A Walk In Allerton Park

Bunny here, hoping to bring you a little cheer on Monday morning with my post from the keyboard.

This weekend, we decided to choose an easier place to get out and stretch our legs than we took last weekend.  So, we decided to go and visit Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois.  It is not a state park, but it is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois, and for good reason.  Because this wasn't so much a hike as a walk through the park, Blueberry came along and only the people wore backpacks.

For people curious about the park, it was property once owned by an art collector named Robert Henry Allerton.  His mansion is there along with some of the artwork he collected.  He must have had a lot of money, because he sure owned a lot of land and there were a lot of sculptures there.  He spent decades shaping farmland into the into beautiful landscapes that featured some of the artwork he acquired.  After forty years, while visiting in Hawaii, he decided to start all over and do the same thing there.  So, he donated his Illinois property to the University of Illinois to create “an educational and research center, as a forest and wild-life and plant-life reserve, as an example of landscape architecture, and as a public park.”  I can tell you all, I am sure glad that he gave this most wonderful gift because we all loved seeing it.

While we were there, not one, but two weddings were being prepared for, so we didn't stop and pose for all the pictures we'd have liked to in a few areas.  We are sure hoping the people got married before it started raining later in the afternoon.  Mom said if she had to plan a wedding again (which she about breaks out in hives just thinking about) that she'd want to have one there.

There were lots of different kinds of gardens.  Some were really formal and some were kind of wild.  They all had been worked on a lot.  My favorite was the Fu Dog Garden!  It was built to showcase Mr. Allerton's collection of thirty two blue Chinese dog statues.  One of the weddings was held in that garden, so I know those people are going to have a perfect life ahead of them after getting married in such a wonderful garden.  Every one of those dogs was different, too.  We weren't the only dogs admiring the garden, either.  There were some dogs who I think might even have been attending the weddings.

There were some wedding guests there who did a lot of admiring of us and petting us, too.  That always makes the trip more fun.   One woman was especially keen on getting a Greyhound of her own and she kept fawning over us.  I wanted her to know what we make the best pets ever so she'd give another one a home, so I let her pet me for a long time.  She even offered to take a picture of us all together in front of the mansion.

Dad says we're definitely going back and I can't wait.  Hopefully this makes Monday a little brighter for everybody.  I know it sure made me happy to be there!