If you follow the blog, you know that Laura and Mary and I went to Punxsutawney PA February 2nd to see Phil the Groundhog predict six more weeks of winter!
Groundhog Day has always been a favorite holiday in my family. The celebration breaks up the winter and dreary February days.
It’s a holiday where no cards or gifts are necessary.
Last week on Spring Break, Mary and I took a short (12 mile) side trip to Woodstock Illinois where they filmed the movie Groundhog Day in 1993.
We drove around a bit, walked around the town square and had a nice coffee (see below). Mary is back in New York City and I am back in Pittsburgh now but wanted to share our quick visit to the scene of Groundhog Day movie, Woodstock, Illinois.
the town square
The Opera House served as the Pennsylvania Hotel in the movie
Tip Top Cafe is now a Mexican Restaurant
Groundhog Days are celebrated in February!
Signage,
Mary found this place Ethereal Confections
The most delicious method of making coffee
Our server came out to the place we were sitting and brought us two samples of delicious chocolates, made on the premises
A highlight of our visit to Woodstock Illinois
What a fun trip! We went to Ferndale, CA, where The Majestic was filmed, but many of those places were actually facades.
What a fun diversion – we are big fans of this Andie Mc Dowell / Bill Murray movie. It was nice to see the sign for Ned’s Corner as I would have sought out that location.
What a wonderful tour, and especially inside Ethereal Confections – what an alluring place for someone trying not to eat chocolate.
How great to walk around places that you know through a movie! I recognize several of them. I had lunch with a group about a month before Groundhog Day opened. One man seated with us had worked on the movie and was very impressed with it. Turns out, he was right.
Its cool to find out a place you’ve visited or even live in is part of a movie. Those small towns make great movie backgrounds.
Oh no wonder you had fun…this looks grand
Love that movie. It shouldn’t surprise me that it was filmed elsewhere, but I thought it looked like PA. You can correct me if I’m wrong.
You are right It looked like a small town in PA for sure.
We had fun walking around. The film opens with scenes of Pittsburgh and it was a long time before I even knew it wasn’t filmed in Punxsutawney PA. I’ve been to the actual Groundhog Day 23 years ago and this past February. It is an experience!
It looks like such a quaint town. Many of these places no longer exist; nice to see the few that do.
I had a colleague in my first professional job who adored Groundhog Day (it was his *favorite* holiday) – and every year he made a cinnamon bundt cake and put a small toy groundhog in the hole in the middle. 🙂
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