Signs Of A Thaw

Bunny here at the keyboard to share a little about our weekend with you.

Since Mom is still fighting her bronchitis we decided to take it easier on her.  That doesn't mean we were willing to give up our family hiking time, though.  We decided to go to one of our favorite local places which is the Riverfront Trail in downtown Peoria.  It's a beautiful place for walking, although it's a pretty quiet place right now.  When the snow melts and things start blooming, I imagine it will be much busier.

During our walk, we spotted a lot more wildlife than we've seen in a long time.  The ducks and Canadian geese have returned and there was a beaver in the river working on his lodge.  We saw a robin, too, but Mom wasn't quick enough to catch his picture.  The beaver was a lot more cooperative.

The plan is that the trail will eventually connect to some Rails to Trails in our area, but the train tracks that are down there are still working tracks.  There is an old train turntable there, too.  When more of the snow melts, Mom said we'd go down and take more pictures of it so you can see it better. 

One of the things that the park has as a feature is the memorial rock gardens.   There is one for Alzheimer's victims and another one for Dan Fogelberg.  Dan Fogelberg is one of the famous people to have come from Peoria, so they have rocks around the park with some of the lyrics from some of his famous songs.

Hawks are pretty popular in our area.  Usually we see them when we can't get a picture of them.  However, this guy seemed to be bringing the warm Spring air in with him.

Morgan can't resist leaping and walking in the snow drifts.  I'm not sure what she's going to do when all the snow melts away.  She'd better enjoy it while she can!

There's a restaurant built in an old train station along the riverfront, too.  Of course they didn't let us dogs in, though.  Mom said that they have really good food.  I wouldn't know since they've never brought any of it home for us.

I have to say, it was a fun way to get out and stretch our legs without overtaxing Mom's lungs.  You should have heard her going on last weekend.  I'll just say that some people should not be making comments about Greyhounds being drama queens.   This was much better and we all had fun enjoying the thaw and the first hints of Spring's approach.  We got in more minutes for our Idita Walk, too.  I'm finally starting to get excited about Spring after this very long Winter.  How about all of you?