groundhog day comes to woodstock, illinois

{i'm sorry this took me so long to post. i've been a little bit under the weather for the past two days and blogging from my computer at home is woefully slow.}

well, i'm pretty sure everyone guessed it right! yes, it's groundhog day—the movie that all of these buildings were part of the set of! good eye, all of you!

i grew up in woodstock. for a few months, my hometown became punxsutawney, pennsylvania—the setting of the film. what a great film this was! and a what a joy it was to watch it in the theater after having visited the set and meeting bill murray at the local grocery store where he would occasionally stop while living there temporarily. i worked at that grocery store at the time, and I was like a kid when he came in the store—starstruck, of course. i also saw harold ramis in there a couple of times. my sister got to meet andie macdowell at the video rental store.

i'm not certain, but i am pretty sure the building below was in the movie, too. {i know—i should know this. and i call myself a fan!}

at the time of the filming, i still lived with my parents on the outskirts of town. they would let us go into town to see the filming every now and then. we could never get too close to anything, but it was still fun.

after college, i moved out of the house and out of the town. but two years later, i moved back to woodstock, and i lived just one block from the house that was used (the exterior and view of the street from the top window) as the bed and breakfast where bill murray's character stayed while he was on assignment as a news anchor {pictured above}. this is the house i lived in {below}.

while i was living there, my husband {then boyfriend} was living on the square—where a good part of the filming took place—you know the famous scene where he jumps from the tower of the opera house. it was just down the street from my husbands apartment that was above one of the historic stores.

and then there is the famous gazebo. this is where the groundhog day ceremony in the movie took place. this is where my husband proposed to me on new year's eve of 1999—the eve of a new millennium. we found it only fitting that we should get married there, too. so we did.

we have some beautiful wedding shots of us standing on these stairs of the historic courthouse {below}. i would post them, but since i did not take them, they are not allowed on this blog. =)

i went to the square on saturday to meet my friend sandy {below} for coffee. she also happened to get married there. i thought i would get some pictures, as i do not live in woodstock anymore, and it would be fun for old-time's sake.

it is a great place to go in the winter—especially around christmas with the lights and the carriage rides on the cobblestone streets. it really is a quaint little place, even without the lure of the fact that bill murray stood there. =)

the square has been displaying this nativity scene {above} at christmas ever since i was a baby and before. it has been there every year of my life, and is still displayed today. {i won't tell you just how many years.}

=)

i hope you enjoyed. i'll probably post more pictures that i took last summer when groundhog day rolls around. it is pretty all year-round.

for a little more background info on the movie's film location, go here or here or here. for more fun facts about the movie in general, go here.