Getting away from it all - Travelogue

DH and I took a quick break from the real world this past weekend. We visited picturesque Galena, Illinois and stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast (the significance of that will make more sense when Living Canvas gets released).  Acknowledgement to steller innkeepers Lorraine and Jan Svec for making us feel at home.

I also took the time to visit a bed and breakfast in Dubuque - shout out to Amy Boynton of the Mandolin Inn, who I interviewed when I was developing Living Canvas.  Although I've stayed in B&B's before, the inspiration for the one I wrote didn't fit with the vision I needed, so I did some online research and stumbled on a closer image for what I wanted to convey. Castle Valley Inn is a mash of many different places, but with Amy's kind assistance, I was able to create a stronger vision. Finally getting the chance to see Mandolin Inn, I was not dissapointed. The place is Beautiful (yes, that's a capital "B"). Gorgeous. Awesome. Thanks to Amy for her kind hospitality.

But back to Galena. This is what we saw the first night. Have I mentioned the new book includes those "moments of grace" when the world seems to stop?

My husband is an excellent photographer and he took some beautiful pictures (like this one of the sunbeams breaking through the clouds).

Galena is a tourist type of town filled with little shops to browse (I'm not much of a shopper, but its fun to look in the windows). 

And the thing about Galena is that they don't have alleyways, they have stairways between buildings that lead to the next block over (or, more accurately, up).  Built in a "driftless" area (this is an area of land untouched by glacial erosion), it is one of the few hilly parts of the flat Midwest.