Our weekend away at Kishauwau on the Vermillion
We’re not sure exactly how long it’s been since we’ve spent a weekend at Kishauwau on the Vermillion, down by Starved Rock and Matthiessen National Parks, but our best guess is 12 years or more.
We headed out on Friday, May 15th. It was cool and raining. After doubling back twice due to road closures for construction, we finally made it to Route 39; we were on our way. We arrived two hours later.
This was the first time in this cabin, named Jacks. It’s a two story building, but the lower level is used for storage and unavailable to guests. Jacks has a medium sized, combined living room and dinning area, small kitchen, large bedroom and a hot tub room.
We settled in, got comfortable and did some reading before dinner.
Way out here, cellphone reception is spotty at best. I joked about going through withdrawal from being online. It was an adjustment to be sure. It quickly became apparent how reliant we’ve become on technology. After reading for a bit, we decided it was dinner time. We had planned to cook dinner on the grill that’s on the property, but it was still pouring rain. Plan B was to find a restaurant for dinner. Without the Internet, Google Maps on the cellphones, or mapping software on our computer we had to go analog.
Side note – In the past, about 5+ years ago, I always had a copy of Microsoft Map point on my computer. We’ve been using Google Maps on the laptops and cellphones for a few years now that it never occurred to us that we may want to install Mappoint on Judy’s Windows laptop. Alternately, I could have purchased one of the mapping software with full maps for the iPhone.
Fortunately, the hosts at Kishauwau had a long list of restaurants in the area.
Of course, “the area” is pretty spread out about 20-50 miles. We found an Italian restaurant in Peru that we wanted to try. With a map that was provided by the hosts in the mail for driving directions, and that may have been photocopied from a phonebook, we mapped out our route to Peru to find Armici’s.
The drive was simple enough, even though I overshot RT 6 and had to turn back one street later. While Armici’s parking lot was small and disjointed (on the side and back, accessed separately) it had a very nice atmosphere inside. We were seated in the second dinning room which as decorated as an outdoor cafe, complete with a street lamp in the middle of the floor behind my seat and stars shining in the sky (i.e. ceiling). Dinner was very good, the Riesling less fruity than we’re accustomed to but still good. It was an enjoyable dinner.
On the drive back to the cabin we pick up some ice cream and hot fudge topping for brownie sundaes. Back at the cabin, we played Phase 10 and ate the hot fudge brownie sundaes while listening to the rain and thunder. Life was good.
We slept in on Saturday morning. We got up mid-morning, but by the time we were showered and dressed it was 11:30am, so we skipped breakfast and made lunch. We grilled the marinated chicken that we couldn’t grill the night before. It was a great lunch, one of our favorite meals.
After lunch we headed to Matthiesen State Park where we spotted a Pow Wow sign on Friday. It had been a few years, possibly 6 or more, since we went to an Indian Pow Wow. We checked out all the arts and crafts for sale and display, ate some Indian Fry Bread and watched some traditional Indian dancing, including a very cool hoop dance where the girls worked their way up to eight hoops.
An organization name S.O.A.R. had two trained hawks and an eagle on display there. It was amazing to see these majestic birds up close.
One of our goals for the weekend was to go fishing. We drove to the other side of the park to Matthiessen Lake which was high on the banks and covered with lake scum along the shore. We hiked a portion of the trail after being drawn to it by the sound of a raging waterfall. The trails were muddy and slick at times from the recent torrential rains. We decided to try and find our way to LaSalle Wilderness and Fishing Area, again using the old fashioned map. We arrived at LaSalle, which was located right next to the Exelon Nuclear Power Plant and wind farms. It was very windy and the openess of the Wilderness and Fishing Area allowed us to feel just how windy. We debated whether to try and fish the rough waters or leaving, deciding to give it a try. We both caught a bullhead, but decided that it was too cold to stay out any longer.
We went back to the cabin, where we had grilled ribeye steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and spinach for dinner. After dinner, we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows for s’mores. As twilight was ending, we headed inside to hang out by the fireplace for some reading. As Judy headed to bed around 11pm, I headed outside with my binoculars to stargaze for a couple hours.
Sunday morning Judy made us delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs and fried potatoes. It was unfortunate that the weekend trip was coming to an end. We agreed that we needed one more day and night our here so we can visit Starved Rock and search for more fishing spots.
On the drive home we found an off the path spot for dinner. We found Fritz Wooden Nickel in Stillman Valley, Il, but unfortunately it was closed. Instead we had lunch up the street at the Royal Blue Restaurant where we enjoyed some burgers and fries.
After lunch we returned to Woodstock and spent the afternoon walking around the annual Fair Diddley craft show at the square.
A full set of photos from this weekend are available here on Flickr.
~ Posted by Al
