What’s a place you visited that felt like home?
The place I’ve been that feels most like home is practically home for me, given that it is only 25 miles away from where I grew up. However, it feels more like home than it did when I was young.
That place is Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL. It has sandstone canyons that turn fiery colors in Autumn, cabins to stay in, and a lodge from the Civilian Conservation Corps days that would be at home in a national park.
Starved Rock is a place where I go every holiday I can. It decorates charmingly for the holidays, with a double fireplace in the Great Room of the lodge and a large fireplace in the restaurant. Families from near and far gather in the Great Hall for gift exchanges and holiday photos by the fire.
I wonder how I feel so much at home in an obviously public place, but it feels familiar to me in a way that the place I currently live does not.
The nearby towns of Utica and Ottawa feel like home as well, but I grew up next to Ottawa, so maybe that makes sense. I think Ottawa would make a better college town than where I live currently, and it has improved since I left there.
So home for me is a grand lodge in the middle of LaSalle County, IL. I will be there this Christmas to belong again.
