Unfortunately, our beautiful fall days are numbered and will soon give way to cold, dreary winter days! With Matt working extra on call shifts for the last few months...and the next few months!...we took advantage of last Sunday's beautiful weather and headed to Rockford to find some letterboxes. We decided to drive along the Rock River (Rt 2) in hopes of finding some beautiful trees. We were disappointed to find that most of the trees had lost their leaves.
Our first stop was the lookout at Castle Rock State Park. It entails climbing a "couple" of stairs...but the view is worth the exercise!
After grabbing some lunch in Rockford, we headed to Roland Olsen Forest Preserve to try to find a letterbox. Unfortunately, the only thing we found were BURRS! Not a fun souvenir to take home!
We hiked two trails at Rock Cut State Park (as well as driving the loop of the park - it is a beautiful park!) and found 2 boxes. We also got "schooled" in horse etiquette as our kids weren't making enough noise!! I guess this frustrates me because the women was angry at my kids for not making themselves known to them (a quarter mile up and around a bend). Ever since we started hiking, we have told the kids to enjoy nature - the beauty and the SILENCE of it! So, they were doing what we've taught them and they get scolded. We also (quickly) realized that we don't enjoy hiking equestrian trails due to the piles of horse poop! We didn't really get to enjoy the hike persay...
After hiking at Rock Cut, we let the kids play for a while at this park near Rockford...
check out the shadow picture from 4 years ago!
We stopped for dinner and then made a quick letterboxing stop at Nicholas Conservatory in Rockford. While Matt found the box, I had the kids pose for some pictures.
Unless we get some weird weather, we probably are done with day trips for the year. : ( Now is the time to hunker down for Christmas and the long winter ahead!
