Swedish Dazed!

What’s up everyone?

Every year the sleep little town of Geneva Illinois is transformed into a Swedish lovers paradise as they celebrate their midsummer festival, Swedish Days.

Geneva is a small village located in the western suburbs of Chicago.  With a population around 22,000 people.  The residents take pride in their small town feel.  The area was first settled in the 1830’s.  It was eventually incorporated into a village in 1867.  During this time it went through several names before they settled on Geneva.  Many believe it was named after Geneva, New York.  But I can neither confirm or deny this claim.   Its location on the shores of the Fox River which made it an important hub for manufacturing and shipping.

Geneva has several tourist draws.  Not too far from the village lies the Fabyan Windmill.  It is an authentic, fully functional, five story Dutch style windmill built in the 1850’s.  We were not able to make it to see the windmill, maybe next time.  We were able to walk around parts of Geneva’s famed Fox River Bike Trail.  The parts that we were able to walk was beautiful.  Plenty of open spaces with benches and picnic tables, a children playground and clean rest areas.  If biking and walking not really your thing you can also grab a fishing pole and drop in a lure.  Just don’t fish off the bridges, its highly frowned upon.  Geneva is also host a museum, shops, restaurants, and historical architecture.  

The villages biggest tourist draw is of course, Swedish Days.  In the latter parts of 1800’s, Geneva experience a large influx of Swedish immigrants.  It was such a huge rush that over half the population were of Swedish descent by 1900.  So Swedish pride runs rampant there.

The festival is a five day event, each day has it own unique events as well as the typical street fair events.  Booths, carnival rides and street food was all on tap.  We decide to get a group together and head up on Saturday morning.  Since we were all coming from different parts of the city we decided to meet up at the local Starbucks.  One of our good friends actually grew up in Geneva, so he gave us a brief tour of the village.  He told us all about how it was growing up there and what had change since he moved away.  We found it all very fascinating.  We spent most of our time exploring the little shops and booths.  I had to try really hard to keep Erin from touching things.  She has a tendency to touch everything or, I mean, she likes to look with her hands and not here eyes.  One day she’s going to touch the wrong thing and break it.

After all the excitement of the festival we decide to stop and get something to eat.  We happened upon a local resident that was more then happy to suggest some local favorites.  We ended up at Local Burger, an artesian burger joint.  We searched the menu feverishly, trying to decide what to have. Burgers, wraps, mac and cheese, it all sounded really good.  We finally decided on what to have and placed our orders.  They came out grilled to perfection and served on a pretzel bun. It was very good and filling.  If you are in the area make sure that you stop in, I doubt you will be disappointed.

Lately we have been experiencing some rainy weather.  It was great to finally be able to get out and do something outside for a change.  We all had an exciting time getting out to Geneva and experiencing Swedish Days.  Hopefully we will be able to make it up there again and see what else Geneva has to offer.

Get out and experience your local festivals.  As always, Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time.

Josh