Thursday, July 28, 2011

A rainy morning

 
I went out this morning hoping to beat the heat for my daily walk. It had been raining most of the night, with thunderstorms, but by morning the rain let up enough for me to go out. I crossed the Fox River on State Street, and then took a flight of stairs down to Island Park, on the East side of the river.


Looking across the river
There was a pretty garden with colorful zinnias in bloom.

A view of our hotel across the river from the park
The river was running quite fast, after last night's rain, and several days of thunderstorms.


A low concrete bridge led to another island, with geese and ducks happily enjoying the wet weather.Where the river branched around the island, the back channels were more calm that the main run, with lilypads floating on the surface.


The stones laid at the water's edge, and many of the park's fixtures are made of the locally quarried limestone, golden and crumbly.

To the south, a railroad bridge crossed the river. It had been fitted out with a footbridge, so I walked across.



From the middle of the span, you could see how high and fast the water was rushing.


It led to a short path through a deciduous woods, then to a pretty neighborhood street.  Many of the homes here have historic markers.

By the time I got back to the hotel parking lot, it was starting to sprinkle again. I hope we'll have some dry weather and more time to explore later this weekend.

7 comments:

JCK said...

Wherever you are, it looks gorgeous! Such deep greens and vivid color splashes.

M. Bouffant said...

That's quite a bridge. Looks as if they removed half the tracks. Wonder if that was required to install the footbridge.

Ah, rain.

Cloudia said...

Glorious mainland Summer!



Aloha from Waikiki;


Comfort Spiral

><}}(°>


> < } } ( ° >

< ° ) } } > <

LV said...

I am not sure I would know what rain or thunder sounded like it has been so long. Enjoy it for me.

Holly said...

Wow - what a beautiful place to live! Love that you honor your Aunt Snow. She must've been quite a lady.
Happy Pink Saturday!

Unknown said...

What an awesome walk ... I would love to enjoy this daily.
Have a lovely PS weekend ~
TTFN ~
Marydon

Sanghamitra Bhattacherjee(Mukherjee) said...

Gorgeous post! Love it. Thanks for sharing.
Hope to see you on my blog:)
HPS!