. Most kids just said “Wow.”
After the rock bands were done and before the fireworks, the military band gave over an hour salute to the members of our armed forces. Everyone looked so proud, a true coming together of everyone bound together by love and respect for the men and women who risk their lives in defense of our great Nation.
Everyone in our group made it back to our central command center to watch the fireworks, which were truly spectacular. Not to mention the very moving music through a multitude of loud speakers blaring out some great patriotic tunes like - Proud to be an American – Born in the USA.
All in all, we all had a great time and plan to do this again next year.

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Now that the weather is beautiful, and summer has officially started I wanted to do something relaxing outside. I read in the Pioneer Press yesterday about Gurnee’s Farmers Market. It is scheduled to be every Friday from 8 am to 1 pm. It takes place in Peterson Park right off of 132 (Grand Ave.) on Kilbourne Road in Gurnee, IL.
There are tons of places to park, and all of the spots are conveniently located. Right when you walk up to the park you can hear live music. There was a young girl playing the keyboard in the parks pavilion. It definitely added to the experience.
The farmers market is all set in a circle. It was so nice to be able to follow the sidewalk and to have all of the different venders along the trail. They had a ton of different things to look at. There were different venders selling everything from jewelry to dog toys. There were also a few different venders that had really cute garden décor. One couple was selling their own homemade bird baths. They were adorable.
Aside from all of the fun things to buy, they had so much to eat! I stopped at Wild Flour Bakery’s tent for a muffin. It was delicious! Then I wanted something refreshing so I went over to The Thirst Cup and had a smoothie. It was perfect for the hot summer day! They had tents with barbeque food, kettle corn, fresh fruit, and homemade honey. I can’t wait until next Friday, I’m going to go there to get some lunch!

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