Galena, Illinois 2005
Galena
Galena Area Chamber of Commerce
Galena/Jo Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau
Galena is much changed since we were last there 25 years ago. It's still a town surviving on tourists, but the demographics have changed. The stores seem to cater to younger, city types. We saw many families with kids in strollers, very few with kids over 10 years old.
It has become a favorite meeting place for Harley riders. At any time you can see several dozen bikes on the street and parked in front of restaurants. Mostly quiet, mostly older, many with families.
Food
There are many places to eat from cheap to very not. Two ice cream shops, a chocolate shop, lots of beef & chop houses, some Italian, several bars - take your pick. Two locals told us that most of the restaurants were pretty good, that it was hard to go wrong. One didn't care for the Perry Street Brasserie, so we didn't try it.
General's in the basement of the DeSoto Hotel was nice, quiet (almost too quiet) and we liked the food. I love soup and rate places by that. I had a bowl of vegetable (not my favorite) that was OK except for too many big chunks of tomato and a Cornish pasty that was quite good, though not at all spicy. My wife had a "stuffed" chicken dish that was very good. Overall, OK but not exceptional.
Boone's Place had a good selection of soup and sandwiches. Very good split pea with ham soup. Wife had something quite good, can't remember what. Overall, good lunch place.
Backstreet Steak and Chop House was a great disappointment. The potato sausage soup was pretty good, but my pork chop was dry and flavorless. My wife's fillet mignon was overcooked to the point of dryness. No drinks, yet $75. Big let down. Skip it.
Vinny's was OK. Good Philly Beef sandwich. Lousy fries - limp and mealy. Skip the fries. Overall, OK lunch place.
No exceptionally good food. Nothing I would recommend you seek out when you go there. Try what appeals to your tastes and hope for the best.
Shopping
There are no antique shops left in Galena despite what the guides and listings might claim. Every shop that was listed as "Antiques and ..." was just another hodge-podge of stuff to clutter up your house. Store after store of "home decorating" rubbish. We saw only one "Country Cutsey" shop. I guess Country isn't the In thing there, fortunately. They appear to be trying to attract the young, upscale, townhouse crowd with no taste from Chicago. We passed store after store without going in after seeing the first two or three of the type. Looking in the door or windows was enough. Basically, there was almost nothing that appealed to us for shopping.
There were some notable exceptions.
If you're into beading, there is an excellent bead shop with a HUGE selection. Any style, any size. They even have a table in the back so you can sit and build a necklace or whatever right on the spot. Several young girls at the table when we were there. Check it out. Even if you're not into beading (as I am not) it was still interesting to look at the amazing and varied specialty beads. Some very cool. If I were into beading, I'd go nuts in there.
Whether you're into photography or not, you must go to Images of Nature. It's the photography of one guy, Tom Mangelsen. I'm an amateur photographer and a lover of Ansel Adam's work. This guy is an Ansel Adams working in color. I have not seen work this good in several decades of going to fairs and shops, looking for good photos. It has to be seen to understand. His foremost skill is (like Adams) handling light. It is most impressive in his landscapes and mammal pictures. I could write several paragraphs on this, but will spare you. Go see it. If you're rich, buy some. Prices from several hundred to over $4,000. We bought calendars, we could afford that.
History
If you like blacksmithing, there is a blacksmith shop that was still in commercial operation into the late sixties. There is a smith in the shop only seldom now (2005). The smith from the John Deer shop in Grand Detour comes over occasionally and is training some men to work in the Galena shop. By 2006 there may be a regular schedule of smithing demonstrations.
The Galena museum is well done. Much information on lead mining and on the Civil War. One surprise was the famous Nast painting of the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox. This is the original. It was commissioned for the city of Galena and has been there all its life, because Grant lived in Galena for a few years.
You can tour the home given to Grant by some influential businessmen. He lived in it only about two years but it stayed in the family for some time.
There are other homes to tour if you like that sort of thing. Some well done, some so so. Ask around, not all are well advertised.
There is an excursion to a lead mine. I would like to have done that, but we didn't have time.
Lodging
We stayed at the Captain Harris Guest House a block south of highway 20. Nice place. The Honeymoon Cottage where we stayed used to be a chicken coop, if I remember correctly. No left over smells, never fear. Very nice.
Other Interests
Folbot kayaks -
Camping -
Willys Jeep -
Leatherman -
Knives -
Biking -
Daisy BB guns -
the Horn -
Music -
Books -
Computers -
Heathkits -
Hopi silver work -
China -
Opinion (for what it's worth)
Vacation Evaluations -
Rants -
Ludite Chronicles -
Miscellaneous
Wreck -
Airbus A380 at O'Hare -
Chicago Floods 2008 -
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12may09