Travel writer visits Elgin Area to explore the arts, history

North Carolina travel writer Karen Dawkins and her son took a road trip to the Elgin area this past weekend to cover "Family Travels on a Budget."

The travel writer previously met with Krisilee Murphy, the Elgin Area Convention & Visitors Bureau's director of marketing, at Travel Media Showcase, a travel writers' conference, held in 2013.

Travel Media Showcase is a trade show the Elgin Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has attended for the past 10 years to pitch story ideas for the Elgin area. The conference consists of over 30 one-on-one meetings where the Elgin Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has the opportunity to hand tailor itineraries and story concepts to fit each writer.

The two-day itinerary included stops at the Muirhead Farmhouse (Hampshire) to tour the only farmhouse designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright; Chooch's Pizza (Elgin) to dine along the picturesque Fox River and Fox River Bike Trail; the Grand Victoria Casino's Summer Concert Series to take in a concert and hear the throwback music of Huey Lewis & The News in beautiful Festival Park (Elgin), Domani Café (Elgin) for coffee and time with some locals; a tour of Elgin Artspace Lofts (Elgin) which was built to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations in downtown Elgin; Wing Mansion (Elgin) to get a small taste of the history of a home in the Elgin area; Gail Borden Public Library (Elgin) where the Presidential exhibit is opening this week; The Depot (East Dundee) a visitors' center for tourist information situated along the Fox River Bike Trail.

This is the second travel writer to explore the Elgin area in the last nine months from connections made at Travel Media Showcase. The Elgin Area Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to foster relationships made at the conference to entice more writers to visit the Elgin area.