Freeport - 2018

We knew life would start up, full force, now that school was in session again. We made a point of finding an open weekend to make our annual trek to Freeport. We have been making this annual day trip for 20 years (since Matt & I first met).

Our first stop was the Lena Drive In for lunch. We then drove to  Le-Aqua-Na State Park to see how the park was fairing. We haven't been to this park for a couple of years and enjoyed the little time that we spent here on this day.

We left Lena and headed into Freeport. First stop - paddle boats! We've been burned the past few years (we decided that we wanted to try to do these every year after riding them 4 years ago.) 2014 - we rode them for the first time. 2015 - we found out that there was over an hour wait to ride them (and we were on the way out of the park at that time!). 2016 - evidently they don't take credit cards! 2017 - closed early in the season due to flash flooding.

We headed straight to the boats and rented them for the 1/2 hour ride down the Yellow Creek. We were warned of the Heat Advisory and told to wear hats, take water, etc. Yeah, of course we didn't have any of those things on hand. "Can't really be that bad, can it?" Um yeah, it was really hot and miserable. We paid for this the rest of the day - mentally and physically exhausted!

We have taken annual pictures of the kids on the rock wall every year since it was installed. It's been fun to watch them grow over the years.

Next we rode the carousel...another annual tradition.

And tried to persuade Maddie to go down the fire pole. Yeah, she still didn't do it. Maybe next year!

Our last stop of the day - Union Dairy for yummy ice cream and Debate Square for our annual picture at the Lincoln/Douglas statue. Always a great way to end our day in Freeport!

Had to laugh when looking at the pictures on the computer - Will & Abe having a stare down!

We waved goodbye to Freeport until 2019. We love this town as much as we first did when we discovered it in 1998! A town full of memories for our family.