I love Pennsylvania Dutch country --- which really should be "Deutch" (sp?) since the Amish & Mennonites were from Germany, not Holland ----- fun fact to know and tell! lol There are a lot of Amish in Indiana, too, and it's less touristy than Scranton, PA area (but much smaller)...

And so let us consider Chicago: We shall take credit for the next president of the U.S. (even though Obama didn't grow up here), but we will hang our heads in shame about our governor Blagojevich... Well I guess he's just the last in a long, long line of corrupt Illinois politicians!

But seriously there are lots of cool things to do in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln's house in Springfield, the Art Institute in Chicago, lots of playhouses, the lakefront, neat old remains of canal systems (people pulled horses who pulled boats), fabulous blues music... I'll have to think more...

I'm from near Boston, MA originally, so I could ramble on for hours about all the excellent historic sites there (and, of course, the chowdah)!