Busy!
I left Tuesday morning for Galena, and got to my B&B around 3:30, having made a few stops on the way. As I was approaching Freeport, I noticed signs for the Lincoln-Douglas debate site,
so decided to stop and check it out. As it was around noon, I figured I'd get some lunch, too. The site is in a small park next to the library, which has a café where I ended up having a bite. On the way back to the highway, there's a wetlands where I also stopped, and saw a gorgeous blue heron take off. A few miles outside of Freeport, I passed a sign for the Jane Addams Trail. "What's that?", I said, and turned around to check it out, ending up walking for about twenty minutes on a nice trail through a woodsy area.
The place where I stayed is an old Victorian mansion, built by a guy named Estey who was a pal of Ulysses S. Grant (who lived in Galena). The place is beautifully maintained, and the furnishings and décor are all period. Here's the very ornate, yet extremely comfortable, bed in my room:
Being the end of the season, and midweek, a lot of places weren't open, so I expect I'll have to go back some weekend in the spring, but there was still a lot to do. The Galena History Museum must have seen me coming, because they had an exhibit of shoes! I toured Grant's home; I think he had one of the best views in town:
.
Galena has a lot of touristy shops, some tacky, some very nice indeed. Unfortunately, this one was closed:
I did a fair bit of antiquing, ate in some nice restaurants and admired a lot of Victorian architecture.
I did find a couple of books in a lovely antiquarian bookshop, including one called Shakspere and Typography, in which the author attempts to prove that Shakespeare spent time working for a printer. I am always amused at people who try to show that, because he used certain terms or displayed knowledge of a field, Shakespeare must have been thus-and-so. If he'd been everything people claim he must have been, he'd have had no time to write plays!
I drove home on Thursday, deleted a bunch of emails, and uploaded my photos. That night, there was a benefit reception at the home of Teatro Vista's board president - yummy food and a raffle in which I won a $50 American Express gift card! - and then we all went to the show, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, by Kristoffer Diaz. It's just as good as the reviews say, and they are raves. It's getting all kinds of hot press, and there's talk of New York! You can see some video clips on the Victory Gardens website.
Tribune
Sun-Times
New City
Friday morning, I was up early and drove down to Springfield for a work-related conference. It was one of the best they've had. The speakers were uniformly not boring (which is rare - there's usually at least one who puts you to sleep) and the information was very useful. The meeting wrapped up around noon on Saturday, but I spent a couple of hours checking out some historic sites, including the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices
and the Old State Capitol building, where there was a storytelling event going on in the House of Representatives chamber
I then headed to the home of the lovely tzurriz, and had pizza with her family and a couple of wandering Bookcrossers, and received some Tim-Tams! Thank you, skyring!
so decided to stop and check it out. As it was around noon, I figured I'd get some lunch, too. The site is in a small park next to the library, which has a café where I ended up having a bite. On the way back to the highway, there's a wetlands where I also stopped, and saw a gorgeous blue heron take off. A few miles outside of Freeport, I passed a sign for the Jane Addams Trail. "What's that?", I said, and turned around to check it out, ending up walking for about twenty minutes on a nice trail through a woodsy area.
The place where I stayed is an old Victorian mansion, built by a guy named Estey who was a pal of Ulysses S. Grant (who lived in Galena). The place is beautifully maintained, and the furnishings and décor are all period. Here's the very ornate, yet extremely comfortable, bed in my room:
Being the end of the season, and midweek, a lot of places weren't open, so I expect I'll have to go back some weekend in the spring, but there was still a lot to do. The Galena History Museum must have seen me coming, because they had an exhibit of shoes! I toured Grant's home; I think he had one of the best views in town:
.
Galena has a lot of touristy shops, some tacky, some very nice indeed. Unfortunately, this one was closed:
I did a fair bit of antiquing, ate in some nice restaurants and admired a lot of Victorian architecture.
I did find a couple of books in a lovely antiquarian bookshop, including one called Shakspere and Typography, in which the author attempts to prove that Shakespeare spent time working for a printer. I am always amused at people who try to show that, because he used certain terms or displayed knowledge of a field, Shakespeare must have been thus-and-so. If he'd been everything people claim he must have been, he'd have had no time to write plays!
I drove home on Thursday, deleted a bunch of emails, and uploaded my photos. That night, there was a benefit reception at the home of Teatro Vista's board president - yummy food and a raffle in which I won a $50 American Express gift card! - and then we all went to the show, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, by Kristoffer Diaz. It's just as good as the reviews say, and they are raves. It's getting all kinds of hot press, and there's talk of New York! You can see some video clips on the Victory Gardens website.
Tribune
Sun-Times
New City
Friday morning, I was up early and drove down to Springfield for a work-related conference. It was one of the best they've had. The speakers were uniformly not boring (which is rare - there's usually at least one who puts you to sleep) and the information was very useful. The meeting wrapped up around noon on Saturday, but I spent a couple of hours checking out some historic sites, including the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices
and the Old State Capitol building, where there was a storytelling event going on in the House of Representatives chamber
I then headed to the home of the lovely tzurriz, and had pizza with her family and a couple of wandering Bookcrossers, and received some Tim-Tams! Thank you, skyring!