It wasn’t long ago my amazingly talented friends at Hendricks & Carr contacted me about doing some commercial photography for them. They had a client who was needing some photographs of different locations throughout Decatur. Josh sent me a list of places they were wanting shot, so I grabbed my list, my camera, and headed out to get cracking! With the dreary, cloudy skies we’ve had the past few days I was just hoping for no rain – but the cloud cover was more than perfect for getting some awesome evenly lit shots.

I started at Red Tail Run Golf Course is located on the south side of Decatur. Decatur has a lot of great golf courses, and while I, myself, cannot comment on the course itself, I can say that I’ve heard wonderful things about this course. It’s also pretty large so with a lot of nice rolling terrain.

Lake Decatur is a great place to visit too! With the Beach House, mini golf, rock garden, and scenic views – it’s a great place for any family to spend some time! I had fun wondering down the planked sidewalk photographing the docks, the gulls, and the water.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work with the Children’s Museum of Illinois on multiple occasions. I have found memories of visiting the old museum growing up and the Children’s Museum today has so many awesome exhibits for kids to learn and have fun! It really is a great place to take kids and they have tons of events throughout the year too!

The Decatur Civic Center is another great place to find awesome events. The Civic Center hosts all kinds of shows and exhibits through the year – everything from trains and quilts to small business expos. This is also the home of Decatur’s ice skating rink and hockey teams. So definitely a place with tons of fun!

And if you’re stopping by the Civic Center you should definitely take the jog over to Merchant Street, where there are tons of awesome shops and restaurants. Tap Root, Good Fellas, Del’s and Sloan’s – you can’t go wrong visiting any shop downtown.

And Central Park is just down the street from Merchant. Decatur’s iconic Transfer House is located here. With benches, picnic tables and a lovely fountain – it’s a great place to sit, enjoy lunch and relax.

Millikin University, my alma mater, my baby brother’s university, and the big college campus in Decatur. Millikin is known for it’s fine art program and nursing, actually. I actually like the campus – not too small and not too big. And all the brick buildings are quite lovely and and when it’s green – it’s really a pretty place to walk. Millikin often hosts concerts and various shows and events as well.

Another great place for local events is the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. Once the Holiday Inn, The DCCH hosts comedy shows and weddings, has a great sports bar, and also puts on a variety of conferences throughout the year!

Last but not least, the Hickory Point Golf Course is another great place to get your golf on. It’s out towards Forsyth IL. I’m actually quite well acquainted with this course. I played golf for one year in high school (I was absolutely miserable at it but it was worth a try) and this was our home course. I lost many a ball (and club) playing here. It’s a gorgeous course and venue for weddings as well.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little peek at the various sites around Decatur. It may not be a big town and when you’ve lived here your whole life, there may not seem to be much to do. But the truth is we do have a lot of awesome places to go and a lot more to do than people realize. You just have to know where to look! 🙂