A Weekend of Fun and Relaxation

Brett and I snuck out of town for the weekend. Not for a wedding. Not to visit family. Not for any other reason than to spend some time together - just the two of us! So Friday after work, we headed to Galena, IL! What a fabulous place! Friday night we checked in to The Irish Cottage Hotel and decided to just relax, eat dinner at Frank O'Dowd's Irish Pub in the bottom of the hotel, and enjoy the Irish music by Jeff Ward. He sang some great Irish and contemporary songs and was very entertaining. We woke up Saturday morning and ate breakfast at the same Pub. a free continental breakfast was provided with our room. In addition to the usual goodies found on a continental breakfast, we got choose some made to order hot items. Breakfast was so delicious and I am still dreaming about the fresh cinnamon scones! We drove into Galena to check things out before we checked in for our kayak trip at Fever river Outfitters. We loaded a van that drove us into the middle of nowhere where they put our kayak in the water and said "See Ya!" We thought we would have a guide, but it was so much better that we didn't. We had so much fun paddling and relaxing, and getting the boat all turned around. I even had to get in the water once because we ran into a very shallow part and got stuck! Five miles and about 2 hours later, we arrived back in Galena. When Brett got out on shore, his whole foot suck into the mud and he had the spend the next few hours with very soggy shoes! We had worked up an appetite, but weren't in the mood for food so we went to Miss Kitty's Grape Escape for her Saturday afternoon Bloody Mary Bar! So great!!! After that it was back to the hotel to sit in the hot tub and then get ready for dinner.

We walked around for a little while decided where to eat and the mean time, I had a Tarot reading done by the famous "Two Tarot Ladies" of Galena. WOW!!! Everything she said was so dead on, it was scary! We decided on eating at the Desoto House's Generals' Restaurant, the hotel being one of the oldest hotels in the US. The ambiance was not really our style but the food was amazing! After dinner, we decided to go on our very own bar crawl. We went to Boone's for a local beer, Vinny Vanucchi's for chocolate martinis and dessert (DELICIOUS tiramisu), and then it was Benjamin's, Gobbie's, and then we ended the night back at Miss Kitty's!

Sunday morning, we probably could have slept the day away - in fact we almost missed breakfast. We ate at the hotel again and the went to check out a local historical landmark, a house once owned and occupied by Ulysses S. Grant. The rest of the afternoon we spent leisurely strolling the shops looking for some fun things to take home. We walked to the top of the town and what a beautiful overlook it was.

We found a Catholic Church which happened to be names St. Michael's, the same as our church at home. It was very old and beautiful and had the most amazing crucifix and statue of Mary on the hill behind it. After enjoying a juicy burger at Dirty Gurt's Burger Joynt, we headed back home to be greeted by the puppies who missed us so very much!