My visit to the UK – but my heart remains in Illinois!

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A slight change today, this is more of a personal blog post about my latest adventures and leaving Illinois!

For the very first time last month I not only left the state of Illinois but also left my beloved USA to travel across the atlantic to the UK.

Now I have wanted to visit the UK for a long time now and my sister marrying an english guy seemed the perfect excuse to visit.  We had a fantastic flight with Virgin Airways which took around 9 hours and I must say that the time really did fly!  The cabin crew were very friendly and the entertainment on board was first class, I ended up watching film after film and got to catch up on a lot of movies that I missed recently including the new Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise.

We arrived at London Heathrow airport at 9am and we had decided to spend at least 2 days in London before heading down to Devon in the South West of the UK for my sisters wedding.

London was an amazing city, I loved all the history and it really is the most amazing city, we got to see quite a few of the major tourist attractions including the Tower of London, Big Ben and Harrods.  We also got to walk around some amazing parks like Hyde Park and Green Park.

We rented a car on the Friday morning to head down to Devon and started our drive through the british countryside which really was beautiful!  I took us around 6 hours to reach Devon and we were staying in a lovely little fishing village called Appledore which I fell in love with, it was like being on a film set.  We stayed in a lovely holiday cottage which we booked from this site and stayed in the village which we were renting over the weekend and we were right next to the local pub called ‘the beaver’!

My sisters wedding took place in a lovely hotel called Saunton Sands Hotel which overlooked the ocean and had some of the most amazing views (this is also a surfers paradise!).  All in all we had a fantastic time in Devon and the UK, the people were really friendly and I really have got the travel bug now, a lot of my friends travelled around Europe after college and I feel now is the time I want to see a bit more of this amazing planet we live on….the next step is Paris France I think!

Stay tuned….

Why Illinois Is So Popular

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There are certain things that make a random area on a map a very popular place to go. So what is it that makes Illinois so popular? There are many reasons why, but mainly it is because it offers everything that a person could possibly want. From the Mississippi River to glowing countryside or from large cities such as Chicago to the rich presidential history. The state is best known as the land of Abraham Lincoln, but even current President Barack Obama calls the state his home.

There are fantastic tours you can go on to visit the historic landmarks that still bear the fingerprints of Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest of all American presidents. Obama has started to write his own history, with the site where he announced his presidential candidacy being of particular popularity nowadays.

There is far more to do than go on a presidential tour. Many people come to Illinois to travel the Mississippi River (there is a fantastic programme on ITV about this see here), feeling as if they are on the Proud Mary, calmly rolling on the river. The history you can experience, particularly in the Mississippi River Country is truly fascinating.

Witness sites of ancient Native Americans who made the area their home and combine this with modern technologies, such as sipping wine in one of the working vineyards. For a true and untouched piece of American history, this is where you need to go. These are but two of the examples but there is no way you will spend as much as one bored minute.

If your thinking about visiting Illinois there are a number of businesses set up to help with this…check out

Illinois Tourist Office

All About The State Of Illinois

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As the 21st state to be added to the Union, Illinois definitely has a lot to offer and today it is the 5th most populated state in the United States. If you have never been here then there is a great deal to learn and we are going to take a look at that. This article is designed to give you some general facts and get you familiar with the state. It is certainly one filled with lots of fascinating people, places and things to do. Let’s get started taking a closer look right now.

First a Little Bit About the State’s Past

The name of the state itself comes from the French pronunciation of the tribes who lived in this area prior to the arrival of European settlers. Since those tribes did not have written language, the French missionaries created the term Illinois to describe them and the word essentially means ‘people’ for all intents and purposes.

It is believed that there have been humans in this state for about 7,000 years which is much longer than earlier settlers had first believed. Archaeology experts do say that before settlers arrived, this was an area of almost constant warfare among tribes, however. Thankfully, the state is far less violent today and it is interesting to note that during the American Revolution, many tribal peoples fought in support of the Americans as they battled the British.

It would not be 1818 until this state became a member of the USA. During the Civil War, this was one of the Union strongholds and it is, in fact, the birth place of Ulysses S. Grant, the great Union general and former president Abraham Lincoln. Many notorious mobsters are also from this state, being located primarily in the Chicago area so there is a colorful past, as well. Current President Barack Obama was also born here.

A Quick Look at State Geography and the Climate of the Area

The Midwest is the overall region that the state is considered to belong to and this means that cold winters can be expected along with relatively warm and humid summers. Deciduous forests and some open plains make up most of the countryside and many rivers exist in this state, as well, including the Mississippi that forms its western border, the longest river in the US. The Great Lakes are to the north and serve as a border to Canada and Michigan. States around Illinois are Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. There are very few points of high elevation and no real mountains to speak of, but some of this state’s territory does lie within what is called the American Bottom.

Illinois Atlas

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IllinoisAtlas.com is an ongoing project of the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University. The Center has been creating computer generated maps since the early 1990′s. Rather than maintaining these maps in digital archives alone, we felt that it would be more useful to us and to the public if we made these maps available on the Internet. We believe that the maps will be particularly valuable to educators and the business community while, at the same time, allowing us a means of communicating our services to potential clients.

The maps available on this site may be used free of charge. Our only requirements are that CGS be cited as the map’s source and that it not be modified in any way. We would also appreciate being notified if our maps are used in a publication. In addition to the maps posted here, we have an extensive collection of stock maps and can do custom mapping projects. The cost for stock and custom maps vary based on size and complexity.

Aside from a counter, we have no way to gauge our usefulness to the public. Feel free to give us feedback on our site by using the Contact Us link visible on the left-hand navigation bar near the top of every page.