Galena

We started our day at the home of President Ulysses S. Grant.  In keeping with the tradition of making the most out of a Heinisch vacation we were part of the first tour of the morning.  The tour guide was unique, but the house was completely furnished and full of Presidential and Civil War facts.  From there we continued our Grant tour by visiting The Old Market Place.  Galena was a bustling Mississippi River town a hundred and fifty years ago and The Market Place was the spot to be.  We found more Grant memorabilia, Cam and my favorite was a Union vs. Confederate chess set.

After the Grant tours we continued our trip down history lane by taking a ride on the Galena Trolley Tour.  Cam and I were both looking forward to it when we started planning the trip and it did not disappoint.  We learned quite a bit about the history of the small town and were amazed at the views.  The tour was an hour long and we decided to eat lunch afterward.  There were several choices in town within walking distance of our hotel, but Doug really wanted to try Gobby's an Chicago style pizza place.  The food was excellent.

Once we had lunch I was more than ready to shop.  Galena has quite a few quaint shops along main street and we found a few that caught our interest.  Everyone picked out shirts and sweatshirts at the Galena t-shirt shop while Doug tried a couple of wine tasting spots.   Meg and Cam picked out two excellent shirts for Cal and Brett and then we decided that we had to stop at Poopsies.  Just the name sound interesting.  They found an awesome pop ball game that I know they will have fun with once we get home.

Once we realized that we still had several hours left in the afternoon we decided to drive to Dubuque, Iowa for the National Mississippi River Museum.  I had read online that they had a special Titanic exhibits with actual artifacts from the wreckage.  The exhibit was awesome.  We all received boarding passes when we arrived and were relieved to find out that we survived the trip.

The big hit of the night was our next stop.  We drove from Dubuque to Chestnut Mountain south of Galena.  They had advertised an alpine slide to ride that everyone was interested in trying.  Cam, Meg and Doug bought unlimited passes and enjoyed the carted ride to the bottom multiple times.  Unlike the toboggan run at Pokagon State Park they could ride the ski lift up and it carried the sleds for them.

Dinner was at Durty Gurty's.  It had interesting decor, but the food was delicious  After such a jam packed day an early evening back at the hotel was just what we were ready for.  This has been a wonderful vacation and we were able to fulfill Meg's main requirement - finding something historical to do this summer.