SUNDAY IN GALENA, IL

May 31, 0 miles

Attended the Galena Branch for church today. The Branch President picked us up. They meet in a former antique car museum. The church rents 1/3 of the building and has renovated it to look and feel like a ward building except a very condensed version. Out of about 32 attending 25 of them were related. The Patriarch of the family lived in Chicago but went to Galena to vacation and decided it was a nice place to live and retire. Bought several hundred acres and his family gathered. They are one happy family and branch. It took a little research to find this out because they all call each other Brother and Sister "So & So" when speaking to each other. They not only live in the same little town and go to church together but also are in business together...a wholesale jewelry component business called Vintaj. Can be located at http://www.vintaj.com/. We stopped by their retail store in downtown Galena and did some window shopping. Creations definitely out of our price range but beautiful. We were pleased to see the sign in the window "Closed on Sundays. Sorry we missed you!"
One of the lessons in church today was on Preparedness. Not food or financial which we usually think of but spiritual. A quote by Marvin J. Aston, 1977, "Put out a welcome mat that reads 'Welcome Neighbor. Spiritual Oil Available. Come as you are.' Or 'Welcome Neighbor! Come as you are. Our Cup Runneth Over'. The message was to be spiritually prepared to be able to deal with the difficult times in our lives and be strong enough to help and strengthen those who are not.
The Captain Harris B&B where we stayed is the second oldest building in Galena but the only one continuouusly occupied,. breakfast is served at 9:00 with only one seating. (or so it says in the guest handbook). With our church meeting starting at 9:00 I asked if our breakfast could be kept warm and we'd eat it for lunch when we returned. Frank hesitated and was uncomfortable with that but agreed. The Captain Harris is famous all over town for it's breakfasts and we didn't want to miss out. Besides I figured it was included in the price and so I smiled and waited for his positive response.
We took an hour trolly tour to learn some of the history of the town and see interesting places that we wouldn't have ventured to on our bikes.
We would love to come back to Galena and spend more time. There is always something festive going on. We can just imagine the town blanketed in snow, the fireplace in the B&B bedroom glowing, and the shops on main street all a glitter and magical daily holiday festivities charming the guests.