My (other) favorite places/things/people:
Murphy’s on Wednesday nights
Running in Urbana
Old, unpaved streets
Driving east on University between Mattis and downtown Champaign, especially in the autumn
Chai Lattes from Bar Guiliani
Italian Sodas from Aroma
Anniversary Plaza (behind the Union)
Impromptu barcrawls/Monday nights out with my roommates
Half time of football games
Halloween
The juke box at Murphy’s
Billy’s softball team
World Harvest international food store (at 6th and University)
Eating salads and studying upstairs at Za’s

I would make the list longer, but it’s about time for an impromptu roommate barcrawl!

I lived near there for a while, and sometimes (usually in the middle of the night), I’d just swing for a while. It was a good place to think about things. I also loved going for long walks all around the campus area, and I’d stop at the swings if I got tired of walking but didn’t want to go home just yet.

I wouldn’t call this swing set romantic, though :)

Running during the springtime through the Urbana neighborhood off Lincoln Avenue when all the tulips and hyacinth are blooming
-also related, the swing set at Carle Park is a perfect destination for a romantic walk

Kettle corn popcorn at the Urbana Farmer’s Market (only reason to go)

Siam Terrace red curry fried rice

Botanical garden at the Plant Sciences Lab

Evo Cafe (on 6th Street) Mongolian Chicken

Sculpture Garden on Windsor Road

Original Pancake House on Mattis (I didn’t knonw Mattis existed until my junior year of college and I didn’t find OHOP, as I like to call it, until my senior year)

Black current iced tea from Cafe Paradiso

It feels so good to get all those secrets off my chest. I’m sorry most of them were about food. :)

The Quad Squirrels and Quad Sparrows raiding your lunch on the back steps of the Union.

The balcony at Crane Alley

The Ballroom of the Illini Union for their lunch buffets, especially around holiday time

The big concrete barn along Goodwin Street near Loomis with all the windows that I dropped a truck in

The sidewalk tables on the west side of the Esquire–you can see the whole city of Champaign go by

The beer garden at the Iron Post–in the summer, you can hear the band every time the door opens–across the street is the old Jumer’s Hotel at Lincoln Square and it’s a Gothic castle at night

The Bardeen Garden–I remember when it was John’s lab

Speaking of Gothic, the interior of Altgeld Hall, with all of its stairways to nowhere

Lincoln Hall theatre with a company doing an all-girl verison of a Shakespeare play set in the 1920s

Espresso Royale, not any of the newer ones–the original, the place where the programmers who invented Mosaic hung out–the windows along Oregon Street are left from the days when it was Treno’s Pub back in the 1960s and 70s

Oh, God, the second oldest bar on Green Street–Zorba’s, home to the best chili and sinful french fries

The original Merry Ann’s Diner, tucked in next to the Illinois Central tracks

The lines of black and white photos of towers, operators, and trains at the Transportation Center downtown, second floor

Curtis Road between First Street and Philo Road–it goes over the highest point in the Champaign-Urbana area at one point–it’s a favorite of Larry Kanfer.

The mother-tree atop the Hill at Crystal Lake Park

The goose-ponds along Prospect Avenue in the Mall areas

My front porch, overlooking Springfield Avenue, now Illinois 10. You can tell it’s a highway, even though it’s two lanes.

The Parkland Planetarium, both for the nights of the star shows, but also for Pink Floyd concerts