Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL

318 Spring Creek Rd
Rockford, IL 61107
(815) 229-9390
website

May 1st - October 31st the hours are:
Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am-5pm

Admission: $8/adult; $7/senior (62+); $6/child; free/children under 5; free/Garden Members

When you enter, head the desk to your right to pay and get your map. I highly recommend picking up some fish food while you're there (especially if you have kids with you). Trust me, you'll use it! In fact, think about getting a couple bags.
I should also point out that the restaurant is also located in this building. It just opened and I have not tried it, but know that it's there. I believe they serve breakfast and lunch.

Follow the map around to different areas. The gardens are so beautiful. There are little hidden areas with chairs located all around. We spent only an hour or two here because the forecast showed rain. However, if you are one that enjoys peace and quiet or a little meditation time, you could spend all day here.

Please note, while this place is mostly wheelchair and stroller friendly, I would only suggest this if you absolutely need to. I wasn't sure how entertained my son would be so I brought the stroller in case he got bored. For the most part, he really liked it because there was a waterfall and all the fish. However, since I brought the stroller, for the parts that aren't so stroller friendly, like the back half of the pond strolling garden, I ended up carrying the stroller which was not particularly enjoyable.

Overall, this is a great place to visit if you're in the area! It's absolutely beautiful! Here are some photos from our visit:

State Farm Park in Bloomington, IL

To view an image larger, click on it.

The one and only downside to this entire place is that you have to be an employee (or an employee's spouse or child) in order to gain entrance to this park.

State Farm Park Guest Policy states:
Sunday-Thursday, before 4pm: Two guests per family or single employee (not per cardholder).
Friday-Saturday & Holidays, before 4pm: No guests are allowed (single employees may bring one guest at all times).
Daily, after 4pm: Two guests or one family unit are allowed per family or single employee (not per cardholder).

2015:

Pool Hours:

June 8 – August 16:
Tot Pool: Daily 10am-8pm

Adult Pool: Weekdays:
Lap Swim – 6am-9am
Day Camp – 9am-Noon
Open Swim – Noon-8pm
Weekends:
Lap Swim – 8am-10am
Open Swim – 10am-8pm

August 17 – September 7:
Tot Pool: Weekdays:
4pm-8pm
Weekends:
10am-8pm

Adult Pool: Weekdays:
Lap Swim – 6am-9am
Open Swim – 4pm-8pm
Weekends:
Lap Swim – 8am-10am
Open Swim – 10am-8pm

Holiday Hours: Labor Day, September 7
Lap Swim – 8am-10am
Open Swim – 10am-8pm

Miniature Golf Course:
Spring and Fall Hours: April 4-May 22 & August 17-September 27
Weekdays: 4pm-9pm
Weekends: 10am-9pm
Summer Hours: May 23-August 16
Daily: 10am-9pm (Open until 10pm on Friday and Saturday)

Disclaimer: All of the following information and opinions do not come from State Farm. This is all based on personal experience.

If you are an out-of-town State Farm Employee, you can still visit here! You need to contact headquarters before traveling to Bloomington and they can send you guest passes for you and your family during the time that you are visiting. My sister, a State Farm agent, did this last year.

As you pull in, you will be greeted by a person at the gate. There, they will check your passes and then you will be allowed to enter. Here, you can see directions to the pool:

Here is a map of State Farm Park:

You can clearly see the pool and all the different courts. I marked where the mini golf course is. Off to the right, there is a frisbee golf course. The area in the middle is a large open grassy area where they have soccer goals during the summer. As you drive around, you will find 3 different playground areas plus many covered picnic areas. There are fountains in the ponds and during certain times, you can even fish in them.

Here is the pool:

I have labeled all the main areas of the pool. In the middle of the lazy river near the splash pad (that has little spouts of water that come up about 2 feet all over – perfect for the smaller children under 1, although many older children like to play here also), there is a jetted pool with an infinity drop area and a jetted pool with waterfalls.

There are two entrances to the lazy river. The pool with the 2 medium slides is about 2.5 feet that grows to 3 feet and then 3.5 feet. Flotation devices of all kinds are allowed in this section of the pool.

The lap pool area is just used as a deeper pool during open swim times. Life vests and arm floaties are allowed, but no tube-like devices are allowed in this section of the pool. The tot pool has a slide at the top of a treehouse-type structure. There are lots of different ways for kids to spray themselves and others and children under 4-feet will love this area. The splash pad has much larger spraying items than the one in the middle of the lazy river.

There are quite a few lifeguards (about 10-15) that look out for all the kids and adults swimming, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't still watch your children. Sometimes, they seem a little strict and some of them will tell you something is against the rules that you've been doing for a year prior, but they're mostly high school students, so you just move on.
The main building that you go in to get to the pool is where you will find the locker rooms (to the left after you enter) and the concessions (to the right). The concessions area is amazing. There is a TV that is normally playing kids movies. If it's not, you can always ask and the employees will turn on a movie. There is a nice indoor seating area and a large outdoor seating area that looks out over the pond. There is a fireplace that separates the two areas. The outdoor area is covered, but there are still seats in the sun. You can feed the fish off the outdoor deck area. As for the food, I personally think it's pretty good. They have chips, nachos, burgers, hot dogs, fries, chili cheese fries, fruit cups, veggies, funnel cakes, etc. And the prices are fairly decent. Sodas are $1 (no matter what size you get). This is a great place to stop. I believe this is also where you would go to buy other things too (like a towel, swim diaper, goggles, and a couple other items).

The mini golf area is very cool, too. You sign in at the entrance to the course (employee name, your name, and number of people playing). This is also where you get your club, ball, and score card and pencil if you choose to keep score. There is a putting practice area if you have to wait behind another group to go to the first hole. After the first 6 holes, you can choose to go straight and just do 9 holes or go to the left and do the full 18. The 9 hole course is handicap accessible. We always have a great time playing here.

Legoland Discovery Center: Chicago (located in Schaumburg, IL)

While this is not technically located in Chicago, it is pretty darn close.

First, I would suggest buying your tickets in advance online. They are cheaper this way. You could easily save $10 or more for a family of 4.

As soon as you arrive, you will want to get your picture taken in front of the green screen. There are 4 different choices for backgrounds that they can change out at the counter if you decide to buy the picture (Lego Movie, Lego Friends, Falling Legos, and something else that I just can't remember). We had a large group with us (9 people) so this made for a great souvenir!

After you gain admission, you walk through Miniland Chicago. It's interesting if you've never seen any of the minilands before, but we had a very excited 5-year-old on our hands that wasn't very interested in this so we pretty much bipassed it. Then, you go through the dark, Jungle Expedition. It's a great place for some pictures.

Then, you will come to a room where kids can build things and there are some large Lego things to take pictures with.

Next is Kingdom Quest Laser Ride. It's very fun! And I had a blast completely kicking my family's butts! Each cart holds 4 people and each person is armed with a shooter. You then shoot at different objects like bats and other random things trying to up your score. A picture is taken toward the end.

The only other things downstairs are the picture desk and the Lego shop after you exit. So your next thing to do is take the stairs or elevator up to the second floor. The first thing we did was go to the Lego 4D Cinema. They show the same 3 'movies' that are shown in all the other Legoland places. There is a countdown clock by the theater telling you how long until the next show. The best part about waiting in line is that they have a large Lego board on the wall to build on.

Then we headed over to the Factory Tour. It was horrible. The guy that did the tour was horribly annoying. My belief is that this tour would not be so terrible if the group that was allowed in at one time was much smaller. There were about 20 children and just as many (if not more) adults all crammed into this one little room. The children crowded everything and my son didn't get to press any of the buttons or really see anything. My suggestion is to only take the tour if you go on a day where there aren't many people there.

We had signed up for the Lego Master Builder Academy, but never ended up attending. From everything I had read, you build something (a spaceship this time) and that's it. You don't get to bring it home. However, you can buy it. We saw it for sale at the snack counter so we bought it and built it at home. I think it was only $5.

While we were there, there was a flying attraction called Merlin's Apprentice Ride. Guests must be 36 inches to ride with an adult and 48 inches to ride alone. However, I have recently learned that a new attraction is coming! It is called Pirate Adventure Island. It is coming June 27th, 2015. It is a distinct possibility that Pirate Adventure Island will be replacing Merlin's Apprentice Ride.

Then we got a snack (a large cookie and a drink). There were also a couple Lego things to take pictures with.

We also did the Lego Racers: Build & Test. It was pretty cool. You just look for some wheels in the crash bin and then walk over to the Lego building area. Once you've made your car, you can race it on the track. However, I noticed that a lot of kids cars crashed instead of raced. Oh well, it was still fun.

There are a couple more places that we didn't visit: Lego City Construction Site and Duplo Village. However, my sister did walk over to the Duplo section with my 1 ½-year-old nephew and she said that there were some large kids in the section that nearly knocked over their son so they left. A couple minutes later, a worker asked how their day was going and they mentioned the incident and the employee apologized and said they would take care of it right away. The Duplo section is for children 5 & under. This is for the safety of the younger children so please don't take your older kids there!

They also have Birthday rooms. There were at least 2 birthdays going on while we were there. This would be fun.

I bought 2 pictures (the group picture and the one from the ride). I believe it was $18 for both of them. You receive both in print form and a digital copy (a code for download later).

Travel: Making dinner in a hotel with tin foil and an iron

Are you staying in a hotel with only a mini fridge and a microwave for longer than just a couple nights? Are you trying to save some money and not eat out every night? Do microwave dinners make you cringe?

Well, that was our thought on our vacation last fall. We did have some microwave meals and sandwiches and chips and clearly we ate out a couple times. Anyway, we did our best to come up with an idea. We tried to be creative, and decided to take advantage of the iron that was in our room. We ended up making 2 different meals this way (grilled cheese and quesedillas).

First, you need to buy your supplies. You will definitely need some tin foil no matter what you're cooking. For grilled cheese, you will need sliced cheese, some butter (which we swiped from the free breakfast at our hotel), and bread. For quesedillas, you will need mexican shredded cheese, chicken (we got the carving board packaged lunch meat), and some salsa (for dipping of course).

Grilled Cheese:
Tear off a large piece of tin foil, butter your bread, and put the cheese between it. Place it off to one side of the foil, then fold the foil over the sandwich. Put the iron on top of the foil. Peak in the foil and make sure your sandwich is done on this side and when it is, flip the entire foil/sandwich over and cook the other side. It's quite easy.

Quesedillas:
This is made the same way. Tear off a piece of tin foil a little larger than your tortilla. Put your cheese and chicken (or whatever you decide to put in it) on one side of your tortilla. Fold the tortilla in half and cover with the foil. Put the iron on top of the foil. Peak inside and when the quesedilla is done on this side, flip it over and cook the other side.