August 3rd, 2008 11:01pm
Cathryn Vaulman
We began our “Go Girls” blog in March of 2006. And now almost two and a half years later it seems crazy that we are still finding things to write about! Unfortunately, it has come to that point where we both are going off to college in different cities next year so we will no longer be able to continue this. So in recognition of our abundant searching through the area we have come up with a list of “Go Girl favorites.”
Favorite Place to Go Get Coffee: Zambuca
Zambuca satisfies us in many ways. We head there for an occasional lunch of their delicious flatbread pizzas, sometimes dinner accompanied by their live music, and most importantly, at night when we want to hang out. There aren’t a lot of places to hang out that are open past 10 or 11, so Zambuca is a really convenient place to go for some coffee later at night. On the weekends they’re open up past midnight, which is a rarity for coffee shops in the area!
Favorite Restaurant: Brio
While we eat dinner here pretty frequently, dessert is still our favorite part of Brio. We cannot beat their chambord crepes with fresh raspberries and a pot of their assorted black teas. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get Brio to mail an occasional box of them to our colleges because we won’t be able to live without them!
Favorite outdoor activity: Anderson Gardens
We love walking through these beautiful gardens in the perfect spring and summer weather. This garden is one of Rockford’s gems and unfortunately it is really easy for us residents to overlook. Make sure to stop by if you haven’t yet this season. It’s a perfect place to go on a light walk, clear your mind, or take in the amazing surroundings.
Favorite “ ‘90s hang out that is still really fun”: Skateland!
Okay, we know our category is a little bit of a stretch, but we had to find some way to include Skateland in our favorites. When we came back after years of abandonment we had such a great time we couldn’t believe we hadn’t been there sooner. We still highly recommend going here if you get the chance! But go on a Saturday, when they play the good music - 90’s music!
Favorite Place of Entertainment: Starlite Theater
We’ve seen shows here every summer for a while now, and they just keep getting better. This season, we saw Thoroughly Modern Millie and Little Shop of Horrors, which were both really enjoyable. The entertainment is awesome, and so is the setting of the beautiful outdoor theater.
Favorite Store: Crimson Ridge
This has been one of our favorite accessory stores for a while now. Their one-of-a-kind jewelry room is always a good bet for the perfect gift (to a friend or yourself.) Purses, bath products, decorative pieces, jewelry, plants…. They couldn’t have a better selection. And it keeps expanding too so make sure to keep stopping in so you don’t miss the new items!
This is our little list of some of our favorites in Rockford. But there are so many more places that we are so grateful we got the chance to explore! We are so thankful not only to the Rockford Register Star for giving us the opportunity to do this, but also to our readers for their suggestions, loyalty, and for maybe taking a recommendation or two from us. It was really awesome to have people come up and tell us they actually tried out a place we recommended. So if we have learned anything from our blog over the past two and a half years it’s that there really are lots of things to do in Rockford if you just take the time to explore!
July 28th, 2008 07:29am
Emily Johnson
Batman broke a record. Batman this. Batman that.
That is a short summary of the entertainment news for the past month. After reading all of these headlines for weeks, we, like most of America, jumped on the Dark Knight bandwagon and purchased tickets to see the movie. In honor of Dark Knight being the first major motion picture to be shot in half IMAX cameras, we decided to see it on IMAX in Batavia.
This movie is the second installment to The Batman Begins, which came out in 2005 with current Batman Christian Bale. That movie also was very impressive, making it no surprise The Dark Knight was such a success among fans. The Dark Knight picks up where Batman Begins left off, with Batman a civilian vigilante out to clean the crime infested streets of Gotham City using fun gadgets, frightening fighting skill, and the coolest car ever made.
The movie is dominated by dark themes like death and corruption. Although it may seem depressingly hopeless and a little scary at times, the movie was so well-done we left the theater a little in shock. The performances of all the actors are unbelievable. From the smaller roles of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, to the main roles of Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Aaron Eckhart were perfectly executed. We thought Gyllenhaal was a great replacement for Katie Holmes. She was the intelligent lawyer she needed to be, and continued the awkwardness between her Bruce Wayne/Batman very well. Eckhart was a passionate do-gooder as DA Harvey Dent, but took up the evil role of Two Face just as enthusiastically.
The role that stood out more than the others to us, along with pretty much everyone else who has seen the movie, was Heath Ledger’s role of The Joker. It’s really sad to say Heath Ledger was not even able to see his own opening, because he truly deserved it. We’ve heard rumor talk about an Oscar-worthy performance, which we completely agree with.
We recommend any ‘Batman’ fan to go see the new film in IMAX - it really added to the experience and is worth the extra drive. Just make sure to leave plenty of time so you’re not stuck in the second row like we were!
July 20th, 2008 09:57pm
Emily Johnson
The other week, we decided to go to
Beloit to try out a restaurant that we had heard many good reviews about: Café Belwah.
We had made reservations in advance for our dinner - thank goodness, because the place was packed! The restaurant really was beautifully decorated and had a wonderful view. It overlooked the quickly-flowing
Rock River that had obviously enjoyed the extra rain we have been getting lately. We only wish we would’ve asked to be seated on the patio overlooking this wonderful scene!
For our dinner we decided to try a few different options. We began our meal with two appetizers: Brushetta and Artichoke Dip. Both of our selections were extremely tasty; we just felt bad that we weren’t able to finish them because the portions were so generous. Unfortunately, our entrees weren’t as appealing. We decided on the Pasta Genovese and Tornado Azul. The Tornado Azul is a mixed entrée of petit filet and crab cakes with sides of garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. The garlic mashed potatoes were good, but it was odd that the entire dish was covered with thin onion straws. We were a little disappointed that our steak, which we asked for as medium well, came out as medium rare. And even after asking the chef to fix it, it was only barely medium. The crab cake it came with was by no means exceptional. Both entrees came with a choice of soup or salad; we highly recommend the creamy chicken soup.
Overall, our experience at Café Belwah was satisfactory: our appetizers were excellent, but our entrees were just mediocre.
July 13th, 2008 11:34pm
Cathryn Vaulman
Gerlinde’s Water Street Café
Located across from the Rockford Register Star news tower, Gerlinde’s Water Street Café seemed to us like a little piece of France in Rockford. The quaint patio overlooking a forested view of the River and the international flair of the music have quickly made this one of our favorite lunch spots.
We’ve noticed this café numerous times while parking at the convenient municipal parking lot above at night; however, it’s always been at night when Water Street is not open. They are open for breakfast and lunch, though you can make reservations to eat there for Saturday dinner. On Saturdays, head chef Gerlinde cooks up French delicacies for those willing to pay about $60 per person.
We mostly enjoyed their chicken salad sandwich with a fruit cup on the side. The fresh chicken salad features a perfect blend of white meat chicken salad and grapes, which gives the sandwich a little flair. The fruit salad is similarly fresh.
We also tried the Dutch Potato soup. We are always fans of soup in any flavor, but this Dutch Potato was exceptional. It was much thinner than potato soups often found in the Midwest, but it was equally filling. Another customer favorite is the black bean soup.
As for the café portion of the name, we tried their chai tea and were impressed. To go along with your drink of choice, we suggest you try one of their life-changing muffins. Is “life-changing” a little dramatic? Maybe. But they are all seriously good.
Everything is pretty reasonably priced for the excellent quality and friendly service. Most items are under $10. The next time we go, we’ll be sure to secure a nice table on their patio and try one of the seasonal salads on the list on the board inside.
[Water Street Café is located at 115 N. Water Street. Call them at 815.962.3310.]
July 6th, 2008 09:47pm
Cathryn Vaulman
We saw the John Mayer and Colbie Caillat concert last Wednesday at Summerfest, as we previewed a few weeks ago. We arrived in Milwaukee about 45 minutes before the concert was going to start. Even though that would have been plenty of time to park the car and walk to the venue, we decided to go to dinner first. After grabbing some pizza we parked about three hours away. Well, not three hours, but it was $5 parking if that gives you a clue about how far away we were. We made the trek to the gates and realized we had to walk across the entire grounds to get to Marcus Amphitheater. Thankfully, the rain wasn’’t bad so we didn’t mind.
Due to our eating and walking, we unfortunately missed the opening act of Brett Dennen. Though we missed him, we sampled him on Youtube before the concert and he’s actually quite good. We wish we could’ve seen him live! Colbie Caillat was just starting when we arrived, and she was wonderful. Our favorite song that she performed was “Feelings Show.”
John Mayer put on a really great show. We knew he was a talented guitarist, but we really didn’t understand just how good he is! Our favorite songs from this concert were “Vultures” and “Gravity”. If you get a chance to buy one of John Mayer’s CDs, we highly recommend a live version. He’s a very impressive performer.
The cherry on the top of a fantastic concert was when we found a baklava stand on our way out of Summerfest. Our favorite pastry dessert completed what was a truly perfect night!
June 30th, 2008 02:00am
Emily Johnson
Rock Valley College Starlight Theatre offers a superb selection of plays this summer season: Jonah, the Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. We recently went to go see our two favorites, Little Shop of Horrors and Thoroughly Modern Millie, and were quite pleased with their productions!
Little Shop of Horrors stayed true to the funny, endearing play it always is. For those of you unfamiliar with the play, Seymour is a florist in an unsuccessful flower shop in a bad area of town. He grows an unusual, unique plant which he names Audrey II after his love interest and co-worker, Audrey. After countless efforts of trying to make the plant grow he finally finds the secret feeding ingredient: blood. Media attention increases the plant’s popularit throughout the country, and Seymour feels increasing pressure to get the Audrey II to continue to grow. After some incidences (we don’t want to give to much away to those of you who haven’t seen it), the play ends on a slightly depressing tone.
Our favorite roles included a great voice of the Audrey II (the blood-thirsty plant) and Orin (Audrey’s dentist boyfriend). The music was upbeat and kept our interest throughout the entire play. Overall, we really enjoyed this play and would recommend it.
Thoroughly Modern Millie is our new favorite production. Ourhigh school, Boylan Catholic, put on the show this spring. We had our first experience of this play at that time and we absolutely loved the script. Millie arrives to New York City in hopes of finding a job so that she can marry her boss to be a “modern.” Upon shortly arriving she lands a seemingly ideal job and makes quick friends with the girls who she lives with at the Hotel Priscilla. Little does she (and the rest of her hotel-mates) know that that the owner of the hotel is a part of the white slavery trade and is sending the orphan girls to China. Through her quest to find a suitable husband, she ends up finding true love and saving her friend along the way.
Starlight did a great job in casting to stay true to the characters; the voices were all perfect for their parts. The musical was fun and entertaining throughout. We especially enjoyed the songs “I’m Falling in Love with Someone” and “Muqin”. This play is one of our Starlight favorites and we are excited to see it again in its next showing later in July.
For more information of show dates and ordering tickets look at their website or call them at (815) 921-2160.
June 15th, 2008 10:11pm
Cathryn Vaulman
When we think of Hollywood’s most popular actors, we tend to think of men like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, and the likes. But then the MTV video awards opened our eyes to who we have been overlooking: the classic comedy king – Adam Sandler. According to Internet Movie Database (which never lies,) Sandler has taken on 36 acting adventures, dating all the way back to the late eighties with the Cosby Show.
Billy Madison was one of his first big hit movies. Sandler stars as an aging, well, loser with no skills, job, or usable education. He is banking on inheriting daddy’s fortune, but cannot do so until he re-completes kindergarten through 12th grade, this time learning all that he should have the first time around. There are so many comical moments in this movie, including his habit of singing odd songs. For some reason, we have his “Victory” song on our itunes… it’s pretty humorous!
After a stint on SNL, Sandler starred in another of his great films: Happy Gilmore. This movie is about a hockey player with an anger problem who tries to save his grandma by winning golf tournaments, and it is absolutely hilarious. One of the best-known scenes features Sandler and “Price Is Right” host, Bob Barker, fighting.Sandler plays another under-achiever role in Big Daddy.
Here, he poses as his friend and accepts custody of a child he is in no way prepared to care for. We like all of the horrible things he teaches the child to do, such as using walls as rest rooms and tripping roller bladers with sticks.
His career has been pretty stable – he is constantly coming out with new films. Many of our other favorites include The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, Mr. Deeds, Little Nicky (pretty stupid, but still funny), Eight Crazy Nights, Fifty First Dates (by the way, what is his obsession with falling in love with Drew Barrymore?), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
A few weeks ago, Sandler’s latest hit, You Don’t Mess with The Zohan hit theaters. He stars as Zohan, an unbeatable Mossad agent who moves to New York to cut hair. This is one of his most recent best, in our opinion. We were laughing the entire movie! If you have yet to see this film, go see it! And remember Sandler’s many hits in your next Blockbuster trip.
June 9th, 2008 07:16am
Cathryn Vaulman
This weekend we decided to adventure to a place we hadn’t been since about the fourth grade- Skateland. Before you laugh and think we’re crazy, you should give it a try because it was actually a lot of fun!
We went on Friday night for the 8:30-11 pm open skate for only $6 including rentals. We were actually quite surprised with how busy it was. The crowd ranged from younger children to full-grown adults.
They played a variety of modern, fun music- a lot of dance numbers to keep the mood going. Our favorite was when they turned all the lights down except for a few black lights and a disco ball that hung from the center of the rink.
Our only complaint was the lack of the ‘90s music which we had remembered skating to nearly a decade ago. We had requested to hear some “classic” songs from our childhood- remember the 16-year-old Britney Spears phenomenon or the NSYNC and Backstreet Boys craze? Although it was not played while we were skating, we got our fix by listening to our favorites on the drive home.
Finishing off the night with some milkshakes at Steak ‘n Shake, our fun night was less than $10. This isn’t bad considering nowadays it’s nearly $10 just to see a movie alone. We definitely enjoyed our time at Skateland and recommend it for anyone in search of an entertaining night with a group of friends.
[Skateland is located at 4843 Stenstrom Road in Rockford. You can find more information and complete skating schedule at www.skatelandrocks.com.]
June 2nd, 2008 08:31am
Cathryn Vaulman
Last week, there was a big to-do about the Sex and the City movie, which premiered Friday. We were more than a little excited with this, considering we have been fans of the show for quite some time. So, we bought tickets for the midnight show (over a week in advance – yeah, it’s that big of a deal) and planned a little pre-movie get-together for a few friends and us.Our little party was Sex and the City themed, with fake cosmopolitans as the main drink of the night. Our mocktails were composed of cranberry juice, mango nectar, grenadine, and a splash of lemon-flavored carbonated water. There really isn’t a food with a main role in the show like our cosmos, so we chose to serve brie baked in a pastry puff and spinach and artichoke purses simply out of liking these particular foods.We arrived at the movie about an hour early, which was completely unnecessary. It was not as crowded as other midnight premieres have been, such as Star Wars and Harry Potter. We were apparently wrong in equating this premiere with those movies; it was much more low-scale, at least in the Rockford area. Also, there’s no wizard or Jedi-equivalent costumes to wear to the Sex and the City movie. Anyone that dressed up was wearing a fashionable dress or nice outfit with high, high heels like the famous quartet would. The movie, in our opinion, was excellent! If you’re not a fan of the show, you obviously won’t like it, but we thought it kept within the lines of the show very well. It seemed to be a really long episode. The plot begins with the marriage of Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big – you finally find out his real name – and after an expected plot twist, the girls’ drama continues to get bigger and more intense! We enjoyed our little pre-party and the movie, and recommend that you see the movie if you are a fan and haven’t done so yet. It is definitely worth your time and money.
May 22nd, 2008 11:52pm
Emily Johnson
With this beautiful weather that we are finally getting, it is great to enjoy the outdoors. For this reason we made a much anticipated trip to Rock Cut State Park for an enjoyable picnic and outdoor activities.
Rock Cut is a great location with many different activities available. There are two lakes: Pierce and Olson. These two lakes allow for boating, fishing, ice skating (when it’s cold), and swimming. On Pierce Lake, you can rent boats (canoes, kayaks, and paddle boats) or buy bait at the Paddle & Trail Bait Shop. The fishing is also fairly good; just remember your fishing licenses!
On our most recent trip, we decided to have a picnic, play outdoor games, and go on a miniature hike. We parked and enjoyed the picnic area of Red Oak. Bringing our own food and eating on blankets, our afternoon was straight-up picnic style. FYI: the shelter had an outlet, so feel free to bring an electronic device to enjoy music - as long as it’s not too loud and disruptive! We took on an adventure through the forest and around the lake shore using a conveniently located path we found at Red Oak. We are definitely looking forward to go back another day this summer and for a full-day hike.
Our experience at Rock Cut was a great time; the weather was unbeatable! We enjoyed our time outdoors so much, we’re looking for more activities in the area. Let us know if you have other outdoorsy activities, and be sure to check out Rock Cut this summer for a memorable experience!
[Rock Cut is located at 7318 Harlem Road in Loves Park.]
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