As a child my vacations revolved around excitement, energy, and reunions. There was always a lot to do and people to see. There were rides to be ridden and trails to climb. Cousins to hang out with and to play cards with. Vacation was about doing as much as possible with as many cool people as possible.
For Memorial Day weekend 2014, we got to spend one of our first vacation's together without any of the typical vacation things that I remember as a kid. We went to Galena. Not because we had family there or because we were meeting friends there. Not because it was full of the biggest watersides or the fastest rides.
Instead we went for us.
We wanted/needed a break from the city. I was coming off of a tough couple of weeks of school and Mrs. Bluth needed a few days out of the city.
So, Galena. Located in the Northwest corner of Illinois, it was the perfect getaway. The second most visited city in Illinois (according to them at least), most of the buildings in town are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. President Ulysses S. Grant was residing in Galena when he found out that he had been elected President of the United States.
They have kept the downtown in pristine condition. We walked up and down the same couple of streets several times just looking at the incredible architecture and the quirky shops. Our first purchase came at an ice cream parlor that was built in the 1800's. The ice cream counter had been installed in the 1930's. The ice cream was terrific and the waffle cones were better. We looked in stores full of vintage and new clothing. We explored cheap pizzerias and found some displaced Veracruzans who had established only the second Mexican cocina in Galena.
The Galena river is rather slow moving and looked like a great place to learn to kayak. I have a younger sister that likes to ride a tandem bike. However, she always rides in the back and stops peddling and just enjoys the ride. In order to not make the same mistake, I sat in the back of the tandem kayak so I could keep an eye on Mrs. Bluth. We saw a couple water snakes (resulting in a couple shrieks), a few fish, and a couple of turtles. It was a blast and we got the first color of summer on our sun-deprived epidermis. A tad too red for my liking.
On Sunday we escaped to Dubuque and attended the Dubuque 1st ward meeting. For some reason, we will need to research, about a quarter of the ward was from the Marshall Islands. They even had a few missionaries from the Marshall Islands serving in the ward and translating the meeting. Then we explored a few sites in Dubuque. There were several educating hikes to be found. US history is not my strongest subject and so it was interesting to read about battles between the French and the Native Americans and the French ceding land to the Spanish and finally the US expanding out to the West.
We visited a protected area where we beheld a bird effigy created sometime between 700-1000AD. It was rather subtly built and we would not have noticed it were it not for the signs identifying its presence.
Mostly we felt great being out of our normal, daily grind. We loved the fresh air and looking at the majesty of the Mississippi. We enjoyed hiking through areas that were much less rundown than our normal trails here in Chicago. We people watched and saw a lot of different people than we see at our workplaces here at home.
And most importantly we spent time together. We simply enjoyed each other's presence. We vacationed not to be amused or entertained. We vacationed to connect.
Due to our need to connect (with each other) and to unplug we did not take as many pictures as we mostly put away our phones.
Mr. Bluth was a great a driver of the kayak while Mrs. Bluth likes to think that she fulfilled her responsibility of offering comedic relief. Here is a picture of Mr. Bluth's view from the kayak.
We always forget how Illinois is so flat because we live in the city and our view everyday are the skyscrapers, but we were quickly reminded when we arrived at one of the suggested places to go hiking. Hopefully the picture will give a good idea of the rolling hills we "hiked".
Galena could also be called the city of benches as there are benches that line the city streets and walking paths. Below is a picture of one of the many views we enjoyed from a park bench.
Mrs. Bluth is famous for having crazy aspirations. Once she saw these stairs on their first day she knew that she had to climb them. Unfortunately she waited until the last day and after the huge breakfast to insist on the journey. This picture does not show the stairs that come after the first flight.
After the hike up the stairs, Mr. Bluth was rewarded with some root beer and one last chance to sit on a bench.
We hope to visit Galena again as it was the perfect escape from the city and so that we can actually take better pictures of the quaint city.
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