If last weekend’s holiday took you out of town, you can catch up on McHenry County’s summer festivals this weekend. From shopping to live music to auctions of historic items, there’s enough to keep you busy, including:

If you’re a bargain hunter, you can’t miss the Sidewalk Sales in downtown Crystal Lake. Check out a plethora of deals from downtown merchants Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturday, the weekly Farmer’s Market also will be downtown from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., if you’re looking for some produce as well as good buys! For information visit, www.downtowncl.org.

It might be after Memorial Day, but you’re not going to want to wear white to Lake in the Hills’ Rockin’ Rotary Ribfest. Held this weekend in Sunset Park, the fest gathers award-winning rib makers for delicious, but often messy fare. The festival also features music, including Saturday’s headliner, Starship. Check out all the details at www.rockinrotaryribfest.com.

This weekend also marks the start of McHenry’s Fiesta Days, which will bring revelry from July 10-25. This weekend 90’s favorite Gin Blossoms will headline on Saturday at Petersen Park. The Music Fest also features Modern Day Romeos on Friday night and The Ides of March on Sunday. Visit www.mchenrychamber.com or call 815-385-4300 for information and tickets.

If you’re just looking for fresh air, on Saturday, the McHenry County Master Gardeners and McHenry County College hosts its Master Gardener Gardenwalk. The event starts at 9 a.m. at McHenry County College at the Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden. In addition to checking out the demonstration garden, six private gardens are available for self-guided tours all day. Plants will be available for sale while supplies last at the Demonstration Garden. Tickets are $10 in advance and can be purchased from MCC by calling 815-455-8764.

For history-minded folks, the McHenry County Historical Society will hold its Heritage Fair in Union on Sunday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. More than 75 antiques will be available at auction, which starts at 1 p.m. Entertainment, food and sales of vintage goods will also be on hand at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum, 6422 Main St. in Union. For information, visit www.mchsonline.org or call 815-923-2267.

There’s plenty going on this weekend in McHenry County to celebrate the long – and hopefully sunny – holiday weekend. If you don’t already have the weekend planned with picnics and fireworks, here’s some local things to consider:

• If you need any tips for keeping your cookout healthy, read the July issue’s health article – http://ssm.nwherald.com/mchenry-county-magazine/story/247/slimming-the-summer-cookout/

• And after you’re done chowing down if you need an idea on how to burn calories, check out July’s calorie burning article – http://ssm.nwherald.com/mchenry-county-magazine/story/246/summer-activities-to-burn-off-the-barbeque-calories/

• McHenry County Magazine wine columnist Andy Andresky is hosting an Abraham Lincoln Historic White House Dinner at his Crystal Lake restaurant 1776 on Friday and Saturday. The menu features dishes actually served at the Lincoln White House, including venison medallions wrapped in black bear bacon and delmonico potatoes and mushroom fritters and golden beets. Guests have their choice of the Backwoodsman menu for $19 or the Presidential menu for $39 per person. The ambiance will be enhanced by a Lincoln impersonator on both nights. For information call 1776 at 815-356-1776.

• Spring Grove and Wonder Lake will be hosting their parades on Saturday. For information on Spring Grove’s “Christmas in July” parade call 815-276-2465 or www.sg4thofjuly.org. For Wonder Lake’s Golden Memories parade, call 815-728-0682 or www.wonderlake.org.

• McHenry County Magazine will have its Flat Squirrel Scooter in the Crystal Lake Parade on Sunday, July 5. You can admire the scooter and then stop by the Lakeside Fest at the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park to register for your chance to win it as part of the Summer Scooter Giveaway.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July weekend!

I hung out with Connie Perez, interior fashion designer and owner of Aesthetics boutique in Crystal Lake, and a bunch of her budding fashion designers yesterday afternoon.

Perez offers sewing classes for all ages in addition to interior design services and cute items in her store. Some of the students I met yesterday ranged in age from elementary schoolers to high school students, who come to Aesthetics for sewing classes and this summer’s Fashion Camp programs.

Amid the colorful fabric and whirl of the small sewing machines, Perez was instructing students and overseeing a dozen or so different projects. Some of the younger students were working on pinning their pajama pants, while the older students were looking for inspiration in fashion magazines and sketching designs.

Perez organized the day to show off the skills that will be on display at the Project Raueway fashion show, which will be part of the FOCUS Cultural Youth Day on Aug. 23 at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake. The event will combine visual art, performing arts and Perez’s fashion show.

One of the features in the fashion show will be newspaper dresses made by the students in the summer Fashion Camps. The first round of dresses made from newspapers and various fabrics were completed this week by the group of four young designers who incorporated their personalities and hobbies into their personally designed dresses. Perez says the fashion show will feature 25 newspaper dresses, and possibly one dog dressed in a newspaper design.

The goal of Project Raueway is for her talented students to create designs inspired by local Crystal Lake businesses. McHenry County Magazine will feature a write-up on the FOCUS Cultural Youth Day in an upcoming edition, but it was great to see the creative talents of some of the local youth who will have their creations on display in August.

Graduation parties, weddings, Fourth of July.

As I’m looking forward to a line-up of busy weekends, I found myself reflecting on what I did last weekend. It was a lovely Sunday, spent catching up with two friends and showing off McHenry County.

I had invited two of my friends to explore a sampling of the great places I’ve found while exploring McHenry County on behalf of this magazine. We all used to work together and, thus, spent a lot of time together, but between our new jobs and their condos near Chicago we don’t see each other all that often.

So I had planned an adventure into my territory. They both arrived on Sunday morning with coffees in hand and we set out on the drive to what one of my friends declared was “Iowa.” I think the city dweller was referencing the vast countryside and winding county highways. Although we did pass a sign that read “House for Rent, Horses O.K.” that gave a distinctly rural feel.

We had time to catch up on the drive, stopped in Woodstock and enjoyed a lovely brunch at Le Creperie. We had a chance to walk around the Square and see some of the statues that are part of the Horses of a Different Color display (which you’ll see more of in the upcoming July issue of the magazine).

We joked on the way to Richmond to check out Ginger Blossom, which is the import shop I first discovered for the April issue. I was in the market for some furniture, but my friend found a turban – we all wondered where she could wear such an elaborate head piece.

In all, it was a great adventure with great friends and something I wish I could do more often.

And I hope it inspires you to get out and explore one of these nice summer weekends when you’re not busy with events and holidays.

“In McHenry County, we’re kind of over the top in our rates of skin cancer. It’s almost like a crisis here,” says Dr. Vic Khanna, a board certified dermatologist at Mercy Woodstock Medical Center and Mercy Barrington Medical Center.

Dr. Khanna shared that startling piece of information with McHenry County Magazine’s Jami Kunzer in her May health article on protecting your skin this summer.

With the unofficial start of summer upon us (and today’s beautiful unseasonably warm and sunny day), it got me thinking of one of my annual summer rituals: the season’s first sunburn.

As a redhead I have a stereotypical predisposition to sunburn. My shoulders are now nearly immune to the pain of sunburn. On the other hand, my legs are especially sensitive due to an awful sunburn sustained during an all-day boat trip on a family vacation to Cancun in high school.

And last year, my friends and I got burned so badly we came up with nicknames for each other based on the location of each of our sunburns. The nicknames hardly helped to mask the pain of the burn, but in hindsight it makes me – also known as One Bad Armpit – laugh instead of cringe at how badly each of us were burned. And find humor in how we may be paying for that mistake in the future.

The combination of bad experience and my painful learning experiences have helped me to get smarter and actually take steps to protect my skin. But inevitably I always have to suffer from an early season sunburn for me to be fully prepared for the rest of season.

So in light of the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, please learn from the professional advice of Dr. Khanna and the legendary mistakes of “One Bad Armpit” and be sure to wear sunscreen!