Tucson Hills Winery is one of the best winery experiences I've had in a long time. Chase and Carter…read moremade the entire visit stand out from the moment we walked in. They were welcoming, knowledgeable about every wine on the menu, and made the tasting feel relaxed and fun. They took the time to walk us through the different flights, recommended great pairings, and genuinely cared about making sure everyone was enjoying themselves. You can tell they take pride in their work and in the winery. The atmosphere here is calm and comfortable, perfect for hanging out with friends or just unwinding. The wine itself was excellent, but the service from Chase and Carter is what truly made the experience memorable. Highly recommend stopping by Tucson Hills Winery, and definitely ask for Chase and Carter if you want a great visit.

Traveling again through Effingham, IL. We will stop again at the Winery for an overnight stay in…read moreour Coach. This late in the season, the fields have been plowed. Great wine selection and food menu is simple and tasty. It's a beautiful building with a very comfy decor inside. The outside patio is great since weather is cool but nice. Highly recommended.

This was my first visit and my g/f's second time here. The town is very charming and the people…read morethere are very friendly. The labyrinths are fantastic and worth a visit. The history of this small town is fascinating and the Owens did a magnificent job of creating and maintaining many original historic buildings. We had some fun by taking a walking tour of the haunted side of New Harmony with the folks at Haunted New Harmony ghost walk. https://jonimayhan.com/ This town is the perfect respite from the everyday hassles of the outside world. It's only an hour+ ride from Garden of the Gods in IL. I was surprised it wasn't more of an arts community hangout. This town has a Woodstock, NY vibe just under the surface.

New Harmony was founded by the Harmonists, a communal religious group, in 1814. In 1824, the…read moreHarmonists left and sold the town to Robert Owen, a utopian socialist who established a commune there, complete with communal living, public education, and the abolition of private property and money. From its lofty beginnings, things turned out pretty much as you'd expect a social experiment like New Harmony to turn out: residents quarreled, public goods were neglected, and the town was dissolved within a few short years. Well, sort of like the New Harmony of the early 19th century, the New Harmony of today promises a lot more than it actually delivers. Useful information on the town, and the much-vaunted "Atheneum" visitors' center, is hard to come by; and the Disneyesque city streets, though clean and pleasant, comes off as sterile and uninteresting. Though I went there on a pleasant day in early May, the streets were empty and many of the shops were closed -- even those with signs indicating that they 'should' be open. We eventually tried to satisfy our museum craving at the Working Men's Institute Library and Museum, finding it open despite a sign indicating that it 'should' be closed! Much like the rest of New Harmony, the Working Men's Institute sounded a lot better than it actually was. Full disclosure, we got to the Atheneum at 3pm, and thus missed the last tour which left at 2. But the fact that no tours were listed on the website meant that we didn't even know why we were going there or what the Atheneum was supposed to offer. The nice lady who greeted us told us that "the upstairs was closed", but it's only now that I learn that the upstairs offers a museum and a film -- two things that, like Socialism itself, sound nice in theory but are remarkably hard to enjoy in real life. The upshot is that New Harmony is better in theory than it is in practice. In that sense, they seem to get the historical accuracy just right.

What is a street festival? It's a lot of things but the primary thing is another excuse to give…read moreyour kids something to do so that the adults can drink out in the streets with friends. That's fine as long as they're enjoying themselves. It might not be so bad if this wasn't in the middle of summer with little to no shade. Attend this festival if you live close so that you can eat unhealthy food. If you live an hour or more away, it might be best to pass. My friends wanted to go here after having it suggested by someone they work with. So off we went. We were bored after 30 minutes of walking around and went home. I'm sure some of the music and dancing entertainment is okay but what I heard while we were there wasn't appealing. There are also a fair amount of local churches with booths. There are carnival rides for the children but that's going to cost you... $20 for a wristband to ride an unlimited amount of times. You can buy tickets too but I'm not sure of the price. Who wants individual tickets though? Just spend the $20 and ride the rides until that brat and pretzel comes back up. The only thing we tried while there were the krautballs. They were good but four or five bucks for four balls? They are big balls so you big ball lovers will love them but for that price, you should at least get 6 balls. The other thing we tried was the ice cream shop(Olaf). It's not exactly part of the festival but it's right in the middle of downtown where the festival is. It didn't seem that busy even though it is in the thick of everything. The ice cream we had was good(not great) and the place was a nice retreat from the instant sweat we encountered because of the direct sunlight. I can't believe this festival lasts for a weekend! It would likely be better if it wasn't in the dead of summer. If you've ever wanted to go to Strassenfest, don't break your back to get there.

Jasper has rolled out the red black and yellow carpet to host Stassenfest. German music, food,…read moredancing and beer are part of the fun in downtown Jasper. Plenty of seating on day 1 of the event. Carnival games and rides later in the evening. People very friendly and inviting. No admission fee. Food prices reasonable. Brat on a pretzel roll was $5. Cold water only a buck. Pretzel roll was fabulous fresh and homemade. Best I ever had. Deserts are to die for. Try the apple strudel. Filled with hand cut apples for only $4. $20 wristbands for unlimited carnival rides. Or tickets $1.50 each and rides require 2-4 tickets. The rides have seen better days. Event goes through Sunday.

I was so excited to hear that that Kingfish was performing at the annual blues festival in…read moreHenderson, KY in 2021!! I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to his mom, Princess Pride, in Clarksdale, MS 7 or 8 years ago when he was only 15. We'd never heard of him before, but we knew then we were witnessing something amazing. Since that time we've been to more than a few of his concerts, traveling quite a ways and he's worth it! Two years ago he played in Nashville with Buddy Guy. It was AWESOME!!!! The blues festival was fun, and if possible and you like the blues, don't miss it in 2022!

My favorite street festival with all the fried things! The West Side Nut Club is an institution in…read moreEvansville, Indiana and the best kept secret outside southern Indiana. Grew up going every year and hadn't been able to make it down for close to 10 years, but finally was able to have a homecoming and on their 100th anniversary too! Some favorites include Stromboli's from the TKE booth, fried green beans and mac & cheese from the Vanderburgh Humane Society booth, Italian beef, chicken & dumplings and fried cookie dough. This year I also found a Ski slushy. What's Ski, you ask? It's a lemon lime drink that has a cult following in the tri-state region and one of the only places it's sold. Next October, if you're looking for a fun food time, make the trip to Evansville, grab a munchie map and start walking down Franklin St.!

We've been coming to this fall festival each year able for around a decade. It's become a tradition…read moreto meet up with good friends and check it out, splitting foods and tasting a bit of everything on offer. There are a LOT of food options and while basically NONE of it is healthy, quite a lot of it is TASTY. Plan to bring $50 or so in cash and an appetite. If you're here at a peak busy time there will be a crowd and a line at the more popular booths (e.g. the "Donut Bank Burger"). I will say that in recent years the festival has cleaned up a lot--it used to be overflowing with garbage and just a general mess which in some ways was part of the appeal, it was not formal in any way and it's a people-watching extravaganza. But this recent year (2023) things were orderly, clean, and neat. Some of the booths seemed to be phoning it in a bit, we all had to say (e.g. that aforementioned "Donut Bank Burger" used to be a primary draw for us but this year they didn't even bother to melt the cheese on the burger) but there's still plenty of good food to be had and a lot of churches and charities to support (from across the spectrum, so if choosing to support or not support a specific cause is of interest to you, you can do that).

First time going to this festival, unfortunately we were only able to see not even a half haha From…read morewhat we were able to walk through we got good food that was different from the food offered at our state fair. I saw the cheese curds, but did not go for them. If I knew they were Wisconsin Cheese Curds I would have. Great food and great people. Yes, there was a lot of traffic as you got closer to the fair, but I think it was worth it. It looked crowded from all the cars that were parked, but didn't actually feel that crowded. Unfortunately we did see a vender drop a fry on the counter and put it back into a customers bowl. Unsanitary and not good. Also for the venders... I noticed that their "gem" necklaces were just hollow plastic. To me that's horrible to be selling something that obviously fake. For those 2 reasons I'm deducting stars. Otherwise I'd say yes DEFINITELY worth the trip and traffic haha

Lot of fun and food. Great photo ops. Go every year. May wanna pass on the buried beef…read moresandwiches. They weren't that good.

I have been there many many times during the summer months and never had a bad experience or a bad…read moremeal.

What a find! You would never know this place exists unless you're a local. It's hard to put into…read morewords how cool this place is! The deck is massive, tons of tables, and the view is top 10! Service was excellent and super friendly! Got the lobster salad BLT with the pub chips. The bacon- thick, crispy and amazing. Texas toast was perfect. The lobster salad was spot on. Definitely want to go back on a weekend and enjoy the deck!!

We stopped by around 7pm on a Saturday evening. There's a sign out by the road with the business…read morename, but you end up driving up someone's driveway to their house. You can see the lavendar fields from the road. There is an old 1800s cabin across the driveway, so we went up there and it said it was the gift shop, but it was dark and closed. After wondering around for a bit, a gentleman came out of the house and opened the gift shop for us. He spent the next hour telling us about their business, showing us the lavendar fields and letting us shop in the gift shop. He was so kind and friendly. He said they're an LLC and used to live on a 3.5 acre property. They moved here 2 years ago for more space to expand. He and his wife run it. They hold a lavendar festival and "You Pick" each summer. Otherwise, they are hoping to open it up for weddings and events. They grow culinary lavendar and also lavendar that is used to put into the products that they sell in the gift shop. The gentleman distilles the lavendar himself on the property. They sell a variety of products in the gift shop, buy also have their products in some of the stores in New Harmony and Evansville. They have dried lavendar, essential oil, shampoo, bath bubbles, lotion, bug spray, bath salts, soaps, and more. All reasonably priced too. I don't think they keep regular hours for the gift shop since it's right on their property. So either call the phone # to ask about a visit, or just show up before dark and knock on the house door. They're french lavendar smalls AMAZING! I recommend their lavendar essential oil and the roller ball (which is lavendar oil mixed with coconut oil). Appathey also have the 2nd oldest tree in the US on their property (it was dated).

Cute little Artisan and Craft Fair. First annual at Burdette Park. The setting is absolutely…read moreperfect and the fall colors make this a relaxing shopping experience. Excellent vendors set up and super friendly customer service!! The food vendors were really good and delicious! Hopefully this event will become a yearly event and offer even more each year! The live band did not set up until 2:00 which was a little disappointing. But overall I think this event was great and a fun shopping day!