Arts & Entertainment
Road Trips for Forest Park Seniors this Month
The serenity of the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford on Sept. 12 and the high-spirits of "Grease" in Aurora a week later.
Forest Park seniors will hit the road this month, taking field trips north and west to the catch sights and experience the 50s.
It'll be a full day on Wednesday, Sept. 12, as a bus will head up to Rockford for a guided tour through the Anderson Japanese Gardens. An acclaimed 14 acres set in an authentic 16th century landscape, the gardens provide a place of peace and beauty and are not to be missed.
Keeping in line with the culture of the day, lunch will be at J.M.K. Nippon Japanese Restaurant in Rockford. There will be Asian seabass, sesame chicken, salmon steak and sukiyaki marinated steak. Urbanspoon gave this establishment a huge thumbs-up.
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Edwards Apple Orchard in Poplar Grove will be the last stop of the day, where travelers can partake in the huge gift shop and market with its array of seasonal apples.
The bus will leave the Howard Mohr Community Center, 7640 Jackson Blvd., at 9:15 a.m. and return at approximately 6 p.m.
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The cost is $51 for Forest Park residents; $54 for non-residents.
On Sept. 19 women can slip on their poodle skirts and guys can slick back their hair and motor back to Rydell High School of the 1950s to experience the musical "Grease," at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora.
Theater-goers will get a thrill with an early lunch/brunch at the Blueberry Hill Pancake House in Aurora. Brunch-type fare will include a country skillet - ham, bacon, tomato and onion over potatoes and topped with cheese and two eggs, any style - and served with Greek toast or buttermilk pancakes or Eggs Benedict Florentine. One lunch selection will be a variation on Philadelphia. It's a Philly Beef Classic sandwich, roast beef on toasted French bread, smothered with onion, green peppers and mushrooms and topped with melted mozzarella. The other selection will be a chopped chicken Cobb salad.
The bus will leave from the community center at 10:15 a.m. and return at approximately 5:45 p.m.
Tickets are $59 for residents and $62 for non-residents.
The trips are organized by the Howard Mohr Community Center in Forest Park. For more information, call the center at 771-7737.
