Fifty Going on Five

 

Today Travalon and I retrieved our leftovers from the secret refrigerator in our hotel and we ate them for breakfast, then we drove to Starved Rock State Park. It was packed there, as we climbed the many, many stairs to the top of Starved Rock itself and explored the depths of French Canyon. There is a lot more to the park, and years ago I went with a group and we did the six-mile guided tour, but those are only on weekends. We did go into the gift shop, and I saw an adorable lime-green unicorn, so Travalon bought it for me for my half-birthday present. As we drove along, I decided to name her Margarita since she is lime green.

 And guess what?? She glows under blacklight!!

We stopped at the Beefaroo in Rockford for a late lunch, and I wanted a kid's sized green apple shake, but they didn't have green apple, so they gave me a free kid's sized grape shake. And oh my was that delicious! Then I felt like such a little kid, drinking my child-sized grape shake as I cuddled my lime green stuffed unicorn. I told Travalon I felt like I was fifty going on five, and he said I just needed some coloring books, but I assured him that I had plenty of those at home. 

We were late to a party of Night Prayer people (and others) at a beautiful house out in the country with a wonderful screened-in porch. If I had that room on my house, I'd never leave! We got there too late for the jalapeño poppers, and honestly we weren't hungry at that point, but after sitting around talking, admiring the garden, and playing with the two German shepherds, we were finally hungry enough for the last two burgers... and they were the best burgers I've ever had in my life. Huge and grilled and spiced to perfection. Oh my goodness! What a birthday party for our country! There was even cake: banana chocolate chip cake.

Here are some photos from this weekend that were on my phone. First is a truck we saw as we were crossing the border into Illinois. It sure looks happy to see us.

Here are some shots of St. Mary's, the Cathedral in Peoria.

They had all the planets - even Pluto! - hidden among the stars on the ceiling. Here is Saturn.

And who is this, St. Hamlet? "Alas, Holy Yorick - I knew him well!"

I made a very short video of the bells ringing after Mass, since it was such a lovely sound, but even a tiny little video like that is too much for Blogspot. Maybe I'll throw it on YouTube at some point.

Here is a shot from the wildlife trail in Goofy Ridge. It was so beautiful. I took a shot of the swans too, but it doesn't look like much.

Here are some shots of the candy cane smokestacks in Pekin.

I like this shot where they are kind of lined up, but not quite.

This is the best shot to show that one is skinny and one is wider and kind of cone-shaped.

Tonight when I did DuoLingo, apparently I made no mistakes.

Tomorrow I will try to post photos of the Illinois Train Museum, Jubilee College State Park, and Starved Rock State Park from Travalon's good camera. I'm too tired to deal with it tonight.

Famous Hat