3 Days in Galena

To celebrate our first fall as retired teachers, my friend Serena and I decided on a 3 day getaway to Galena, Il, a short 2.5 hour trip from home.  The drive from Chicago to Galena in October was beautiful.  We admired the colorful leaves on the trees covering the rolling hills as well as the valleys dotted with farmhouses and red/white painted barns.  Our first stop once we arrived in Galena was Otto’s Place for lunch.  After noshing on the House Salad and mushroom soup, we shared a piece of the Pumpkin Cheesecake and it was fabulous!  Shopping was on our agenda after lunch so we covered about half the shops on Main Street before checking into our hotel, the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel.  

I booked the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel through Trip Advisor after reading the reviews and without a doubt we were not disappointed.  The hotel is charming, well decorated, clean and updated.  Conveniently located on the outskirts of town, the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel was very reasonably priced.  In the morning for breakfast, we were provided with a delicious basket of warm scones and fruit which we ate in the library along with a savory cup of coffee.  

Dinner on Day 1 was at Frank O’Dowd’s Irish Pub.  We shared the yummy Reuben Flatbread Pizza and Jumbo Stuffed Mushrooms while listening to live music.  Our day concluded with some paranormal activity on Amelia’s Ghost Tour.  We used divining rods, K2 meters and EMF detectors to detect and talk to spirits, and visited the Ryan Mansion as well as a cemetery from the 1800’s.  

We started Day 2 with a visit to the home of Ulysses S. Grant.  Take your camera - you get a great view of beautiful Galena from the top of the hill near Grant’s home.  We had plenty of time to finish off browsing the many boutiques, antiques stores and specialty shops by lunch time.  Lunch was at Dirty Gurt’s - a must visit.  My Hawaii Five-O burger was one of the best I’ve ever eaten and the service was delightful!  Our afternoon was busy with wine tasting and a tour of the Galena Cellars Winery.  We found plenty of wine we liked well enough to bring home.  Later on, we had dinner at Fried Green Tomatoes and of course our scrumptious appetizer was fried green tomatoes.

A girls’ getaway would not be complete without spa treatments.  Day 3 in Galena was spent at the Galena Day Spa which just happened to be located in our hotel.  Although you would not spend an entire day here, it has a full menu of services from facials to massages to body treatments at reasonable prices.  The spa includes locker rooms for showering and changing and above all, it’s relaxing.  

I highly recommend visiting Galena in October.  Galena is host to special events each weekend in October, so if you like special events and don’t mind crowds, definitely check out the weekends.  But if you like quiet escapes of casual shopping and no waiting at restaurants and attractions (like me) go during the week.