Friday, April 6, 2012

"My Birthday Celebration Continues......."

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, after breakfast we drove to Prairie du Chien, WI. After exploring there, we drove across the Mississippi River to the small river towns of Marquette and McGregor. I added this small map so that you could see just how wide the Mississippi River is at this point and how many channels and islands there are, plus see the locations of these river towns to each other.


In Marquette, we drove up to this site which has an elevated platform/deck which overlooks the town/village(?) and river.


It is quite the grand view of the area, showing the new bridge and numerous islands/channels.


On the south side of the bridge this river boat casino, "Lady Luck", is moored. It is connected to another part of the casino, a building off to the left and not visible, via the long, red enclosed walkway seen here.


Unfortunately, we did not take any photos while driving around McGregor, which seemed to be a larger and more prosperous river town, now and also when it was established. Its main street was bordered by impressive decorative brick store fronts and boasted a town square, plus there were a couple of large stone churches, but it was the sight of some very large, beautifully kept Victorian homes that showed the prosperity of its past and present to me.

As we drove back across the river to WI, Don took this parting shot of the river boat casino. What is also nice about this photo is the view seen down the river with the steeply sloped, tree covered bluffs which border the west side of the river along this section of its course. I'm sure the 2 river towns we just had visited have been flooded at times, but on the east side of the river at Prairie du Chien, the flood plain is MUCH larger before coming to similar bluffs.

Tomorrow.....home, sharing birthday cake, and PRESENTS! ;)

1 comment:

Molly Bee said...

Looks like you guys had a WONDERFUL time. Happy belated birthday!