Top Things to Do in Northwest Illinois

Hiking, fishing and camping draw visitors to the serene, 385-acre White Pines Forest State Park.

Tour the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home in Dixon. You'll be transported to the 1920s, when the country's 40th president and his family called this stately Queen Anne home.

Thousands of petunias line the town's main streets during June's The Dixon Petunia Festival. Enjoy arts and crafts demos, wacky competitions, a parade, a carnival, live music, and more along the downtown riverfront.

Once a piano factory, Conover Square Merchant Mall in Oregon now houses an indoor mall with a variety of merchants, including Slip and Slurry Pottery.

Cruise the Rock River aboard The Pride of Oregon. The boat docks at Maxson's Riverboat and Riverside Restaurant in Oregon.

Mingle with the vintage cars and tractors that reside at Barnacopia, a three-story museum with an in-house ice cream parlor, in Polo.

The Mount Carroll resident stock theater company at the historic Timber Lake Playhouse stage shows, including Shakespeare and Broadway musicals.

Tour the 1830s family home and observe blacksmith demos at the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour.

Take your pick from more than 130 wines and 100 different martinis at Dixon's spirited and stone-walled Crystal Cork Wine Shoppe.

Come for the craft beer, stay for the wings-served baked, fried, or grilled, and then sauced-at Aero Ale House in Byron.

White Pines Lodge Reopened under new ownershipm the complex (formerly White Pines Resort) includes a restaurant in a 1930s log lodge, a dinner theater and cabins. whitepinesinn.com

For more information: visitnorthwestillinois.com