Wednesday, March 1, 2017

An Evening Stroll In Geneva, Illinois

 Last week I spent seven days with my three children who live in Illinois.  Everyday we went somewhere and did something fun.  With the exception of Chicago, Illinois is usually not a state on people's bucket lists.  It really surprised me how much there really is to do in the area.  For the next several weeks I plan on doing a new travel series of my week in Illinois.

My kids live about six hours a way from me, so most of my first day was spent in the car driving to get there.  Once I arrived and we spent a few minutes catching-up, we decided to go for an evening stroll in Geneva, Illinois and then out to dinner.


Geneva is a pretty little town located on the Fox River.  It's main street is filled with quaint historic buildings, cute shops and restaurants, and a beautiful park and river walk.



This amazing building was right next to the river and housed shops and facilities for banquets, meetings and weddings.  It had a breath-taking view of the river.


There was this old-world style patio behind the building.  It reminded me of Europe!


We did arrive around dusk so most of the stores were starting to close, but we were able to pop in and check a few out.

This consignment store was absolutely amazing inside.  The walls were all exposed brick, the floors were old hardwood and even had a trap door on the floor.  Being the curious person that I am, I wondered what this building was once used for and where that trap door led to.


This fun restaurant is only open for breakfast.  It looked amazing!  Someday I will have to go back here...probably with my husband as getting my kids out of the house early enough is quite the challenge.


After strolling the main street for a bit, we headed to the river to check out the river walk.  The first thing we saw was this amazing bed and breakfast located right on the river.


The river walk was absolutely gorgeous.  I don't know if it was the unusually warm weather (it was a rare seventy degree February day), or the fact that we were there at sunset, or maybe the sound of geese returning home for the spring, but it was a wonderful, beautiful, magical night.


The geese were so loud this evening.  They seemed so happy.  I always love seeing all the birds and animals come home in the spring.


 There were many geese flying above our heads all night as well.  Such a beautiful sight.


The river walk has a lovely playground and hiking trail.  We only walked from the bridge on main street to this bridge, then we crossed over the river on the pedestrian bridge.  Can you see the small enclosed bridge under the main bridge above?  That's the pedestrian bridge.  I thought that was so neat.  I've never seen one like this before.


Near the play area was this hollowed out tree.  How fun that it was located right next to the play equipment.  I'm sure kids love to play hide and seek in it!


My son-in-law Jason sure enjoyed jumping inside!


This is the inside of the pedestrian bridge.  You get fabulous, unobstructed views of the river.


From the pedestrian bridge you can see the playground and an old stone bridge.  Isn't the stone bridge just gorgeous?


Of course I had to stop my kids halfway across the bridge to take their picture.  For those new to my blog, the girl is my daughter Ashley with her husband in the center, and my son Jordan on the right.

I accidentally left my DSLR camera at home so unfortunately the picture quality of this travel series won't be the best. 😢

There looked like there was a longer nature hike you could walk or bike past the bridge, but unfortunately it was getting late and we wanted to check out the rest of the town.  Someday, I hope to get back to it.  I also hope to get there a little earlier in the day so I can check out all the cute stores!

It was fun however to be there at night and see the town all lit up.  The lights made it all the more pretty!


All the restaurants and bars were open for business at this time and seemed very busy.  Because the weather was so warm, they even had all their doors and windows open to the streets so we got some great peeks inside!



Is this a fun name for a shoe store or what?


This is the inside of cupcake store.  It had just closed, so I was unable to go inside.  I did see someone walking with a container of cupcakes and they were so yummy looking!  Again, I hope to go back someday just so I can visit this bakery and get some cupcakes!


The town clock tower was so pretty lit up.


And finally, this is a picture you may have seen on Instagram.  It was the window display of a lux furniture store.  Isn't it gorgeous?  My newly renovated master bedroom isn't quite so lux as this one, but it did remind me a little bit of the style I was going for when designing our room.


After our evening stroll in Geneva, we went out for dinner and had some great conversation.  The next day we went to a conservatory and the Lincoln Park Zoo.   I'll share my experience at the conservatory on next week Wednesday's Travel Post.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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20 comments:

  1. I love your posts about the places you visit, especially the smaller towns like this one. I think this is close to the location of the Father Dowling mystery novels, they are set on the Fox River. It is nice to be able to envision the setting where some of my favourite novels were placed.

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    1. Aw, thanks Julie. That's so nice to hear. There are so many exotic travel blogs out there, but very few people cover the simpler places to visit. Although I love to 'armchair travel' to exotic locations, I'm more interested in things in the USA because I can actually go there! It's good to hear other people are interested as well. I've never heard of the Father Dowling mysteries. I will have to look that up.

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  2. What a nice place to visit! My cousin from Germany visits the Chicago area (and me) about once a year and every year she visits Geneva. I remember she mentions hiking by Fox river every year.
    Those little shops look so cute. And what a fun fun name for the shoe store!

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    1. That is so interesting that your cousin hikes by the Fox River. It looked very rustic and pretty once you get past the bridge. I will have to try going to Geneva again and this time bring my sneakers so I can walk farther.

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  3. Amy, what a fabulous town to photograph! That tree is amazing! At first it looked like a heart and I had no idea how big it was until I saw the following photo of your SIL inside it. lol Thanks for sharing and visiting today, my friend. Have a good week!

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    1. Thanks Cathy! Yes, the hollow was huge! I was glad Jason jumped in it for some size perspective.

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  4. What a wonderful little town. I think it's the best thing ever to explore different areas! Last fall, we went met a friend in Michigan and explored Big Rapids and Grand Rapids. I still love having fun in a big city, but the small towns have their advantages too!!
    jodie
    www.jtouchofstyle.com

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  5. I will have to look to see where this is at in Illinois. I'm in STL, so just curious. That photo with Jason in the tree is hilarious! :)

    Carrie
    curlycraftymom.com

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    1. Thanks Carrie. St. Louis isn't too bad of a drive from where my kids live. I know they have friends in your city and have driven there before.

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  6. Such a pretty place! Love all the pictures. I always loved having my parents come to see me when I was living in Florida! Great memories for you!

    http://www.mylittlenest.org

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    1. Thanks Ruth. Glad to hear you enjoyed your parents visit. My kids seem to want us to visit them too!

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  7. Geneva is such a cute area and I love the downtown area! I've heard great things about Buttermilk!

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    1. Have you been to Geneva before? I was telling my husband about the Buttermilk restaurant today at lunch, and he agreed we need to check it out next time we visit the kids.

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  8. Wow what a gorgeous city! Love all your pretty shots!

    <3 Shannon 
    Upbeat Soles

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  9. Looks like a quaint little town. How convenient that your kids live in the same town. Wonder if the building with the trap door could have been from Underground Railroad days, a place to hide runaway slaves?

    The bedroom display is lovely. Can't wait to see your finished room.

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    1. Thanks Leslie. My kids actually live in a different town nearby. I wondered the same thing about the trap door. My master bedroom is taking a little longer to finish than I planned. I'm struggling finding table lamps and other finishing decor. Other than that, it's done. Hopefully I can post the big reveal soon.

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  10. Ok... You have got to go to The Little Traveler in Geneva if you haven't already been. It's my all time favorite place to go when I'm back "home" where I basically grew up early on in my life. I've been going there since I was probably 2 years old (I'm 51 now). They even serve lunch in the atrium area. They have quite the array of items like jewelry, cards, crystal, china, kitchen and bath, wine and candy and even purses and handbags. Beautiful and fun place you need to experience for yourself. It's the first place I go when I'm back in town! :)

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    1. Thank you so much for telling me this. I just googled it and it looks amazing. I will be back in the area in July so I will check it out then!

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