Eagles and Such

We have cherished the time we have been with Savannah this week.
We picked her up at Grandma Millers house on Thursday night. The four of us went to the Olive Garden restaurant to observe Judy and my 41st wedding anniversary.

Savannah had the morning of Friday all alone in the house. She enjoyed a few hours of solitude. Naturally, she watched movies.

In the afternoon, Grandma took her shopping. We went to Cutters for dinner but couldn’t get in; it was packed. The Illinois ban on smoking in indoor areas seems to be a plus for all but 17 percent of adult Illinoisans.

We opted to go to Papa Vitoes for pizza. Then home to watch a movie about a girl playing soccer on a boys’ team, ‘Gracie’. We enjoyed that (along with popcorn). Today (Saturday) I suggested we go up along the Mississippi to watch the Eagles fishing along the river. We first tried to go out on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, but that is a fairly long walk against a biting wind (17 degrees air temp) so we gave up on that after about 20 minutes.

The second choice was the Great River Road up towards Alton and across the Clark Bridge into Missouri. We only saw a couple of Eagles so decide to go on up to Grafton, Illinois. The sandstone bluffs along the Mississippi River, which was choked in many areas with ice, were impressive in the winter sun under a beautiful, clear blue sky.

We frequently encountered areas where cars had pulled over onto the bike paths so as to watch and photograph eagles perched in trees on top of the rocky bluffs.

In Grafton, we had lunch at the Mississippi Half Step restaurant (http://www.mississippihalfstep.com/restaurant.htm ) . We have dined there before and it has nice atmosphere and good food at reasonable prices.

After eating, the next stop was in two of the touristy stores to browse among the antique and crafty items for sale.

Before heading home, we made several stops along the river to take photos (several of which are in this post). In addition to the eagles, we saw groups of deer at three different locations. The pelican migration has not started yet but we saw one early bird coming in for a landing. As usual in the locks area, and around the dams, the gulls were too numerous to risk us looking up at the sky.

Savannah and I went to the theater off Hartman Lane to see the movie ‘Bride Wars’ , rated PG,. It was funny and entertaining. Grandma stayed home to do laundry and to get Savannah's things together.

Well that’s all from Home Alone.

Love to all,

Dad