Peoria, IL

Sunday, Sept 4, 2016

After a good night's rest and after church, I wanted to get out and about.  I saw online that there was supposed to be a parade and festival in Peoria, so convinced Tic we should go to the festival not the parade.

Above is as we cross the Illinois River on I-74.  Below Tic got a picture of the river as we drove across.

Above and below are more views of the bridge.  The one below is really unique.

We made it to the park where the festival is supposed to be. 

This unusual group of metal art was along the river side.  We did not see hardly any people and no sign of a festival.

So we decided to walk around a little.  This propeller was on display.  It is a memorial to one of the first tourist riverboats.
 

This is the main entrance to the Peoria Riverside Park.  No people???
Are we in the wrong location?
 

 This is the Spirit of Peoria Riverboat.  It does tours up and down the river.  Still no people???
  Guess what, Tic looked the date up on his phone and I got the date wrong.  The festival is tomorrow.

We found a drive that was called the "most beautiful drive" by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1910.  Grandview Drive was along the river and lined with beautiful houses.  

This is the start of the drive.  

Below I'll show a few of the houses we saw.

 There were also areas where the views of the river were magnificent.

This was the view from just one of the several road side pull-outs.

This drive ended at the Tower Park.

The fountain above and the tower below were the main part of the park.  There was also a playground.

There is an observation deck on top.  The only way up is by elevator.  So up we went.

The Illinois River is huge.  The wide area is called Peoria Lake.  The Illinois Indians called the lake "Fat Lake".
 

Above and below are some of the views from the tower.

There were also pretty flowers in Tower Park.

As I drove around to the other side of the tower I saw this ten-foot fake woodpecker.  See a close-up below. 

Somebody has a good sense of humor.

It is time to head back.  We are going to take a different route.

We crossed back across the Illinois River on IL-150.  There were 2 bridges, one going each direction.  Tic got this neat picture.