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These are some pictures from my trip to Galena with Emily last weekend!
Friday, June 12, 2009 - Day 1: Left the house with Emily & Lexi (her dog/baby) and had planned to spend the night in Moline - about halfway to Galena. Decided we'd just drive until we got tired. If you want to know - there is nothing between Moline & Dubuque - so we made it to Dubuque and decided to find the road to Galena so we'd know where we were going. Ended up there was not really any place to turn around that we could see well in the middle of the night in the rain and tons of road 'destruction'. We made it all the way to Galena and got lost there in town by around 1:15 or so - only to find out that there were no places with vacancy that accepted pets...oops. Drove back to Dubuque and spent the night. But at least we found the garden we were going to on Sunday!
Saturday, June 13, 2009 - Day 2: Managed to get out of bed and eat the complimentary breakfast and be on the road to Galena by around 10 or so. Stopped at a flea market and I got a birdbath, a metal star for the front of my garage and a wire cross for the outside of the house - not bad for the first stop of the day! We then made it to downtown Galena and shopped for a few hours while we were waiting to check into our cabin. Downtown Galena is lined on both sides of the street with old, old buildings. They are beautiful! Each one houses some sort of shop, restaurant, or business - it would take days to see everything completely. Then we went and found the Adventure Creek Alpaca Farm where were staying. "Frank" and his son kind of seemed like they should have been in the movie "Deliverance" but other than that it was great. Cute little log cabin with a view of the alpacas. After a late picnic lunch at the cabin we decided to go on a tour of the local winery. To put it simply - we got lost. Very lost. Probably ended up in Wisconsin at some point. The funny thing though - after driving and driving, all of the sudden we see grape vines and "voila" we're there. What should have taken 10 minutes tops to get to - took us a good 45 minutes, via the "long way". Needless to say, we missed the tour but Galena Cellars Winery was a beautiful place! We tasted several wines and decided to have a glass and share some Havarti cheese and garlic summer sausage out on the lawn. It was perfect. The scenery was beautiful and it was so peaceful. That night at 9:00 we went on a "Ghost Tour" of Galena. It was fun! The guide told stories about all of the "haunted" places in Galena as we walked though the streets, through some woods, up an incredibly steep hill, and to the old cemetery and back. Emily caught something creepy on her camera. A bright orange blob/streak right in the middle of one of her pictures in front of the very first house we stopped at. The guide told us that it was a "classic bright orb". I'm not sure what that is....but I can tell you that I was standing right there when she took the picture and there was nothing that was visible with the naked eye....kind of creepy. After that we went to find some food but FYI - if you are ever in Galena - Don't plan on eating after 10. Nothing's open, except McDonald's.
Sunday, June 14, 2009 - Day 3: On Sunday, after breakfast in the cabin we went to Linmar Gardens for a tour and picnic. The gardens were beautiful. It had gorgeous flowers, plants, and even a waterfall. The garden has been a work in progress for the last 30 years or so after being completely abandoned for around 50 years. After the tour we had a picnic in the gazebo. It was just so peaceful and lovely. We sat there until around 2:00 or after I think, just relaxing and enjoying our surroundings. Then we decided we'd better get on the road to our next destination, Chestnut Mountain Lodge, where we had reservations for a Mississippi River Cruise. When we got there we took the Alpine Slide down to the boat dock. The cruise lasted about an hour and a half and took us through several different "habitat" areas of the river. We saw a bald eagle and an eagle's nest, some turtles, a beaver dam, a crane and some other birds. It was a very relaxing trip. After the cruise we took the chair lifts back up the 'mountain'. The view from there was fantastic. Then we went back to our cabin where we had a feast for dinner! First we had our wine and cheese course with some of the leftover cheese and sausage from the winery. Then I grilled steaks while Emily baked potatoes and green bean casserole in the microwave in our cabin! Everything was delicious! We even had molten chocolate cake for dessert - thanks Betty Crocker!
Monday, June 15, 2009 - Day 4: Sadly we had to check out of our lovely little cabin that was our 'home' for the last few days. On a tip from "Frank" we drove up the road to check out Casper Bluffs. It is an ancient Indian Burial Mound. We weren't in the mood to walk up and down all the hills so we saw what we could see - the view was gorgeous and went back to town to shop in the places that we hadn't seen yet. We shopped for a few hours and had lunch out of the cooler then we had to make our way home. Decided to try two lanes on the way home and found even more road construction and detours - oh well - we eventually made it back home.
I think even Lexi had a good time - you'll have to check out her blog http://www.lexi-dog.blogspot.com/ to be sure! I know she was an awful good doggie while we were on our trip. She was an angel. I hope her Mommy gave her lots of treats when she got home for being such a good dog.
It was an amazing weekend! Totally relaxing and stress free. And I got to spend time with my best friend :) That hasn't happened in way too long. It was my first trip anywhere without any kids to worry about and I didn't even feel guilty for going! The three oldest were on a trip to MI with my Dad & Diana and we didn't do a thing that any of them would have enjoyed one bit anyways. It was a great time to 'recharge' and rest up. I'd recommend it to anyone that can get away.
WOW! If you made it through that post - you should get an award!!! Do you think it was long enough? :)
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