Fall Adventure Part 1: Mississippi Palisades and Galena

Lincoln had a long weekend off toward the end of October, and with a baby coming in Spring, we decided to make our long-planned Northwest Illinois trip a little early.  Two state parks, a day or two in Galena, and a handful of Black Hawk War historical sites were all on the agenda.

First stop Thursday morning was a little pull-off between Polo and Lanark.  There was a historical marker explaining that Abraham Lincoln traveled this way and may have even camped for a night with his military attachment nearby(!).  Bennett was chiefly interested in playing a few rounds of hide-and-seek in the small Oak grove.

Obligatory bury-the-small-child-in-fallen-leaves picture

Next was a picnic lunch (Bennett had chosen a special package of Chips Ahoy cookies for the occasion) and a hike at Mississippi Palisades State Park just north of Savanna.  A pregnant Tracey bravely soldiered through the hike.  Here she is with a particular favorite leaf of Bennett's he had given her for safekeeping.  The hike itself through a forest of falling (yes, -ing) leaves was very pretty.  Sadly, no mammalian, reptilian, or amphibian wildlife was spotted, but Bennett assured us the animals were simply asleep for the Winter.

Here we are at Indian Head Rock.  What, you can't tell it's an Indian Head?  Not pictured: Tracey, who is afraid of steep overlooks (and this one was a doozy).  Lincoln wanted to make the leap over to the outcropping boulder but thought better of it with young Bennett in tow.  Bennett was thrilled to see a train far below steaming by at river's edge.

A family portrait at Lookout Point.  Note how narrow the Mississippi River appears in the far background, a rarity this far South on its course.  Also note Bennett's train in the top left corner.

No big animals, but old, reliable Class Insecta can always be counted on to make an appearance or two no matter the season (note: except for pretty much all of Winter...unless you are counting the Box Elder bugs at Grandpa and Grandma Andreasen's house in Bountiful).  Here is a delightful walking stick.  We also saw a cool-looking hornet and some shield bugs

Tracey didn't make the long (board)walk down to Oak Point, so she missed out on an excellent rock-throwing aside.

Supposedly, Bald Eagles frequently nest down there below Louis' point.  Perhaps not so much by late October.

Okay, last scenic overlook at something called Ozzie's Point

On to Galena!  One of LIFE's 'Around the World in 80 Places, the galena.org website implores!  '14th Friendliest City in the World,' raves something called Conde Nast Traveler!  Anyway, all that aside, it certainly is a gorgeous drive and Galena itself is a quaint old-fashioned little vacation resort town.  Of course, we are not exactly in financial shape to take full advantage of the fancy restaurants and hotels as well as the boutique shopping opportunities.  However, Lincoln is his father's son, so the main goal became hitting up the (mostly) free historical sites and get a small sense of the town at least through osmosis.  You see, this was sort of Ulysses S. Grant's hometown just before the Civil War made him famous.  Here is Bennett admiring the sword and knife portion of what is apparently the biggest collection of Grant 'stuff' in the country at the Old Market building in downtown Galena.

From the moment we parked, Bennett immediately wanted to walk along the river and across the bridge to Grant Park (mainly to throw rocks, leaves, and sticks into the Galena River (should have kept the previous name of Fever River) as opposed to actually learning about Grant).  Why he's electing to walk backwards across said bridge is anyone's guess.

Rather poor attempt at capturing downtown Galena in the background from the bridge.  At least Tracey looks good, though, right?

Grant Park proudly displays giant guns from various American military conflicts.  Bennett fully enjoyed finding and subsequently inspecting each one.  This giant Naval cannon is from a gunboat in the Spanish-American War.

Captured German Howitzer used in World War I.

The 'Blakely Rifle,' a gift from some South Carolina artillery enthusiasts living abroad in Britain back to their home state about one year before the start of the Civil War.  Supposedly fired on Fort Sumter.  Somehow procured by an Illinois Congressman 35 years later and placed here since.

Ah, there's the General Grant of 'Grant Park' fame

A Napoleonic cannon again from the Civil War.

Clearly bushed after chasing down so many cannons in the park, we retired to our hotel which according to Bennett's explicit instruction at the time of booking must have a frog slide in a kiddie pool.  Also, there was this slide...

Lincoln and Bennett sharing a hotel bed: the first instance of a recurring theme during our recent travels over the past few months with a pregnant Tracey claiming one bed all to herself (although she explains there are actually two in each bed so it's fair).

Friday morning began with a visit to the Galena & U.S. Grant Museum.  The first floor contained exhibits on the local history.  Galena was the site of one of the first true mineral rushes in American History.  It was the leading producer of lead ore in the 19th century.  The top floor was focused on Grant and the Civil War.  An astounding 9 Union Generals hailed from Galena (although Grant barely moved here a year before the outbreak of war to work in his father's tannery).  Tracey thinks this Mathew Brady photograph of Grant is particularly handsome.

Speaking of Mathew Brady, check out Bennett's handiwork here!  Nice artistic use of the famed 'Dutch Angle' photographic technique, no?

I don't exactly recall what captivated Bennett in this display case.  Perhaps Cong. Allen's wooden gavel?

Thomas Nast's original painting "Peace in Union" depicting the surrender at Appomattox.

Elihu B Washburne home.  He was a U.S. Congressman who was an early political supporter of Lincoln and also later Grant.  The 1868 election results were reported to his living room in this house (Grant won).  He was also the American ambassador to France in 1870 when Bismarck smoked Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War and stayed in Paris while it was being overthrown from without and within to help preserve some semblance of order.  Bismarck and the Kaiser gifted him life-sized portraits of themselves for his efforts (Germans are sort of weird); replicas hang in this house.  If you thought Elihu is a pretty cool name (Book of Job, right?), consider some of these other given names in his family: Cadwallader (brother), Hempstead (son), Adele (wife). 

Next was a tour of the actual Grant home, gifted to him by the citizens of Galena (they only lived here briefly after the war and before his presidential terms).  Not pictured is a rather unsightly statue of Julia Grant in the front yard.  Tracey claims the questionable nature of the statue rubbed off on her in our picture so neither her nor Julia are fit for public consumption.  Sorry.

A neat little display of each U.S. President's pets while serving in the White House (I think that's Teddy Roosevelt's wild menagerie prominently pictured there on the left).

Various First Lady's White House china.

So there you go. Come for the cute pictures of Bennett, stay for the 19th century history lessons. More to come in Part 2...