Sunday, June 7, 2009

Mont Rest

Back in February Brian booked a birthday trip for me to Mont Rest, a B&B in Bellevue, IA. I had to wait a long time, but this weekend finally came and we were able to explore a very interesting part of the state. Here's a picture of Mont Rest- a mansion on the shore of the Mississippi. Our room was in the tower- the circular room at the top. Here's the staircase we had to use to get up to our room. The Angelic Tower Room. It was hard to take a photo because the room is perfectly round, but this photo gives you a general idea. A truely unique experience. We knew that we had found a great B&B when we found they had a separate beer fridge. Here's Brian at the top of the stairs after making a beer run. Our view. The mansion was beautiful. Here's a photo of us in the big living room mirror. Bellevue is home to one of the many locks along the Mississippi river. Here's part of the lock from the shore. By the way (to all reading this entry), Brian has decided that he wants to be a Lock Master on the Mississippi. As part of our weekend package, we were taken on a boat ride up the Mississippi River to the Galena river and to the town of Galena, IL. Here's the boat.Unfortunately the day of our trip it rained a lot of the time. That's okay, though, we had a lot of fun and met some very interesting people who were also along for the ride...and on the way back it was cloudy, but dry. We spent the afternoon in Galena, hometown of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant wasn't the only hero to come out of Galena. This town was actually home to 9 Civil War generals. Aside from that they also have lots and lots of cute shops......and some great eateries. Here's Brian trying out a 312 Wheat Beer from Goose Island at Gobbies Restaurant.
The only sad part of the weekend was this lost puppy who had obviously been sitting in this barbershop window in Bellevue for a very long time. I hope that someday he finds his owner! Oh yeah, and Mom Bickmeier, we found a present for you in Galena and will be sending them along to North Pole.

3 comments:

Mom and Dad said...

Can you believe it? Patsy Bickmeier did cart wheels in the family room when she saw the picture. Awesome! (The candy bars not the cart wheels.) There is one excited lady in North Pole.

jenrust said...

whoo hoo! Clark. :)

btw... how cool is it that you spent the night in a mansion, AND had an exciting black spiral staircase to walk up and down on, AND the room you spent the night in was a circle. What a fun weekend! The shops all looked pretty fun too. did you buy anything special?

Ryan + Louise said...

looks like lots of fun! And brilliant on the parcheesi!