Life in the Slow Lane: July, Part 4--Week-end in Clinton

We left the lake house on Friday, the 22nd, and Matt and Cheryl were not expected back in Michigan until Sunday. So Matt's family and Bob and I drove to Clinton from the lake house and spent those extra days with the Wissinks. It was fun for the cousins to have a little more time to spend together, and Jeremiah was excited to have Josie and Evan at his house this time, since he had been at their house at Christmas time. And it was fun for all of us to get acquainted with their new community. Matt and Cheryl and the kids stayed with Adam and Rachel, and Bob and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Saturday morning we went to check out Eagle Point Park in Clinton. We spent some time at a playground.

Whee! Hope likes slides!

Barefoot on the monkey bars!

There was a "castle" that we could climb all the way to the top!

Silly me! I thought this might be an opportunity to get a picture of all four kids together. So here are the results of that idea--Rachel had to get in the picture in order to keep Hope there. And no one seemed very happy about posing for a picture!! Well, it was very hot and very humid. Probably was a bad idea.

Evan is totally against the whole

picture idea!

So we moved across the road to the look-out station, where they could look through binocular-type things. I assume it is possible to spot eagles here, because of the name of the park. But there were no sightings of eagles that day. It is a nice spot to look out over the Mississippi River and there are often boats and barges to watch.

By this time everyone was hot, hungry and thirsty, so we looked for a place to have lunch. I'm not sure what people did before they could do all these searches on their phones, but we found a cute little coffee/sandwich place in downtown Clinton. And it had the cutest window seat with book shelves loaded with kids' books. So that kept the kids entertained while we waited for our food.

After Hope's nap we went on another little outing to check out the town of Fulton, IL, which is right across the river from Clinton. One interesting spot is the lock and dam, where you can often see barges and boats going through the lock. We also checked out the Dutch Windmill in downtown Fulton. No picture of that, though, but I did meet someone from Hull in the Visitor's Center.

The Fulton Lock and Dam

We couldn't be in Clinton without having a meal at Pizza Ranch, so that is where we had dinner that evening. We managed to get in during a time when there was no line---that is a VERY busy place!! And the food was great, as usual!

The kids loved the dessert pizzas!

And we got to see this awesome rainbow

that evening!

The next day was Sunday, so that means pancakes for breakfast. We even skipped the free breakfast at the hotel so that Grandpa could be on pancake duty.

Then we went over to our hotel so that the kids could spend some time in the pool before we checked out. If I ever figure out how to put a video on this blog, I will add a video of Evan swimming across the pool.

Josie wasn't feeling 100% that day, so she

swam a little and then kept Grandpa company.

Then it was time to pack up and head to the Chicago area where we were going to meet up with Cheryl's sister, who would take their family to Michigan. But first we all had lunch together. The first restaurant we tried in Fulton was too busy for our large group, so we drove on to Morrison. With the help of those wonderful phone searches, we found a place called "Isle of Rhodes." And we were the only people in there!! The food was great, and very plentiful! (Take note of Matt's sandwich!!!)