Fall Vacation Blog Entry #5

This will be my last entry from our short vacation this fall when we visited Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. I could spend much more time in any of these states. Of course, as you know, it takes very little to amuse me.

 Driving home from Iowa, we detoured through Illinois, stopping at Galena. We’ve been here several times before, but I think it was always with our son Nick, while he was in college, so it seems our motives didn’t revolve around me wandering about taking pictures. 

 Can you read this sign? It says that one family lived in this cabin from 1921 to 1970 and raised six children there. 1970? Is that right?

 I remember where I was living in 1970, and though it wasn’t a palace, it was far from a log cabin. 
 Ok, the house I grew up in was a two-room log cabin in its infancy, but that’s a story for another time.

 Just up the hill from the cabin is the Ulysses S Grant home. Built in 1860 and presented to the Grant family in 1865, they only spent a few years in the house and Ulysses never really lived there.

In fact, from what I found on the internet, he didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Galena at all, traveling for either work or with the military.

 There is a beautiful view of Galena from the house. I’d live there if I could. 

 Just a little way up the street from the Grant House . . .

 I discovered this much more fascinating home. The elegant redbrick mansion was built in 1858 and most recently was the Stillman Inn bed-and-breakfast, with an adjacent wedding chapel on its two acres.

 I wish I could have discovered more about this home, but maybe on my next trip.

 It appears that quite recently it was sold to the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society, so I will have to check it out more closely next time.

 Yup, next time.