Hunters Way, Fox River Grove

This is a middle class neighborhood in a quiet little although quirky town. The elementary school was rated number one in the county by the Chicago Tribune. The tree lined street has mostly two story 3 or 4 bedroom houses on small lots (70x140 or there abouts). The houses are well kept and tidy. The street rises to one of the higher points in town so the chance of flooding (the town is right on a river) is minimal.

Being a small community, there isn't much in the way of services although all the basics are covered (water, sewage, trash collection, plowing, etc...) The parks have no municipally run programs but we do have an active volunteer recreation department that provides for softball, soccer, and other sports. The library is small but they have good family programs and you also get rights at the neighboring libraries.

I mentioned quirky before, let me explain why. We have in this town a hot air balloon port (windy city balloons), a ski jump (where large competitions are held either twice or thrice a year), and a castle (the bittendorf castle built by an out of work carpenter back in the '20s).

But most of all what I love about this town is its heart. My wife and I were thinking about getting a larger place which would have meant leaving this town (there are larger residences in this town but the prices for such a place are more affordable further out). This was back in the mid '90s and we had only been here a short time. About this time there was a very tragic bus-train accident that killed seven of our high school students. After we watched the way this town came out and supported each other during this catastrophe, we realized that we could not find a better place for our family. By the way, all the railroad crossings here have since been modified to prevent such an event from ever occurring again.