A Day in Joliet

Oh the luxury of sleeping in, when tired.:) Nice to wake to a cooler morning and lovely sunrise.

We had a leisurely beginning and a nice breakfast before setting out to walk the town. The wall is free accommodation, including the electricity hook-up. Thanks Joliet!

 The concrete wall is very crumbly and looks well used. It isn't very safe in some parts with Rebar sticking out of it, but it is used to a lot of boaters hanging out here in the Looping season.

 In the park next to the wall are lots of these trees. I cant find anyone who can tell me what the fruit is...but the trees are laden, as you can see.

 We turned the corner to walk over the bridge behind us. It is a one way street.

 That is a solid concrete block serving as a weight for opening the bridge.

 Looking down the river from the middle of the bridge. We look a little lonely sitting on the wall by ourselves!

 Thought you might be interested! I was.

 This fellow is outside the Law Courts. I didn't get to find out who he is...or was

 The Historic Rialto Theatre is undergoing a facelift. The tiles inside this façade is gorgeous.

 We loved the rough-hewn look of the buildings in town made of Joliet Limestone.

 Granite pillars!

 

 

 

The Post Office was one of our destinations, and this was outside on the main road. Love the light fixture. The PO building is on the National Historic Registry.

 We found the lovely Public Library, and in front of the building was this great statue of Louis Joliet!
 He was obviously a pioneer!

 The church was also  built with Joliet Limestone.

We ended up having a coffee at 11am...which wasn't up to much, but sitting down in a comfy sofa was nice.

We walked to the Post Office, posted our mail to NZ...lots of family birthdays this month! and then went to find some 'local' lunch,

We found a Route 66 Diner up a side street. It came recommended. Well, we ordered the all-American Burger with fries. The burger was dry...well the meat was, but I guess everything else was ok. Waz enjoyed his meal!

We walked back to the boat via Harrah's Casino..I needed the use of the bathroom!:) so we checked out the buffet prices...less expensive than the one in Hammond, though they are all owned by the same folks! the gaming floor was not well patronized today...but then it is Monday. Not much for us to do in a Casino...we don't know how to play anything, and we value our money too much to throw it away on anything other than Lotto...hmmm...ok..no logic there...moving right along!

We came back via the farther bridge and walked through the Bicentennial Park. Some pretty flowers in beds that badly needed weeding. I have a hard time walking past these, without bending to pluck the weeds!...The plaques that told us the history of the place, were interesting:)

These little Hibiscus were gorgeous. I hadn't seen these before.

 There was a Memorial garden with this lovely mosaic on the ground, underneath the flag poles. It depicts the town with the river flowing through the middle, and the bridges over the river.

 

We arrived back at the boat around 2pm. Waiting hopefully for other boats to show up. They didn't arrive until around 5pm, which rather surprised us. There are now 6 boats on the wall, this evening, and it appears everyone is going through to Ottawa tomorrow. The wall there is only 110 ft long.

 

In the waiting time, I made a large pot of Portuguese Bean Soup. I bought some Chorizo sausage the other day and that went into the pot too. We will now have lunch for the next four days...or maybe, if I cant be bothered or too tired, we will have dinner too!

 

I made some Butter Chicken for dinner which we enjoyed on the fly deck. We look forward to going down river tomorrow...I think:)

Bed time! ciao