Gals in Galena

Wild roses, like Jamie and I :)

James and I met in Galena, IL for a girls day of fun.  I miss hanging out with my pal so it was such a nice day. It was forecasted for rain but didn't rain too much on our parade.  What a darling town. I drove up 151north to 20 east over the Dubuque bridge and James came down the 84 I believe from Madison.
We started our day walking the town and walking up a crazy amount of steps to the Linmar Gardens.
It might be the last year it is open and we loved it.  The gardens are beautiful and the octogenarian tour guide and caretaker was fantastic.  Makes me want to conquer the world if he and the "young man ", his name for the 89 year old master gardener is still hauling rock and planting and irrigating at his age.
After the gardens , we had lunch and walked the cute shops. I learned a couple things, 1. small, midwest towns set their tornado siren off everyday at noon :/ and that parts of Field of Dreams were shot in this little town.  We ended the day with a trolley tour of the city. Fun !  We want to come back and hit the winerys and the ghost tours that take place on the weekend evenings.  Merci Jamie James. xx bisous

Jamie in front of the waterfall. Most this garden is built on rock

Mining bucket the miners used to ride down on. There is an old mine shaft on the property. Our guide told us the men would keep one leg out of the bucket because if it bumped against the shaft , the sound created would actually be deafening.

Four garden beds for all the seasons starting with spring on the left

japanese peonies plant. he said they were absolutely gorgeous. magenta in color
and he said they would actually like the ants on the leaves because they would eat off the wax
and then the flowers would bloom.

I love that the sculpturererers (sp?) back in the day
appreciated a chunkier gal. >> thx boys

This was an old church and they left the walls up and built
this neat little water garden.

Later that same day...

View of the city and cute white church chapel.  so green and so rare to have to hilliness in the
midwest but I guess the area is called driftless? because the glaciers missed it. I kinda tune out on
tours so my facts are about 64% valid.  :/

Galena side street off of Main street

Trolley ride of the city