Illinois Valley - Where it began!

The Illinois Valley was a great place to grow up! At the time I didn’t appreciate it but the older I got the more I realized how lucky we were. For starters, I think it’s just beautiful. Sitting along the Illinois River and having access to not one but two amazing state parks, a great public high school, and true middle class values and caring friends and neighbors. So it’s no surprise to me that I have stayed in touch and treasure the lifelong friendships of my high school girlfriends. We have been getting together once a year for a long weekend or even sometimes a week for too many years to count. It’s always something I really look forward to and it never disappoints. We don’t always return to our hometown but this year we did and it couldn’t have been more relaxing or fun. We found a great loft to rent on Airbnb right in downtown LaSalle, and the location was perfect. Downtown LaSalle is now a very cool place - good restaurants and some great stores. Shout out to Sasso’s which has a little bit of everything but all awesome!

Here are just a few of the highlights. The focus of the trip is really about being together to share our lives and support each other through good times and not so good, so we are less concerned with what we are doing than who we are doing it with. We started off with a bang though when Liz surprised us by hopping a plane from LA and showing up the first night, right when we were lamenting that she wasn’t going to be able to join us this year. I think they heard our screams when she showed up all the way to the west end of Peru! Excellent job Liz! It is never as much fun if anyone is missing!

We decided a walk all over town sounded like a great idea the first morning, something when we lived here we never would have thought possible. So first stop was our beautiful LaSalle Peru High School - truly a timeless building and one of the prettiest I have ever seen. Christie informed us that it had just undergone a huge internal renovation bringing it up to current and future standards of excellence.

We had envisioned going in and walking the halls but in this new day and age security is tight and for good reasons, so that didn’t happen. But it was still fun to peek through the windows and reminisce about our fun times there. We also had and still have the most incredible football stadium built by the WPA more than 80 years ago. I have been to a lot of small colleges that don’t have stadiums as grand as ours so we stopped by there too.

The grounds crew was working on it so they let us in and took our picture.

Then we continued on our walk to our most favorite hangout all through high school. The Igloo drive-in at the west end of Peru. We were there almost every Friday night post games, and when we could drive we always drove through looking to see who else was there. Too bad we didn’t have much money to buy food because the food is great! Did someone say lunch?

A booth of course! And pork tenderloin sandwiches and fries for all! Even better than I remembered.

It snowed on our way! We have a history of bringing the cold and snowy weather when we get together. It happened last year in Lake Tahoe in September, but that didn’t stop us. We walked back to the loft and browsed in some of the cool shops in downtown LaSalle on our way.

Dinner reservations at a fairly new restaurant downtown called The Study . It was nice that we were close enough to just walk. No need for a designated driver!

Not too exciting on the outside but really cute inside.

I was lazy on this trip or maybe just having too much fun because I didn’t remember to take pictures of the food. They had an extensive menu and I went with the salmon. Never a bad choice😊

The next morning Liz and Julie and I wanted to go hiking at Starved Rock State Park. It’s the largest park in Illinois and so beautiful in every season, but fall is particularly magnificent with the changing of the leaves. It gets very crowded so I took a lot of grief by insisting we arrive early to beat the crowds. Ok I was at least half right. By the time we left the parking lot was jammed and there was an actual backup of people on some of the trails. By getting there early we had most of the canyons to ourselves! But I admit we could have arrived 30 minutes later and still been good. If you would like to read more about the history of Starved Rock just go to the Archive on my blog and read the post dated November 11, 2016 for more details. It’s pretty interesting.

Between the three of us we took a ton of pictures, one more beautiful than the next, but here are some of my favorites.

It’s a huge park and has so many beautiful canyons. We actually didn’t go up to Starved Rock and went to some of the more remote spots and it was totally worth it.

We were there about 3 hours and it was so much fun. We heard a rumor that starting next year you are going to need a reservation to enter the park on a weekend because of the crowds, so I would check the website before you head down. And to think growing up there it was usually so empty you felt like you had the place to yourselves!

Another great spot for dinner Saturday night is The Uptown Grill, also in downtown LaSalle. A must stop every time I’m there. The food is great but a reservation is essential as I’m not the only one that thinks it’s great.

Flaming cheese for the table and the amazing Whitefish in parchment paper for me. I order it 100% of the time and am never disappointed.

Saying goodbye as we were all leaving the Loft.

Another fun trip with lots of laughs and great memories. I love these ladies and am so blessed to have shared so many great years of supporting each other. The Best is Yet to Be!

Here’s a sneak peak of my next trip which is right around the corner.

India here I come! It’s been high on my list for a number of years now, so my good friend Cindy and I are doing it. I have been vaccinated for just about every possible thing, I purchased rupees, have my Malaria prophylactic in hand, passport, Visa, head scarf, plenty of antibacterial and bringing an open mind. I have been told repeatedly by those who have been to be prepared to be shocked and amazed. As per usual I have been reading a lot both as far as travel advice and also stories that take place there to get a better understanding of the culture. But I’ve also been told you can’t really prepare for everything we will experience and see. We’re traveling light and because of the world we live in today you can’t bring anything larger than a cellphone in the cabin of the plane, so I won’t be blogging as I had planned while on the trip. But I will post a bit on Facebook and Instagram and do a full post or two or three when I return. Namaste!