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?

Down By The River

Bunny here, writing about our Friday night adventure.

Last week it got pretty hot at our house again.  We took some nighttime walks, but they were not very pleasant for dogs or people.  Imagine my excitement when Mom and Dad started getting our things together and putting them in the van.  By the time Mom put my harness on, I was ready to tap dance on the kitchen floor.  When we went outside and it was nice and comfortable, I was even happier.

I wasn't sure where we were headed at first.  We pulled into the Petsmart parking lot and I thought "Woooo! Shopping!"  But it wasn't shopping.  Mom stayed in the van with us and Dad went in and bought a bag of dog food.  I started to get peeved.  We got loaded up in the van and we weren't even going in anyplace!  How are people going to pet me if I don't get out of the van?

Well, after that we went over to Culver's and Mom and Dad got dinner.  Morgan and Blueberry were sleeping on the back seat, so I got up to snoopervise since we were still headed somewhere.  Mom shared a few cheese curds with me and I thought things were starting to improve.  The next thing I knew, we drove over the bridge and we were stopping in the parking lot down by the river.

Blueberry and I got out with Mom and Morgan went with Dad.  Let me tell you, the Riverfront Park is a busy place on Friday night.  There were lots of people down there for all different kinds of things.  One reason is that there are currently some replica boats of the Nina and Pinta docked there that people can go on and look at.  We didn't go on because we didn't think dogs were allowed and because we didn't want to pay for it, but we did want to see them.  They have been called the most historically accurate recreations ever built.

There was a lot of other stuff going on, too.  There are a lot of restaurants and people were waiting to eat.  There are bands that play music down there, so people were waiting to get into the show.  People can take carriage rides, but I don't think they take dogs.  You can also rent Segways or two seated conveyances to ride around in for a certain amount of time.  People also like to play in the fountains, which are built just for that reason.

Another thing that people like is the trail that's built for walking along the river.  It is very scenic and relaxing.  We even saw an otter swimming down there, but I didn't have my PFD so I couldn't go after him.  Mom says we can't swim in the river now anyway, since the Asian Carp infestation.  Those fish are crazy.  We did all pose down there, though.

I have to bark, it was a wonderful Friday night walk!  I hope we get to go back.  You just never know what you'll see down there.  The best part was that there were all kinds of people just waiting to pet us!