Galena 2007

We made it back safely from a wonderful birthday weekend in Galena. The weather couldn't have been more perfect as we wound our way through the Illinois countryside. We started our trip Friday night by heading to Matt & Lisa's. There we relaxed and slept in --something that doesn't happen very often for either of us. Ken spent some of Sat. morning working while I enjoyed cable TV, always a treat. As a note, I'd like you all to know that I actually refused to take any work with me this weekend! Here we are on Sat. morning as we left Matt & Lisa's to head out even further into the country.

We headed east toward Galena and took our time stopping in the town of Scales Mound, IL, a little place I've always wanted to visit. You see, when I was a kid, there was a book I always read that talked about the life of a real family that lived in Scales Mound. Ever since then, I've wanted to visit and see some of the sights mentioned in the book. Ken, bless his heart, indulged me in that this weekend, even though the book is over 30-some years old and many of the sights aren't as recognizable as they were before. Still, we were able to play detective and discover some of the sights shown and discussed in the books. Very cool for me!


We then made our way to our B&B which was actually in Hazel Green, WI, just 8 miles outside of Galena. Apparently, it's nearly impossible to get a B&B reservation inside of Galena in October (turning leaves, fall festivals, etc.). But we stayed in a really cool old Stagecoach building converted to a B&B in Hazel Green. We highly recommend it! This is a picture.


That night, we ate at Vinny Vanucci's Italian restaurant in Galena and then took part in 2 historical/ghost walking tours of Galena. This is something we like to do, and while waiting for our first tour to begin, we calculated that we've only done 2 such tours so far (St. Augustine, FL and Plymouth, MA). The second tour of Galena was much cooler than the first, taking us to some old houses, buildings, and a cemetery. Like all good ghost tour people, we took tons of pictures trying to capture spirits and orbs on our digital camera (something the tour guides swear can happen). I'm not sure if you can see all of the little white balls of light in the picture below. These are supposedly spirit orbs. This picture was taken next to an old abandoned Poor House/Mental Asylum in Galena. Click on the picture and maybe you'll see them better.


On Sunday, we enjoyed the second B (Breakfast) of our B&B weekend and then headed out to see a few more Galena attractions follolwed by getting back on the road headed west. We stopped at Apple Canyon Fort in Elizabeth, IL because there was some sort of re-enactment of the frontier days at the fort. It wasn't super exciting, let me tell you.


In all, a great weekend, one that went far too quickly. It's back to work today at home for me and at work for Ken. I'm heading to Pittsburg, PA for a conference with the CTLT people from Thursday-Sunday of this week. We're driving the 8+ hours. Though I'm lookig forward to seeing what this conference is like, that's one drive I'll be happy to have done with.

Thanks, again, everyone for the birthday wishes!