Gallivanting in Galena

I spent a lovely week in Galena, Illinois with WikidKriket and Missouri Mom. Galena is a wonderful historic town in Northwest Illinois - 8 miles from Wisconsin and 15 from Iowa. It's nestled in a mountainous range along the Mississippi floodplain.

It's hard to tempt you with pictures as it rained and every day was overcast. Plus you can't smell the Garlic Fries from the DeSoto Hotel (oldest restaurant in Illinois), the Lobster with squid ink Ravioli from Fried Green Tomatoes, the Paddy Melt (from Frank O'Dowd's Irish Pub) or the homemade Cinnamon Rolls (Otto's Place).

However, I can tempt you with some of the geocaches along the way.  No geocache names as there are Virtual involved, but the Galenian geocaches were top-notch.

First stop on the road - a good sign

Freeport was fascinating (no spoiler pics here). Not only was it the site of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates...

Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Freeport

... It was also the site of a miniaturized Wrigley Field plus...

... an attack duck! This was the last shot of this duck in Krape Park before it made a beeline for me and attacked. Imagine seeing a plump, gray-haired geocacher bent at the waist, shooing off this foul fowl  with her shoe and shouting, "No! No! No!" as she is scrambling for safety in reverse.  The duck got my shoe and my toes and my calves and my dignity. Luckily a heroic bystander grabbed the little single-minded assailant as I scrambled to my sister's car. Thankfully, her phone was tucked away in her pocket - no video of the attack survives!

And now we enter Galena...

Steps going up, up, up the hill!

Geocaching is hard work

At the top looking down

B&B's on the top of the hill

The cache pages shared interesting historical tidbits about Galena's past including the stairs up to the high school, the last Blacksmith and the Steamboat Capital of the US.

Walking bridge from Galena to Grant Park

Home of Ulysses S. Grant and Family

Contrary to popular opinion, she doesn't look
like Mrs. Butterworth to us!

View from Grant Park

And then heading back home...

Great fun with WikidKriket - hopefully we can make it back soon!