River Road

Since we didn't have far to drive this morning, I let the boys sleep in until 9:00AM, which is really late for our usual road trip schedule. (I hate burning daylight on vacation!) After breakfast, we checked out and drove a short ways over to La Salle, IL for (wait for it) an I & M Canal National Heritage Area passport cancellation. The Lock 16 Cafe and Visitor Center on First Street had the stamp. Too bad we didn't have time to take a mule-pulled canal boat ride on the "Volunteer"!

Rene-Robert Cavalier de La Salle

Then we took the scenic route to Peoria, following the Illinois River along US-6 and IL-29. I also got to check off the one county in central Illinois which I've never traveled through before (Putnam County). We ended up at Avanti's, where we met my parents and two of their friends for lunch. Afterwards, we had our observance of National Ice Cream Day at The Spotted Cow. Yum!

Gondola!

Sadly, I have no photographic evidence of dinner, but my mom whipped up some delicious Chinese dishes: stir-fried shrimp, beef with broccoli, char siu pork, as well as kohlrabi. I've never had it before - she julienned and marinated it in soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and hot bean paste - but it was very tasty!