slice of life ~ girl's getaway weekend and cat sitting

This past weekend, I went on a girl's getaway with one of my best friends. She had asked me in January if I wanted to go to Galena (IL) with her in February or March and I chose the end of March, thinking the weather would be decent. This is what we encountered the first day we were there. That's ice build-up on the outside edge of my car window.

The next day started out cloudy, but the sun finally made an appearance. It was cold though ~ only in the 30's. Doesn't it figure that the weekend before was in the 70's? Oh well, we had a lot of fun anyway. Galena is a beautiful, historic town in the northwest corner of Illinois, on the borders of Iowa and Wisconsin. I hadn't been since 2015.

We basically did the typical girlfriend things: enjoyed live music on Friday night, shopped 'til we almost dropped on Saturday, stopped for a french pastry and coffee for a mid-morning treat, relaxed in the late afternoon with a wine tasting, and enjoyed some light meals.

Saw these cat-embroidered jeans in a window and exclaimed they were "so me" ~ but not at $89.

Sampling some wines...only brought one bottle home with me.

Trunk is full, time to go home!

One of the things I bought was a card with quilling art on it. The shop keeper said people frame these; that they make beautiful art. I found this matted frame at Michaels and hung the art in my office/guestroom. I love it!

Our neighbor-friends are on vacation this week and I'm cat-sitting their fur babies, Frida and Bella. They're sisters, rescued from a local shelter. Aren't they beautiful? They're both so sweet and playful; Frida being a "wild child" and Bella being more laid back and quiet. Yesterday morning, they were both in the family room window looking for me as I approached the house. 😻

I've done a teeny bit of Easter decorating, which I will show you in my next post. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week! 

anniversary getaway

This was us in 1983 - a year before we got married. We were just babies!

And here's us now, celebrating 31 years of marriage. A little less hair and more wrinkles, but at least we're in this aging thing together.

We took an overnight getaway earlier this week to the town of Galena. Galena is a small, historic town in the northwest corner of Illinois, right near the borders of Iowa and Wisconsin. One of the many things I treasure about this little town is the rollings hills and open farmland. Most of Illinois is flat, so to see hills and valleys in our state is quite exciting. I learned from Wikipedia that the reason Galena's land is like this is because it escaped glaciation back in the Ice Ages.

We didn't get into town until the early evening, so we just had a leisurely walk around the main shopping strip. Love the beauty of the historic buildings and the church steeples reaching towards the sky in the backdrop.

I have no idea what's going on with the horse in the window, but I found it creepy-amusing.

The next morning, we hit the main street again and browsed in the many stores. I have no idea what my honey was looking at in this antique shop, but obviously something piqued his interest.

Maybe this derby hat?

This is what piqued my interest. ;-) I was a good girl and only got a few pieces. I even still have one left!

We did the wine tasting thing, too ~ and it being a weekday, we were the only ones in the place. We had a nice, leisurely chat with the two employees. And we bought a few bottles of wine, one of which is a delicious strawberry-rhubarb. A nice sipping wine while sitting out on the patio in the evening.

 

Now here's an enterprising elderly woman in town! She stood right in the street in a parking spot, selling her doggy jackets. And she smartly parked herself right outside a pet goods store. My first glance was one of pity, but then as I observed her more, I began to think that she was actually enjoying herself.

To wind down the day, we had dinner at a fun restaurant. 

This is the waiting area. Someone has a great sense of humor and knows what attracts customers!

The inside had a lively, fun vibe, too. We originally wanted to have dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Galena, but we were disappointed to find out it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

 

After dinner and before heading home, we drove around the town looking at some of the pretty houses. The architecture and beauty of these houses are just stunning.

This mansion is a B&B. I looked online for prices and it said to call and inquire. My thinking is that if it's not posted and we have to ask, we can't afford it. Like when it says "market price" on restaurant menus.

 

When we slowly drove towards this house, I spied two deer in the lawn. They were parallel to each other and standing perfectly still, so my first thought was that they were lawn ornaments. Then one began to move and I yelled to Brian to stop the car so I could take pictures. They were so sweet, taking turns washing each other. I talked to them out the car window, cooing, "Hello, pretty babies!" Please don't tell me I'm the only one that does this. ;-)

As we were heading out of Galena to return home...

Hope you enjoyed the little virtual tour of Galena. Have a fantastic weekend!