A couple of weekends ago we met up with Auntie and walked the grounds of Robert Allerton’s 1900s mansion.
Shae, Frugal Boy, and I have been here before, and I wrote about one of our earlier trips here.
Robert Allerton inherited his fortune from his father, a livestock baron, and used part of that fortune to build an elaborate set of gardens and grounds in central Illinois.
The sun dogs garden provided a nice vantage point.
You may remember these stairs from the last time we visited.
Evidence of a little engineer at work was obvious down by the river.
Overall, we had a nice day and Auntie was able to unwind after finishing up her first year of med school. Yay auntie!
The next day, Mother’s Day, Grandma, Grandpa, and a second Auntie came down to visit.
Frugal Boy had lots of fun playing with Grandpa and enjoyed the new toys that Great Uncle had gotten him.
He was looking pretty cute in his overalls.
It was a beautiful day, so we lazed about on the front porch. Sometimes it is nice to just watch the world go by.
and sometimes you just need to cuddle up to grandma.
On Sunday we ran some errands around town and then hit the road for our second hiking trip. A short drive later and we had arrived at our destination, Starved Rock State Park.
Starved Rock sits on the south side of the Illinois river in the center of the state. As with all Illinois parks, there is no entrance fee.
We met up with Grandma and Grandpa just in time to have a picnic lunch. It was a bit chilly outside but the sun sent rays of warmth that had us taking off our jackets later in the day.
After lunch and a few trips to the parking lot and back to get the appropriate baby gear for hiking we set off on our first trail. Baby carriers like the Boba are, in my opinion, essential to hiking with a little one. There were many stairs on the trails and it would have been impractical to take a stroller.
We tried to let Frugal Boy out frequently so he could get some of his wiggles out. The day before he spent too much time in the carrier and by the time we got home, we were exhausted and he was ready to crawl all over us.
The grandparents were happy to keep an eye on him, while I watched a barge go through the lock.
There was plenty of debris caught up by the dam.
Frugal Boy found that he could sit on part of the fence that was just the right height for him.
Eagle Cliff Overlook seemed like a good place to turnaround. A few years back, Shae and I hiked about three miles beyond the overlook and the trails were not as interesting. Perhaps the next time we visit we will try some of the side trails and canyons.
We worked our way back to the visitors center via a roundabout way so we could see French Canyon. The canyon was very icy and the grandparents wisely chose to watch us from afar.
Shae and Frugal Boy turned around when the handrail ended, leaving just me to scratch a bouldering itch.
After some precarious footing, I managed to get a glimpse of the icefall.
The people watching and listening was superb. I especially enjoyed the couple that talked about how they were going to drink the calories that they burned by climbing a big flight of steps. Then on second thought, they decided that the steps looked to daunting and they were just going to go drink instead. Clothing choices were also interesting. 😉
Back at the river front we threw leaves and sticks in. It’s not like it isn’t already imprinted in little boy DNA, right?
We tried to get a good picture of the grandparents and grandson, but Frugal Boy wasn’t very cooperative.
18 photos and this was the best one :-\
Shae and I thought about putting a little jar or box next to this cute hobo. I wonder how much money he would have raised.
It was a fun day and the unseasonably warm weather has left us. We’ll be doing plenty of hikes this year and I am already starting to get the itch to go out and camp. That will definitely have to wait until it gets warmer though!
The last bit of the snow mountain in our backyard has melted after an unusually warm weekend. We crammed as much into the weekend as we could including replacing the brakes on the car and logging almost 10 miles of hiking.
Frugal Boy was sent outside to play more than once and always came back dirtier than he started. Eating mud is a new favorite activity.
All of the fresh air and exercise have been good for him, and some nights he doesn’t even make it to bed.
Our first hike on Saturday was at a little county park. The ground was squishy and it ended up being a pretty good workout even though it was mostly flat. Having an extra 25 pounds on your back also helps work muscles you didn’t know you had.
Some parts of the trail had running water crossing over it so a little intrepid bushwhacking was in order.
Even though it was about 60° out the ponds still had enough ice to support these geese.
I think all of that ice was to blame for partially destroying the fishing dock. It took a little bit of scrambling to get up and down the upheaved floating platform.
Eventually Frugal Boy woke up and it was somebody’s bright idea to give him a new toy.
It was a REALLY good toy.
After finishing the first two mile loop trail, Shae and I switched off so we could do another trail.
What we thought was another loop trail ended up being an out and back. We tried to connect the two ends with a little creative hiking, but were thwarted by a deep stream.
We trekked back to the car with muddy boots and started planning the next day’s grand adventure. Read about it in Part 2 (coming soon). 🙂
Autumn colors are really starting to show around here so we thought that a trip to Shawnee National Forest was in order. SNF occupies a large chunk of southern Illinois and is the largest tract of publicly owned land in the state.
Auntie decided she wanted a break from studying and tagged along. Frugal Boy was glum until he saw Auntie get off the shuttle bus.
With Auntie’s bags loaded up we hit the road on Friday night so we could get a fresh start in the morning and see all of the sights. We made a few stops on the way down. Rest areas are great for babies because they usually have clean bathrooms with changing tables. Failing that, there are usually plenty of places that they can be changed outside.
That night we found a hole in the wall diner that offered up southern comfort food. Mmmmmmmm. Delicious!
The next morning the drive became more interesting as we left the flat plains behind and entered rolling hills. Our first destination was the Garden of the Gods.
The main attraction at Garden of the Gods is Camel Rock. There are series of rock formations and cliffs that offer sweeping vistas of the surrounding wilderness.
Proper footwear and maintaining three points of contact are good rules to follow when scrambling around rocks.
While it may be tempting to leave your mark in such a beautiful place, please refrain yourself. Once one piece of graffiti shows up, it tempts others to add more.
please don’t do this. Leave no trace
Besides, why would you want to distract people from views like this?
Relax grandparents, I was farther away from the edge than the picture looks.
If you are passing through the area or are looking for a nice day trip destination, Garden of the Gods was a lot of fun. The featured trail is not very long, but there are longer trails and it probably isn’t as crowded on non peak foliage weekends. Seeking a reprieve from the hordes of people, we went to a lesser known place called Rim Rock. Rim Rock is an escarpment that was used by Native Americans and early settlers for protection and shelter. It is easy to see why the place is defensible when you hike around it.
Down on one side is a “Cave”. Big overhang is probably more accurate. Lumberjacks used the cave to corral their oxen and keep them out of the rain. These steps led down from the escarpment to Ox-Lot Cave.
All of that morning hiking worked up our appetites so we paused for lunch. Like our earlier Missouri trip we saved time and money by buying a giant deli sandwich from the grocery store deli that morning and then split it up three ways and added in our prepackaged snack food.
After lunch we drove down highway 1 to the Ohio river and Cave In Rock state park. There is a free ferry that will take you across the river into Kentucky but we decided just to watch from a nearby bluff.
Wandering about the bluff we spotted a fenced off sinkhole. It was a warm day, in the low 80s and there were many other visitors milling about enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.
A short walk on the main path and we found David.
This large cave was hollowed out by water long ago. You can still see where the water cut down and carved out the rock.
Near the back of the cave was a column of light coming from the before mentioned sink hole. I have been in a lot of caves and most have a nice earthy smell. This one stunk of rancid river water. Outside we found another spot to do a group photo.
It was starting to get late and we still had a long drive to get home. A couple of rest areas provided much needed breaks for all size passengers.
It was a fun trip and nice to reconnect to nature. There are a number of little cabin rentals if you are feeling adventurous and we passed by so many brown signs for points of interest that we could have easily spent a few days exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the East Shawnee National Forest. I say east, because there is a whole other chunk of SNF that is closer to Saint Louis and includes Little Grand Canyon. That’s a trip for another day.
It has been a long cold winter here in the Midwest so when the forecast hit a balmy 60° the other day we had to get out and enjoy the weather. One of the cheapest forms of entertainment and exercise is hiking. You really don’t need any special gear. This was our first hike with Frugal Boy and he grunted and slept the entire 2 miles.
Frugal Boy isn’t quite strong enough to hike in a backpack style carrier, so we carted him around in a Boba wrap. It is basically a 2 meter long strip of spandex/jersey fabric that you wrap around your body.
The trails were super muddy from all of the snow melt. That made it really easy to spot animal tracks. Can you identify what left these tracks?
The trail meandered through the prairie before going into the woods. As we walked along we came across what looked like some wind damage.
It wasn’t too much farther and we were back in the prairie looking at the nature center.
It was great getting out for a hike even if it was a little (okay, a lot) muddy. It won’t be long before Frugal Boy can hike on his own two feet and add to our collection of dirty clothes.
That’s okay! Laundry is cheap to do and little boys are meant to get dirty. We were all tuckered out after our short hike.
He won’t remember his first hike at all but we want to get him started early on a healthy and cheap form of entertainment. When was the last time you went on a hike?
Overall, we had a nice day and Auntie was able to unwind after finishing up her first year of med school. Yay auntie!
