Also known as the “City of Gardens”, Rockford’s many impressive public and private gardens recently won the America in Bloom contest for cities its size. The Anderson Japanese Gardensis one of the “top two Japanese gardens in the Western World.” Other can’t-miss horticultural attractions are the Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens and Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

The city won the Presidents’ Arts Friend Community Award because of how the Rockford’s leaders work with artists and arts organizations to improve the quality of life for its citizens. The Rockford Art Museumis the state’s second largest after the Chicago Art Institute.

Don’t miss the Burpee Museum of Natural Historynamed after the researchers who found a T. Rex skeleton in the Montana badlands. Inside you’ll find life-sized T. Rex and Woolly Mammoth skeletal casts; a Windows to Wilderness exhibit showing the Rock River Valley; and a rooftop garden.

For help in selecting a Rockford assisted living facility, read, “How to Select a Facility.”