Illinois: Starved Rock and Springfield

Oct 26: We arrived at Starved Rock State Park near Ottawa at around 1:00 pm.  We had made reservations as it is Halloween weekend and believe it or not the campground was filled up!  We have found that people really like to camp on "holidays" including Halloween. Also this is a very popular State Park.   After we set up we went for a hike along with about 1000 other people.  Not sure why the kids were not in school today.

Our neighbors really decorated their site

A lot of sites were decorated but this one wins

Friday night Fish Fry was in Utica, about 8 miles from here.  Blue Gill was on the menu!  We had stopped at Duffy's for a libation before dinner, cute Irish bar that made a smoked Manhattan, it was something we had never seen before.

Saturday: since the park was so crowded yesterday we headed to

Beautiful walking paths, observation tower and great waterfowl

another trail brought us to this old structure, it would be fun to renovate it

Beautiful sculpture depicting the River Otter was near the boat landing.

The weather was a bit cool and overcast until late in the afternoon.  Quiet evening at the campground.  We thought we might get "Trick or Treater's" but none showed up.  We did get some candy just in case they showed up.  Maybe on Wednesday when we are in a Missouri state park.

Oct 28: today's journey led us to Springfield State Fair Campground.  For only $20, the site has 50 amp and water.  There are sites with sewer but we do not need it and they looked to be a bit unlevel.  We found a nice park to walk around by the river although it was very windy.  Our drive was very windy too, cutting our MPG down to 9.8.  We usually get between 11-12 MPG on a normal day.

there are a few resident campers.  our neighbor is from a bygone era.

Monday Oct 29:  today we went for breakfast at  Charlie Parkers

The restaurant is in a Quonset hut , the outside is kind of ugly but the inside was really cute.  Very 50's diner atmosphere with great service and good food

Eric's pancake was huge, my Breakfast Shoe was pretty good.  toast, sausage, egg topped with hash browns and gravy and cheese...  kept us filled up until dinner!

For our daily walk we started at

right on Lake Springfield.  nice parks although not a lot of hiking trails.  We found another trail that was not by the water but was a real trail.

We then went to the Adams Wildlife Sanctuary right in town.  its only a 1 mile walk but was really nice and wooded.

finally to downtown Springfield.  we started with a tour of the Lincoln Home

The Lincoln's lived here for 17 years

very small kitchen

A three seater!!! in the outhouse

the state capital from afar

stopped for a bite here, the food was good.  I had flatbread with goat cheese, bacon, grilled onions, dates and honey!  kind of sweet but pretty good.  Eric had the homemade Corned Beef Ruben.

Tomorrow we head to Missouri....