Emmy's favorites from Galena: "i liked the cheese place, chocolate store"
Tyler's favorite from Galena: "The big slide,it was ginormous"
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Day One-travels to Galena and Amana
Just back from vactation and thought this woudl be a good time to start this. Carrie (wife/mom/all round awesome) and I (Brian/Dad) have been saying we should do after seeing Julie's (sister in-law) blog. Mainly you will hear about our travels and anything going on in our lives. It will be the whole family blogging so be on the look out for blogs by Emmy (oldest child) and Tyler (youngest child).
We are just back from a long weekend road trip to Galena, IL and Amana, IA with a stop in Coal Valley, IL. We loaded up and headed out to Galena early Saturday morning. We headed north on the Great River Road to hopefully see some nice scenery and maybe some cool birds. Carrie an I saw lots of cool things while the kids saw two movies, their Leapsters, and listen to music on mp3 players, my how times have change. Just outside of Savannah, IL is a great flea market. It sounds weird but we thought the kids would find it fun. We walked through the booths looking at all the different treasures. We left 45 minutes later with two new Disney movies for Tyler and another stuffed animal for Emmy. They both felt they got great deals. It was a short drive to Galena from there and soon we were ready for lunch.
Before eating lunch we see the Galena Garlic Company. We must go in because Carrie and I love garlic. We walk to a cloud of wonderful spice smells. Tyler and Emmy think the place smells bad and need to leave before they pass out from all the terrible smells. Carrie takes them outside to wait while I get to explore a little. I pick a mole rub and a coffee BBQ rub. Both tasted great and will be used on the grill soon.
We had lunch at Green St Tavern, connected to the Desoto Hotel. Kids had chickens strips and fries, great deal only $4.50 and was huge, and Carrie and I shared the appetizer combo, not as good as the kids. Food was decent but beer selection was great. I love it when the bad beer on tap is Sam Adams seasonal.
We were full and ready to walk the streets of Galena. First stop was a chocolate shop. The kids needed dessert. They shared a huge chocolate covered strawberry, maybe one of the biggest I have seen. Carrie had a lavender truffle, which she said was very good. I had a chili cream chocolate. It was great spicy and sweet at the same time. It was dark chocolate, that I am normally not a big fan of but worked perfectly. Next stop, Webkinz.
Emmy and Tyler are addicted to Webkinz. They love playing the games on the website and building their webkniz rooms that their animals live in. In some of the best marketing I have seen, Webkinz issues a pet of the month so Emmy wanted the brown monkey-July's selection. SO we find a store with Webknizs, not hard in Galena, and they have the Brown monkey that has been talked about for three weeks. Do we buy the brown monkey, no. Instead we get a chihuahua and Tyler gets a cow. Both pay for their webkinz with their own money and we are off the the next store, Great American Popcorn Company.
We walked in the door to fresh Carmel corn, not a bad start. After looking around a bit, Emmy and Tyler see that they have ice cream. They need ice cream, shopping for webKinz makes you very hungry. They each get a cup of Blue Moon, think of the milk at the bottom of Fruit Loops and you pretty much have Blue Moon. Carrie and I both pass on ice cream but pick up some Galena Mix popcorn for a snack later. Next stop, cheese shop.
Emmy knows that there is a cheese shop in Galena because we parked by is and she LOVES cheese. We walk back to the cheese shop and head in. Tyler is tired and wants no part of the cheese shop so Carrie and him wait outside while Emmy looks for string cheese. They do not have string cheese. Emmy settles for a nice aged provolone, her third favorite cheese. We head out and decide that Mom and Dad would like to sample a little wine before heading to the hotel to check in, off to Galena Cellars.
We have never tasted wines with children before, I now know why. Emmy wants to eat her cheese and Tyler wants to leave. Carrie and I each try six different wines. We have tried some before and really liked Galena Cellars wines but this time nothing tasted right so we leave with no wine. Off the the hotel, Stoney Creek Inn.
We check right in, no problems, room is ready and so are we for a little rest. After some quick naps we go swimming before dinner. Rooms at Stoney Creek are small and so is the pool area but everyone is enjoying it any way. We have planned to go to Happy Joe's Pizza for dinner and everyone is hungry so we head to Happy Joe's
Everyone loves Happy Joe's. Kids got cheese pizzas, while Carrie and I get the Nacho Joe, imagine nachos on a pizza crust-just awesome. While waiting for the pizza we play in the game room and get some tickets to redeem. Decent redemption center but prizes a bit higher priced than others. Kids love it and pretty much get candy, dessert is taken care of. We decide to head out and check out Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort
I had read that Chestnut had alpine slides in the summer. These are pretty much a concrete slide that you ride down on a wheeled sled. We were not going to do this because of cost ($7.00/slide) and because we did not know if the kids would even like it. We decided to give it a try. The kids loved it! Emmy rode with me and just wanted it to go faster, and Tyler rode with Carrie and wanted to drive which caused them to stop and few times and almost cause a crash but everyone made it to the bottom and rode the ski lift back to the top. Of course they wanted to go again. Next time we will get the twilight lift passes for $20 to ride from 5:00 until dusk, something to look forward to. We spotted a playground and the kids wanted to play so we walked over and the the playground was great. It had all the unsafe equipment that Carrie and I grew up with. The merry go round with just handles and a place to stand, teeter totter with not handles to hold on to, and my favorite, a set of swing that spun around while swinging. We let them play for about 20 minutes and try out all the equipment that we never be a new playground. We were still going to play mini golf tonight. To the Lil' General Mini Golf.
Emmy and Tyler love mini golf as much as Carrie and I do. The Lil' General proved to be a tough course much like The General at Eagle Ridge Resort. We do not keep score but I think I won, however the children showed much improvement since taking golf lessons. Time to head back and go to bed. Another early morning tomorrow as we head for Niabi Zoo and the Wasserbahn.
We are just back from a long weekend road trip to Galena, IL and Amana, IA with a stop in Coal Valley, IL. We loaded up and headed out to Galena early Saturday morning. We headed north on the Great River Road to hopefully see some nice scenery and maybe some cool birds. Carrie an I saw lots of cool things while the kids saw two movies, their Leapsters, and listen to music on mp3 players, my how times have change. Just outside of Savannah, IL is a great flea market. It sounds weird but we thought the kids would find it fun. We walked through the booths looking at all the different treasures. We left 45 minutes later with two new Disney movies for Tyler and another stuffed animal for Emmy. They both felt they got great deals. It was a short drive to Galena from there and soon we were ready for lunch.
Before eating lunch we see the Galena Garlic Company. We must go in because Carrie and I love garlic. We walk to a cloud of wonderful spice smells. Tyler and Emmy think the place smells bad and need to leave before they pass out from all the terrible smells. Carrie takes them outside to wait while I get to explore a little. I pick a mole rub and a coffee BBQ rub. Both tasted great and will be used on the grill soon.
We had lunch at Green St Tavern, connected to the Desoto Hotel. Kids had chickens strips and fries, great deal only $4.50 and was huge, and Carrie and I shared the appetizer combo, not as good as the kids. Food was decent but beer selection was great. I love it when the bad beer on tap is Sam Adams seasonal.
We were full and ready to walk the streets of Galena. First stop was a chocolate shop. The kids needed dessert. They shared a huge chocolate covered strawberry, maybe one of the biggest I have seen. Carrie had a lavender truffle, which she said was very good. I had a chili cream chocolate. It was great spicy and sweet at the same time. It was dark chocolate, that I am normally not a big fan of but worked perfectly. Next stop, Webkinz.
Emmy and Tyler are addicted to Webkinz. They love playing the games on the website and building their webkniz rooms that their animals live in. In some of the best marketing I have seen, Webkinz issues a pet of the month so Emmy wanted the brown monkey-July's selection. SO we find a store with Webknizs, not hard in Galena, and they have the Brown monkey that has been talked about for three weeks. Do we buy the brown monkey, no. Instead we get a chihuahua and Tyler gets a cow. Both pay for their webkinz with their own money and we are off the the next store, Great American Popcorn Company.
We walked in the door to fresh Carmel corn, not a bad start. After looking around a bit, Emmy and Tyler see that they have ice cream. They need ice cream, shopping for webKinz makes you very hungry. They each get a cup of Blue Moon, think of the milk at the bottom of Fruit Loops and you pretty much have Blue Moon. Carrie and I both pass on ice cream but pick up some Galena Mix popcorn for a snack later. Next stop, cheese shop.
Emmy knows that there is a cheese shop in Galena because we parked by is and she LOVES cheese. We walk back to the cheese shop and head in. Tyler is tired and wants no part of the cheese shop so Carrie and him wait outside while Emmy looks for string cheese. They do not have string cheese. Emmy settles for a nice aged provolone, her third favorite cheese. We head out and decide that Mom and Dad would like to sample a little wine before heading to the hotel to check in, off to Galena Cellars.
We have never tasted wines with children before, I now know why. Emmy wants to eat her cheese and Tyler wants to leave. Carrie and I each try six different wines. We have tried some before and really liked Galena Cellars wines but this time nothing tasted right so we leave with no wine. Off the the hotel, Stoney Creek Inn.
We check right in, no problems, room is ready and so are we for a little rest. After some quick naps we go swimming before dinner. Rooms at Stoney Creek are small and so is the pool area but everyone is enjoying it any way. We have planned to go to Happy Joe's Pizza for dinner and everyone is hungry so we head to Happy Joe's
Everyone loves Happy Joe's. Kids got cheese pizzas, while Carrie and I get the Nacho Joe, imagine nachos on a pizza crust-just awesome. While waiting for the pizza we play in the game room and get some tickets to redeem. Decent redemption center but prizes a bit higher priced than others. Kids love it and pretty much get candy, dessert is taken care of. We decide to head out and check out Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort
I had read that Chestnut had alpine slides in the summer. These are pretty much a concrete slide that you ride down on a wheeled sled. We were not going to do this because of cost ($7.00/slide) and because we did not know if the kids would even like it. We decided to give it a try. The kids loved it! Emmy rode with me and just wanted it to go faster, and Tyler rode with Carrie and wanted to drive which caused them to stop and few times and almost cause a crash but everyone made it to the bottom and rode the ski lift back to the top. Of course they wanted to go again. Next time we will get the twilight lift passes for $20 to ride from 5:00 until dusk, something to look forward to. We spotted a playground and the kids wanted to play so we walked over and the the playground was great. It had all the unsafe equipment that Carrie and I grew up with. The merry go round with just handles and a place to stand, teeter totter with not handles to hold on to, and my favorite, a set of swing that spun around while swinging. We let them play for about 20 minutes and try out all the equipment that we never be a new playground. We were still going to play mini golf tonight. To the Lil' General Mini Golf.
Emmy and Tyler love mini golf as much as Carrie and I do. The Lil' General proved to be a tough course much like The General at Eagle Ridge Resort. We do not keep score but I think I won, however the children showed much improvement since taking golf lessons. Time to head back and go to bed. Another early morning tomorrow as we head for Niabi Zoo and the Wasserbahn.
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