Trip to Galena, IL

I feel like rewarding whoever reads this blog with some pictures from this one-day trip I took to Galena, IL with my family the day after Christmas last December. If you read one of my previous posts I stated that the last time I uploaded pictures from my camera to my computer I only needed like 200 of them and it uploaded 2000. Well, most of those 200 were pictures I took on my trip to Galena. I've had these pictures for a while but have never actually gotten around to making any posts about it here or on my Tumblr for some reason. Even though it happened two months ago I can still remember it clearly because, although it got off to a rocky start, it's arguably my favorite day. It took around an hour and a half to drive there and an hour and a half to drive back. Most people would hate that but it was heaven to me because I LOOOOVE car rides. Only... I didn't like waking up early to go there haha. The morning of December 26, 2015 was very dreary but I also love dreary days so it was, like, perfect for me.

One perk of living in Iowa: Seeing this. Even though this is quite a ways from my town,

if you drive a few minutes away from the city you can see rural farmland like this. Turn around,

and you can see the city. It looks really cool at night.

I took quite a few pictures but they mostly turned out blurry. This picture also turned out blurry but I'd like to show it to you anyway so you can see what I was sitting with the whole ride: 

My Christmas presents!!

From left to right you can see: My camera case, my cheap MP3 player, Twist, Sugarberry, Galaxy, Stardancer, Num Noms, some Chester's Hot Fries (some of my fav snacks), my fucking shoes, and Mom's purse. I had taken off my shoes and put on these slippers I'd gotten the day previous because why wear shoes for an hour and a half when you can wear slippers?? Those slippers did make a funny malfunction later that night but I'll get to that later.

Anyway, here's a shot as we were crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois. 

It's mostly the sky but... if you look to the bottom you can see the river.

And Galaxy liked the Mississippi Palisades when we drove by. (I think they're the Mississippi Palisades anyway...)

"Can we go there? ...I don't care if it's winter and all the trees are bare."

When we finally got to Galena we went to this GIANT house my aunt and uncle rented. At first I went into the basement with my brother and our douchebag cousin who wound up pissing me off so much I wound up sitting on a pool table and then I finally went upstairs and enjoyed watching Harry Potter with my grandma who I don't talk to that much. We were sitting on a couch together and sometimes when she talked to me she farted and I could feel the fart vibrations in the couch and it took all my strength to keep from laughing. 

My brother and I also took turns flying this drone that my uncle had and it was fun as hell. I don't have any pictures of that but whatever. We tried to make it fly up to the top of the stairs and land there and then make it fly over these wooden beams on the roof which I was actually able to do. We stayed at the house most of the day and here are some of the pictures I took there:

Sugarberry on top of one of the posts on top of the rail upstairs. You can sorta

see those wooden beams that we tried to fly the drone over.

Twist in front of the fireplace.

Stardancer on the couch. Her tinsel's kind of a mess, sorry.

Surprisingly, I found a ladybug on the carpet there as well!!

Here he is. 

Because I love ladybugs, I decided to place him on the porch outside so nobody would step on him inside. Now, that brings me to outside. Oh boy. This house was literally in the middle of a goddamn FOREST. When you went outside it was chilly and you couldn't hear anything. I took Galaxy outside with me and took these pictures:

The forest itself. Just look at all those trees!!

Galaxy and the forest. I really like how this one turned out!

I also took some pictures of my Num Noms but they're just... sitting on the floor so I don't really think you'd be too interested in that. Besides, I've got way more interesting crap coming up. And that's the AMAZING shops of Galena... at night. Galaxy accompanied me there in my pocket.

Just an average pony in my pocket, officer. 

(Sorry this picture is blurry, I took it while I was walking

and I was already getting behind everybody else because I kept

stopping to take pictures)

This was taken by my mom on the way there. Look at THAT!!

Isn't it just amazing??

That light looks awful but it's the best shot I got of this scene.

There was this corridor/alley that I saw that I just HAD to photograph.

It took me a couple shots to get one that wasn't blurry but it was so worth it.

Some pretty Christmas decorations on one store.

Sadly, even though I took a shitload of pictures, we only went into one store since by the time we got there it was around closing time for most of the shops. The store we did go to was this candy shop that had a BUNCH of assorted candies and even some plushies.

There was a bunch of taffy, and here are just a couple of the taffy bins.

(Yes I did buy a bunch of the taffy and it was GOOD)

Just some of the candy jars. There were way more than this but I couldn't

take pictures of everything.

Near the cash register the owner had a bunch of Beanie Babies on a shelf (not for sale) which I thought was cool. I bet my dad liked it, considering he used to be one of those Beanie Baby collectors back in the 90s. :P

Impressive!

The candy there was expensive as hell, about $25 for the candies I got, which you can see in these pictures I took in the car:

Bag #1

Bag #2-Just taffy

However, that still isn't all for my pictures of Galena. I have some pictures I took on the walk back to the car too. 

There was this display that had some retro stuff and, being a Beatles fan, I took a 

picture of this Beatles section.

For some reason I really, really wanted a picture of this sign.

I took all these different pictures of it and this was the

one that turned out the best.

I also really wanted a picture of this wine store for some reason.

And... That's all for the pictures from Galena!! God it took way longer than it should've for me to add all those in lmao. I've probably spent longer making this post than I did the entire time I walked around in downtown Galena.

The arrangement of the ponies on the drive back.

Now here's the funny mishap: Once on the way to Galena and once on the way home we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. Both times I wore my slippers inside, but it just so happened that on the way back the parking lot of the gas station was SOAKED. My poor slippers that I'd just received as presents the day before had been soaked through and dirty. I felt so stupid when that happened haha. The rest of the ride home I just wore (dry) socks. 

On the ride home at night, we would've seen a bunch of stars in the sky which would have been AMAZING but it was still cloudy from earlier. Only now it was foggy as well. Honestly I thought the fog looked neat. Here's a picture I took of the fog when I stuck my camera out the car window.

After we got into town we got McDonald's and they happened to be giving out Shopkins toys. My brother and I both got Happy Meals and I got his Shopkins too. Here are the ones I got who I might've also put in another post?? I can't even remember.

I see you, Stardancer, Twist, and Sugarberry's ass.

Alright well that FINALLY concludes this extremely long post. See, I could've spent my time writing but what did I do? Spend forever making this post. Well now I know I'm never making a post this pic-heavy ever again. Bye for now!