At 10:00am we headed over to the DeSoto House to meet our (highly recommended) tour guide, Steve Repp. Mr. Repp took us on a one hour walking tour of downtown historical Galena.

We learned that Abraham Lincoln addressed the public from the balcony of DeSoto House and people gathered around, crowding in the very street we were standing upon.

We were told about the great floods that nearly wiped out the entire downtown area until the flood walls were built. Over the years the streets and buildings have been updated but the public has fought to preserve the history of this little town as best they can.

Notice the curve of the street & the buildings: 

 After our tour we did a little shopping. (Mostly window shopping.) I love all the cute little shop! Lots of antiques and novelties to be found. I like to look at everything but don’t really care to bring a bunch home. We did enjoy some delicious treats from the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory. Andy & I have never met a sweets shop we didn’t like. (Reminded me of when I visited him in South Texas when we were first dating; we went to this open air mall and gorged ourselves on chocolate, toffee and other goodies.)

Then we had a couple drinks at the Grape Escape as we watched our Hawkeyes win another game! After a couple hours of walking around we thought we’d go tour the Ryan Mansion.

 The wind was blowing and we huddled on the front porch. The sign read “No reservations necessary! Tours begin approximately every 15 minutes. Ring bell and we will be with you momentarily.” Perfect timing! It was 11:55pm. So I rang the bell and we waited. And waited. Waited some more as the wind contined to whip through our clothes. Andy rang the bell. We continued to wait. The wind continued to blow. At 12:05 we decided we were done freezing and did not want to see the mansion that badly. Guess they must not have wanted our $20 that badly either. Oh well.

As we were waiting there we discussed how cold it was going to be at the Parade that evening so off to Wally World we went to get some long underwear, gloves, a scarf, and some kind of earmuff/headband thing-a-majig. We were geared up, ready for the Halloween weather so we headed back downtown and waited for the parade to begin.

The parade was a lot of fun – TONS of costumes everywhere! Lots of fun floats but I think my favorite at the time were all the hot air balloon baskets that were shooting flames overhead; it was REALLY warm! Andy got a video, which I will try to post soon.

After the parade we walked down to the DeSoto House where we had our Haunted Dinner!

When I booked I had no idea what we were in for. There were people in full costume and full character all night! Ghosts and historical characters reenacted scenes from the early 1800s. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife even visted our table asking for our votes. Well, Andy’s vote anyway, as I would not have had the right to vote at that time. To remind me to stand up and fight for my rights, Susan B. Anthony and a couple other women stopped by to remind us to push for women’s right to vote.

After dinner we went up to the ballroom for dessert with the Paranormal Research of Illinois. This group gave a presentation and showed us actual footage of some of their investigations around Galena & Illinois. I loved it! Andy is convinced it was purely entertainment. I respectfully disagree. If you’re into this kind of thing you should visit their site and check out the audio and video clips – spooky!! The evening wrapped up just before the stroke of midnight so we drove to the Country Inn and Suites and promptly fell asleep.

Wow. What a jam-packed, fun filled day. I would highly recommend a trip to Galena if you’ve never been. Our original intent was to do some wine tasting, which is one thing Galena is known for. However, we never got around to it. And that’s okay, that just gives us another reason to go back.

I told Andy that we should plan a trip every year for our Anniversary. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday and there’s sure to be something going on no matter where we go. He liked that idea and suggested Vegas next year. Sounds good!

Have you ever done these things in Galena? What else should we put on our list of things to do next time? Where would you suggest we go to celebrate future anniversaries?

This week I am thankful for having a good marriage. No, a GREAT marriage and a wonderful partner. On November 1 Andy & I will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had so many consecutive days of being happy. And as he always says, “we’ve got a lot of life to live.” I can only hope so.

To celebrate we will be headed to the beautiful little town of Galena this weekend to walk downtown, maybe do some shopping, tour a mansion, enjoy a little wine tasting, maybe catch the Halloween Parade and I cannot believe it,  but Andy agreed to a Haunted Dinner & Ghost Tour! =) See, I told you he’s the best!

What are you thankful for today?

Check out these fun souvenirs he brought back with him:

An authentic Ukrainian weapon (a “good conversation piece” as Andy refers to it):

Some of the assumingly most delicious vodka in the world in a very cool bottle:

Fun doll toy/knick-knack (I can’t remember the official name of it!):

And a cute little amber bracelet:

On his flight back they had a layover in Amsterdam. He said it was really neat and that we should vacation there sometime. I’m game for most any international vacation. Perhaps for our 5 yr anniversary?

So Internet, what are you thankful for today?

I’ve determined Andy has ruined me. A long time ago when we first started dating I sort of looked forward to my time alone when he travelled. It gave me the perfect excuse to stay up for hours into the night surfing the internet, working on elle Z design or misc. craft projects, and blogging. And now although I still look forward to having time to do those things while he’s away it’s more of an adjustment. I find that I’m not really motivated to much of anything; I’m sort of lost without him. LOL I have no problem locking myself in my workshop for hours if he’s upstairs but not when he’s away.

Actually, it hasn’t been too bad so far. After he left yesterday morning I did a little shopping, came home and did some laundry, then picked up the house (One good thing about him being gone is that my house will stay picked up.)  My nieces came over and the hours passed quickly as they always do when they are here. (I had to make an effort to keep the house picked up, of course!) I got them up and ready this morning and they headed to church with Grandma & Grandpa. Soon I’ll be getting things together for Alyssa’s 3rd birthday party, which we are having here.

I hope I will find the motivation to go to the darn gym at some point. All Andy could talk about is how his trip was really going to hinder his fitness schedule! =) He’s been doing the ActivTrax thing now for about 40 workouts and I must say I am finally seeing the results and he is loving it. I’m so proud of him. Maybe I’ll at least get a run in on the treadmill tonight since this cold weather is NOT helping to get me out of the house.

I think this week will go by fast. I have plans with friends and projects to do so I’m sure it will be over before I know it. Nine days and counting. Hopefully he will bring me back some of that delicious Russian vodka to sample!

• The best airline food I’ve ever had is the cookies served by NWA on my first flight.
• One of the items I left at home in an attempt to lighten my load (as I always try to fly w/o checking luggage) was my conditioner, thinking I’ve never seen a hotel that didn’t offer shampoo and conditioner. I tried the eco-friendly freebies at the hotel and decided I did not like the conditioner. The second day I thought maybe I should try using more to see if that worked better. Luckily I read the label closely this time; it was actually lotion. Oops. But I did enjoy the new less-waste soap design:

• To further frustrate my morning shower experience, my room is equipped with a handicap shower. At first glance I thought, hey, more room, bonus! But the design is seriously flawed. The removable shower head is stuck smack dab in the middle of rectangular shower and I can’t seem to angle it in any direction that doesn’t directly flood my floor outside the shower. Grrr.

• Tuesday night is “Queen Night” at the Donovan House rooftop bar (and it was FABulous!)
• Google Maps and a patient husband on the phone are wonderful things when you don’t know where the heck you are at 10PM stumbling walking back to your room after an evening of dinner & drinks with associates. There are loops everywhere – take the wrong street & it’ll put you blocks away from your destination!
• The city is awesome, lots of people out and about but not the super-jam-packed-hustle-and-bustle that is NYC, but just right.

• Walking to work is wonderful.
• The glass doors to the showroom are so clean I nearly walked face first into them not realizing there was indeed a door in front of me. True story.
• I saw pigeons eating discarded hot wings. That seemed so very, very wrong on so many levels.
• I saw I guy walking around wearing jeans, a button down shirt, and a Mr. T-ish gold chain (just one though) carrying a single dumbell that he lifted every now and then. (For exercise?)
• A “severe thunderstorm” warning convinced me not to take the awesome DC Night Tour. =( It is currently cloudy, but no thunder. Should have sucked it up, bought an umbrella, and I could have managed; Stupid weather.
• Took a stroll past the Obama residence and saw the capitol from a distance.

• Luckily, right before my trip I used some nifty Fabrictac

to fix my broken sandals

and make them almost brand new again!

So I got to do a lot of walking around, which was nice.

All in all this was a great trip. I enjoyed the training and really liked the city. I would like to go back with Andy and actually see the sights when I have more time. If/when we go back, what do you suggest we do and see?