Galena and The Irish Cottage
A Main Street that stretches over a half-mile with over 125 boutiques, galleries and shops? 28,000 square-feet of antiques? Ireland in Illinois? A new house on Lake Michigan? It’s all inside this week’s Date Day adventure to Galena.
Usually our 4-5 hour Date Day is enough to keep us happy and looking forward to the next week. Every now and then, however, we need to get away for a slightly longer period of time. Away from the kids, the pets and everything but us. This was one of those weeks, so we dropped Nate and Nova off at g-ma’s and sped off for an overnight Date Day!
Feeling like much younger versions of ourselves we set off around 4pm for the 190-mile drive. The traffic was bad, but we did our own version of carpool karaoke and the miles flew by. Before we knew it, it was 7:30 and we were pulling into our hotel, The Irish Cottage.
The Hotel
The Irish Cottage is a good-sized, but somehow still quaint, hotel just outside of Galena. It has a good Irish pub, wonderful secluded seating areas and a general feel of being in Ireland. As it was getting late, we opted for dinner at the pub and were not disappointed. Theresa had a very good Grilled Salmon and Tom had some excellent Fish ‘N’ Chips. We washed things down with a couple Irish libations and headed back to our suite for a night of laughter and merriment. Heavy on the merriment.
The following morning it was complimentary breakfast in our room and then off to Galena.
Galena
A few quick facts about Galena. The city is named for the mineral galena and was the site of the first major mineral rush in the US. It was also the largest steamboat hub north of St. Louis on the Mississippi River and the home of Ulysses S. Grant.
The city of Galena is dominated by historic red brick buildings, with streets that progressively rise higher and higher above the Galena River (the Mississippi River is actually several miles to the west). Its Main Street was named “Best Main Street in the Midwest” by Midwest Living magazine and one of “America’s Best Main Streets” by Fodors. Main Street was our primary destination for the day.
In case you haven’t noticed, one of us likes to shop and Galena’s Main Street was the perfect destination for her. There are over 125 boutiques, art galleries and restaurants along the street and we must have visited 100 of them. Tom would swear that we visited more.
Our favorite stores included;
- Pasta Perfetta – They have hundreds of different shapes, sizes, flavors and colors of pasta. It was hard to walk out with only three purchases.
- Towne Rebel – A very nice store with tons of French Country décor. We especially liked the large vases and a particular set of stacked tables.
- Galena Canning Company – Their motto should be, “If it can be canned, we’ve already done it!” They have sauces, vegetables, jellies, condiments and much more. Best of all, you can sample pretty much everything. And we tried.
- Peace of the Past – A neat antique store with over 30,000 used books to browse through.
After wandering in an out of stores for a couple hours it was time to eat. We climbed the stairs towards Bench St. and found a table at Vinny Vanucchi’s. We started with the complimentary salad and breadsticks (both were awesome) and then moved to our main courses. An excellent meatball sandwich for Tom and equally excellent cheese ravioli for Theresa. After eating the food and enjoying a couple adult beverages we felt like it was time for a nap, but we had more shopping to do!
We spent another hour or so checking out the stores. Our last stop was Root Beer Revelry where we were amazed by the variety of their eponymous concoctions. We picked out a 4-pack for Nate (he didn’t appreciate the spicy one we accidentally got for him!) and headed out of town. We didn’t hit any of the wineries, breweries or distillery’s on this trip, but next time we will.
An Unexpected Find
One our way home we decided to stop at a couple antique stores outside of Galena. The first was nice, but nothing special. The second, however, was an experience all its own. About 15-miles outside of Galena lies the sleepy town of Elizbeth, Il. Elizabeth is home to 761 people and one ginormous antique store.
We pulled into the parking lot of the Grand Antique Company not knowing what to expect. Their sign was not so grand and the entryway seemed a little down trodden. We walked into the small bakery at the entrance and were a little confused, but the friendly girl behind the counter pointed us toward the antiques. We set off down the hall expecting to find a “normal” antique store.
What we didn’t realized was that we had just walked into an old 3-storey school building. And the entire thing had been turned into an antique store! 28,000 square feet to be exact. The old gym still had its wooden floor, but was filled to the brim with antiques. Likewise were the locker rooms, cafeteria and classrooms. On and on, room after room, floor after floor. The chemistry room still had its old lab tables and many of the classrooms still had their chalkboards. We walked around for an hour, but were so overwhelmed that we didn’t buy a single thing. Next time we’ll have to plan for a longer visit.
We wrapped up our date with a speeding ticket on I-88 and made it home in time for a late dinner with Nate. If you ae ever in Galena, please don’t buy the stackable tables at Towne Rebel. We really want them for our new house on Lake Michigan, but that is a story for another Date Day …
July 2018
The Irish Cottage
9853 Hwy 20, Galena, IL 61036
$175 for a night in the Glendalough Suite (weekday)
$75 for dinner in the Pub
Free Parking
Vinny Vanucchi’s
201 South Main Street, Galena, Illinois
1 Hour
$55 (Including drinks)
Galena
$5 Parking for the Day on Commerce St.
