Galena is such a pretty town! Before leaving this monring we drove down to see Ulysses S. Grant’s home, perched on a hill overlooking the town. It’s in a lovely setting and he must have counted himself lucky as it was gifted to him by the grateful people of Galena after his victories in the Civil War.
Below the house and running along the river is Grant Park, another tribute to the president. It’s was delightful on a warm summer morning, with its emerald green immaculate lawns, fountains, cannons and gardens.
We drove on down the river along the Illinois section of the Great River Road. The Great River Road National Scenic Byway follows the course of the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The scenic route passes through 10 states and hundreds of river towns. We have driven stretches of it in several states now and we’ll see more agaiin on this trip. The road is marked by signs along its length, which vary slightly from state to state.
Not for down the road we crossed the river back into Iowa for an hour or so. We stopped briefly at Eagle Point Park in Clinton because we hoped to get a good view of the river from the park’s castle tower, but I’ afraid all that lush green summer foliage meant the view was just a glimpse!
We saw more of the river as we approached Le Claie, Iowa. Buffalo Bill Cody was born in Le Claire and there is a museum in the town in his honour. However there were many more visitors at the home of one of our favourite TV shows, The American Pickers. Mike and Frank are the stars of the show and own Antique Archeology, an antique store on the banks of the river. Each program sees them heading off across the USA hunting ( or “picking”) through old farms and stores for “rusty gold” – the treasures they sell on to collectors.
From Le Claire we crossed the river again and left Iowa behind for good. Now we were on a new mission… to visit as many landmarks as we could to the Blues Brothers, one of our all time favourite movies! we’d carefull calculates when we were 106 miles from Chicago so we could commemorate one iconing scene ( and of course we’d come with props!)
In the town of Joliet we stopped at the Joliet route 66 museum, not so much for the Route 66 memorabilia but to see the tribute to Jake and Elwwod in the foyer !
I wasn’t too keen on the next stop… Neil wanted us to drive into the seedier part of the town to see the old Joliet State Penintentiary, where Jake is released at the very beginning of the movie. The things that man makes me do!
Finally, we set our sites for the next big highlight of the trip – Chicago! The traffic heading into the city was chockers, but luckily Google maps helped us find the best route.
It wasn’t long before we were checking in to our hone for a couple of nights, The River Hotel, which true to its name is right on the banks of the Chicago River, with a very fine view of said river… and the Trump Tower! I’ve just taken these photos as the evening lights come up in the city
We dropped our bags and headed out to take a walk along the “Riverwalk” , a pathway which runs along the riverside all the way from the lake down to the middle of the business district. It’s lined by gardens and restaurants and shops and was thronging with people.
The river itself is a hive of activity, with dozens of tour boats going back and forth as well as water taxis, police boats and some very brave kayakers!
We left the river at Columbus Avenue and walked south into Millenium Park. We were a bit perplexed when we had to go though a bag check at the park entrance and were thinking it was a sad commentary on America’s gun culture if you couldn’t even enter a park withoout a bag check! However, it turned out the bag check was for the free evening concert event running in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in the park. They’re enjoying Mahlers Symphony No 2 there this evening.
We walked across to one of Chicago’s icons – the “Cloudgate”, more affectionately known as “The Bean” is a massive stainless steel sculpture by British artist Sir Anish Kapoor, with a mirror like surface. It draws huge crowds and I can see why, its mesmerizing!
Just a short distance from the Bean is the equally popular Crown Fountain, whixh consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images of 1000 different Chicago citizens ( one at a time). Every few minutes the images spit a shaft of fountain water from their mouths, to the absolute delight of all the hot kids that were playing in between the two towers.
Next stop on our city tour was Daley Plaza, with its huse Picasso Statue. Neil, considers it more famous as it features heavily in the end scenes of the Blues Brothers!
We started to walk back towards the river, passing the colourful Chicago Theatre along the way.
The architecture in this city is amazing, not just the incredible modern towers and the grand old skyscrapers from the early 20th century but the attention to detail on decorative elements. I loved this clock.
As we walked north along the riverwalk we passed throngs of city workers and tourists all enjoying Friday evening drinks at the various bars along the banks.
Luckily we found a table at the Chicago Brewhouse where we sat and enjoyed a couple of local beers for dinner and some share plates of Chicago classics, the pizza was wonderful! They had 22 different Chicago brewed beers on the menu, Neil was spoiled for choice!
