Springfield Pleases Any Palate

If you dined at a different restaurant daily in Springfield, Missouri, it would take nearly three years before you enjoyed all the eating establishments available in the city. 

Springfield has more than 800 restaurants with selections ranging from fine international cuisine to fast food for the kids, and that doesn’t include establishments outside city limits. 

In the historic downtown alone are more than 40 restaurants, most of them chef-owned and housed in eclectic, historic buildings. 

Gilardi’s Italian Ristorante, for instance, is a cozy, white tablecloth experience in an old carriage house on Walnut Street and Gailey’s Breakfast Café is partially housed in the lobby of the old Seville Hotel and the former Hudson Car Dealership. Mille’s Turn of the Century Café is in an old storefront – formerly Rebori’s Shoes – and Springfield Brewing Company is in a former MFA produce store. 

On the city’s north side, you’ll find delicious experiences at several restaurants, including
Fire & Ice, the only restaurant in southwest Missouri featuring an ice bar. It’s also the only restaurant in the world where the original recipe of Springfield Style Cashew Chicken is prepared by chef Wing Yee Leong, a son of the tasty dish’s inventor. That’s right, cashew chicken was invented in Springfield in 1963 by David Leong, an 88-year-old Springfield icon who still makes the rounds at the city’s Asian restaurants. 

Don’t miss Lambert’s Café, just south of Springfield, where the dining is as much about the experience of waiters literally tossing rolls across the dining room as it is about the tasty American cuisine. 

Rodizio Brazilian Grill is another place where the food is as good as the service is entertaining. The Gaucho chefs serve up 15 types of slow-roasted meat, carved tableside in a festive atmosphere. 

Other restaurants featuring international themes include Valentine’s with its Italian menu, Fuji and its Japanese offerings, Maria’s Mexican Restaurant and dozens of others. For those seeking more traditional American fare, Classic’s Sports Café,
J. Buck’s Restaurant, Steak ‘n Shake and many others will fit the bill. 

Those are just a few of restaurants in Springfield. For even more dining options, visit www.springfieldadventures.com/final/newsite/dining_index.asp.
 

Second Annual Outdoor Fitness Festival Oct. 25-Nov. 2 

If the family that plays together, stays together, what happens to the family that partakes in the Second Annual Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Fitness in Springfield? They will have a great time, be healthier and learn about activities where they can play together – in the great outdoors – even more than they already do. 

Events during Oct. 25-Nov. 2 include trail runs, marathons and a wellness walk. Don’t miss the Health & Wellness Fair, celebrity guests, seminars and health screenings. And get signed up for kayaking, canoeing and geocaching classes; competitions; and much, much more. 

Learn more at www.basspro.com/fitness.

Halloween Events Highlight October

 Join thousands of ghosts, goblins and ghoul families under the stars at Dickerson Park Zoo’s 25th annual Halloween SPOOKTACULAR presented by Bank of America, open 6:30-9 p.m. Oct. 22 through Halloween night.

Guests at this event will have a goblet full to see and do. Hundreds of jack-o-lanterns, hand-carved by Springfield area elementary school children, will light the path, and the Festival of Scarecrows features the creations of area scouting and youth organizations. New sights to this year’s event include Winnie the Pooh and his pals and the Smurfs.

Children age 12 and younger can “goblin up” candy treats from costumed volunteers at 10 treat stations throughout the zoo. Along the way, stop in at the “bone dig,” carnival game tent, inflatable bounce and the carnival ride (nominal fee). For an additional $2 per person, climb aboard the Titus Express for an after-dark train ride. Children can also visit with “Hometown Heroes” from police and fire departments, ambulance services, City Utilities and the Missouri Department of Transportation as a special treat. 

Ticket prices are $5 at the gate for everyone age one and older. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $4 at any Springfield area McDonald’s restaurants and Springfield Bank of America branches. Children younger than age one and Friends of the Zoo members are admitted free.

Other Halloween events coming up include in Springfield include The Hotel of Terror haunted house, the Hallowish Halloween party for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a Halloween Pub Crawl and others.

And don’t miss the huge – and brand new – corn maze at the Rutledge-Wilson Farm Community Park! 

For more information about these and other events in Springfield, visit www.springfieldadventures.com/calendar/calendar.asp.
 

Fall Into Wilson's Creek National Battlefield History 

The fall colors are beginning to turn during these warm days and cool nights at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.  You can bring history alive as you visit the battlefield and experience the environment that has been preserved for all America.  Whether your mode of transportation is walking, jogging, biking, equestrian, and/or how the majority of our over 150,000 visitors enjoy the park, driving in your favorite vehicle.  You will not be disappointed as you experience the battlefield as the soldiers did on that morning of August 10, 1861. 

Stop at the Visitor Center and ask the Ranger for information that lists the activities and the calories that one can burn to become a healthier person.  Wilson’s Creek can assist with your personal fitness activity as you learn about history. 

The battlefield has several key interpretive media and artifacts to assist you in creating a memorable experience for your visit:  the finest Trans-Mississippi River collection of artifacts in the United States, an electric map that describes battle tactics, the largest Civil War library in the National Park Service system, a great Visitor Center to assist you with your visit, the friendliest Park Rangers, a 26 minute film (new), and a 5-mile tour road with eight wayside stops to explain what occurred on that warm and humid morning of August 10, 1861. 

Whether you drive or walk, your visit to the park will be filled with the fall season. One can almost hear the soldiers wake from their shelters, prepare the morning coffee as they look around the camp sites with the morning fog laying low to the ground with the sun streaming through the trees. Come out to the battlefield to learn about the history of this special place located in the greater Springfield area. 

Administered by the National Park Service, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield preserves the site of the first major engagement of the Civil War in the West.  The site is considered to be one of the best-preserved battlefields in the National Park System.  The battlefield is located 10-miles southwest of Springfield, Missouri, at the intersection of Highway ZZ and Farm Road 182.  More information can be obtained by calling (417) 732-2662.
 

GPS – Geocaching Finds Its Way to Ozarks 

With fall upon the Ozarks, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board’s Outdoor Initiatives section shows us that the cooler, more comfortable temperatures are the perfect excuse to get out of the house and experience a new activity. 

If you or your family has ever participated in a scavenger hunt, there’s nothing more exciting than finding the prize at the end of the journey. A growing activity called GPS – Geocaching is finding its way to the Ozarks with more and more popularity and is challenging the techno-savvy younger generations to take the hunt to the great outdoors. 

Geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunting game with a simple idea of finding hidden containers, called chaces, all over the world through Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. Once found, the hunter logs their entry within the usually weather-proof container of some kind and takes an item from the container to prove they were there.  

Much like the GPS systems in vehicles, GPS coordinates are set to the hidden treasures throughout the Springfield-Greene County Parks system, and many other places within the Ozarks. When a new cache is hidden, the user logs it with geochacing.com, the official GPS Cache Hunt Site. A recent online search resulted in nearly 500 caches within a 20-mile radius of downtown Springfield, with nearly two dozen of those in the Parks system. 

Doling Park, 301 E. Talmage, has been the official Park Board training site for Geocaching for about a year now. With its size and mature landscape, the park is a perfect area for hiding the chaces. “Reed Middle School actually uses Doling as part of its Science Club’s geochace exercises,” said Melvin Johnson, Community Recreations Supervisor for Outdoor Initiatives. “It’s a sport that is fairly easy to catch onto, and we see kids out here as young as six with their families participating.” 

To learn how to get involved with GPS – Geocaching, participate in one of the Park Board’s ongoing clinics. Upcoming clinics are from 9 a.m. – noon, Saturdays, Nov. 15, Dec. 13; and Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. Clinics are $5/person, ages 6 – adult. Advanced registration is required by calling (417) 833-8201. 

“Equipment is affordable and available at outdoor stores all over town,” said Johnson. “You can find a basic unit for under $100, and some of the nicer models go all the way up to $600+”. There are no membership fees to participate in basic geocaching, nor any finder fees. Take a Park Board training class, buy your GPS device, and get out there and have some fun. 

For more information on Park Board Outdoor Initiative clinics, programs, or outings, call (417) 833-8201 or visit www.parkboard.org.
 

Falling Gas Prices

Gas prices are dropping faster than the leaves are falling from the trees this fall and that’s good news for travelers across the country. According to AAA, the national average on Oct. 15 was $3.125 and prices are even lower in Missouri – $2.767. 

If you like that, here’s something else that will get your heart pumping. The average gas price in Springfield is $2.458. That’s 66.7 cents less than the national average and 30.9 cents less than the state average. 

Along with those low fuel prices, Springfield also is ranked one of the least expensive cities in the nation for visitors by the “Corporate Travel Index” published by “Business Travel News.” 

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to visit Springfield!

Savings Tips

Plan your vacation to Springfield ahead of time by requesting your FREE Passport to Family Fun coupon book.  You can also book hotel rooms and purchase attraction tickets online.  Read more…

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Springfield, Missouri Convention & Visitors Bureau
815 East St. Louis Street – Springfield, Missouri 65806 – 800-678-8767
www.SpringfieldMO.org – View or Request a FREE Visitors Guide & Passport