It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Mom and I were off to the Quad Cities Festival of Trees (sponsored by Quad City Arts) last weekend. There were so many beautiful trees and holiday decorations to see - I loved just about everything I saw! Here is a little peek of some of my favorites - Enjoy :)

Scenes from Silver Dollar City and Harvest Fest 2011

Hot Spiced Cider!

My mom and I had a dang good time going down to Silver Dollar City for the Harvest Festival.
We have great time whenever we take trip - I'm happy to say this one was no different! :) Here are some of the sights from our fun weekend!

The trip down...
We traveled the Great River Road south while listening to "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" on CD. The weather was perfect the entire weekend. We stopped at The Nauvoo Cafe for lunch on Day 1.

After an over-night in Columbia, it was on to Branson. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost... missed one of those pesky exits!! Lucky for us we stumbled upon "The World's Largest Candy Shop" along Interstate 63. Nothing like a little sugar rush to keep your spirits up!

Finally, we reached Springfield and had a delicious (although late) lunch at Hemingway's Restaurant at Bass Pro Shops. Always on our list of stops and always yummy!

Bass Pro Shops - Disneyland for the outdoor enthusiast!

We reached Branson and headed out to Silver Dollar City to wander around for a few hours before closing. If you visit the park after 3pm, your ticket is good for the following day - what a great idea!

If you have never been to Silver Dollar City, you really should make a visit. It's one of the most beautiful theme parks around - lots of trees and flowers and winding walkways.
Scenes from the park...

 

 

Some of the great vendors, handicrafts and artists we saw there...

I loved this handpainted stool!

I bought some vintage seam binding ribbon from this vendor!

My mom liked the fish painting. When we came back the next day, it had sold :(

This lady was a hoot to watch and she made beautiful papers

Rachel Wilson  makes these fantastical sculptures from scrap twigs and branches

Fun pumpkin carving!

This lathe is powered by the guy turning the huge wheel! He can work for 20 minutes every hour.

OK... so this guy isn't an artist but he was sure cute :)

Lovely shawls were made on this triangle loom

Like this one!

And here's one of my favroite photos from the whole trip! A picture of the crystal blue fall sky...

...perfect.

Chicago Trip - Part 3

Whew! Those cupcakes were sure good! Thankfully, our hotel was MANY blocks walk away so we could feel better about all those oh-so-delicious calories :)

No trip to the north end of Michigan Ave. would be complete without a stop into the Fourth Presbyterian Church. Those who know me well know that I am not religious by any means but I love me a big ol' church. Give me a city full of steeples and I'm a happy hiker! This one is a beauty (please forgive me for the stock photo!).

In the side lawn was a remembrance of children who suffer from abuse - one blue ribbon for every child. There were, sadly, WAY too many ribbons but they were a sight to look at.

Inside is so beautiful! There's simply no way to capture all the wonderful details but you can get a better look by visiting their website at http://www.fourthchurch.org/architecture.html to see all the details.

And finally, a window-shopping trip down Oak Street - it's sort of Chicago's Rodeo Drive full of high end shops like Jimmy Choo and Prada. We only ventured into one store - Hermes - to look at scarves. They were not marked with any prices and we didn't ask. If you have to ask, you can't afford it!! :)

We did stop into Urban Outfitters on Rush St. and I was pleased to see this sweet outfit...

I love it when stuff I used to wear comes back in style!! Yay! I'm definitely going to Goodwill and buy my stuff back - right down to the little 80's throw-back boots! This is my new (and old) summer uniform.

Well, thanks for taking a little trip with me around Chicago. Nothing left now but to treat you to a few pretty shots from the trek back to the hotel. We were finally treated to beautiful, clear skies! I hope you like them! :)

Chicago Trip - Part 2

Well, after a hearty lunch at Subway (hey, it was close and affordable!) we waited for the trolley across the street from the Art Institute.

This is about as good a shot as I've ever gotten of this impressive building! We didn't go in because to truly enjoy the Art Institute you need at least a full day if not two and we didn't have that kind of time. Again, something to look forward to... :)

This time we were picked up by a double decker bus and, being the intrepid travelers we are, sat up top. Our tour guide this trip was named Mark (I usually don't immortalize tour guides in my blog but he was really good).

We enjoyed our long ride to Navy Pier (where we decided NOT to disembark because the crowds were insane!)...

The skies had started to clear and we were treated to some great views as we headed downtown...

We finished our circuit where we started, at Watertower Plaza. 

Needing a snack, we then went across to the Hershey chocolate shop and bought some delicious cupcakes!! Here's mine...

And here's me devouring it!!

After our REALLY healthy snack, we were ready to head back to the hotel... but not before a couple more stops!

Check back for more tomorrow :)