Moving to Illinois

May 27, 2019 kerrijonikas

Today I’m talking about moving to Illinois. Make sure you stay tuned to the end because I’m going to give you five secrets to make you an instant local. Let’s get started! If this is your first
time visiting my blog, my name is Kerri Jonikas and I’m a Realtor in Chicago southwest suburbs. Please consider subscribing to my channel to be notified of any new posts that I
make. I post new article every Monday and I wouldn’t want you to miss out.

There’s plenty of negative information about moving to Illinois, so what are some of the good things about moving to Illinois?

Number one Chicago is a fun city, right? If you’ve ever visited Chicago you know there is plenty to do. Not only is there plenty to do in the city of Chicago, but there’s plenty to do in the suburbs. You can go visit a beach in the city or you’re a quick drive within an hour or so to other beaches in surrounding states, you can go downtown and visit Navy Pier and go on one of the tallest Ferris wheels. There are absolutely amazing views from the top of that Ferris Wheel. If you have not gone onto that Ferris wheel you definitely should go on the Ferris wheel at least once and view the views of the lake and the entire city, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Navy piers Ferris wheel was modeled after the very first Ferris wheel that was ever built.

We have absolutely beautiful state parks starved rock is one of my favorite state parks. You can climb on the giant boulder rocks, you can take lots of pictures, and the property is just
absolutely beautiful, you can go hiking you can go fishing, you can actually even camp there. so much to do.

Galena!! Did I mention Galena? Galena, Galena! Galena is absolutely beautiful. Awesome! If you haven’t seen it yet I also did a video on things to do in Galena. You can watch that video here:

The views in Galena are absolutely just gorgeous. No matter what time of year that you go there.

Illinois has had four presidents that have some sort of connection to Illinois. For Lincoln it began in March of 1830 when Lincoln’s family moved to Illinois in Macon County, which now is Decatur. For Ulysses S Grant, it began when his family moved to Galena, Illinois in Spring of 1861. Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois which is about two hours west of Chicago and Barack Obama,
he moved here to start his career and go to school. We have easy access to highways it is super easy to get basically anywhere. If you live in the suburbs, to get into the city, you jump on a highway and depending on traffic or what time you’re going there, you can get there fairly quickly. It’s pretty nice if you need to get to an airport you can get there fairly quickly, depending on where you’re living and which highways that you’re going to take, it definitely cuts down on your commuting time. Which is great so if you are considering maybe a job relocation to the area we definitely have plenty of highways that can get you to where you’re going fairly quickly.

Speaking of employment, in 2018 there were 5,962,600 jobs in the Illinois area. In 2019 that amount increased to 6,035,800, that is a lot of jobs. So that provides a lot of opportunities which is another benefit to living in Illinois. You can find more detailed information about this in the description box down below. Now you want to become an instant local, right? I have some tips for you. Number one, please do not ever put ketchup on your hot dog. If you’re in a public place you will stand out like a sore thumb. We don’t put ketchup on our hot dogs. On a typical Chicago hot dog you’re going to have mustard, onions, relish, tomatoes, sport peppers, and a sprinkle of celery salt. Number two to make you an instant local is… talking about the Sears Tower. Many years ago the Sears Tower changed to the Willis Tower. Now most locals still refer to it as the Sears Tower and they almost always will.

So if you’re just in a regular conversation with a local, most likely they’re going to say the Sears Tower or well the Willis Tower or whatever, because they know it as the Sears Tower because for many, many, years many field trips throughout our grade school years, we went to the Sears Tower. We love our pizza!!! If you haven’t watched it you can take a look at the video that I did about the best places to get pizza in Chicago suburbs. But just a little warning if you are going to watch that video it is going to make you crave pizza.

Number four; if you ever go out with a local and you want to get Italian beef, make sure you get it dipped, that’s how the locals like it. So don’t stand out like a sore thumb and not know what that means. That means they’re going to dip your beef sandwich in the Aujus, but that’s the way we like it.

And last but not least please, please make sure that you are pronouncing Illinois correctly. Do not say IlliNOISE, it is not a noise, its Illinois no IlliNOISE, Illinois.

If you are considering moving to Illinois, text #movingtoillinois to receive a copy of my guide “Moving to Illinois”.