Photo Essay- A day in Rockford

Yesterday dawned the perfect fall day- the sky was blue, the tempeture was not too cold, and the sun was shining brightly. I had to drive up to see my dad and get my car worked out again, so I made sure to bring my camera with me.

Once I got there, I met up with my Aunt, and we took off for some fun photo hunting. I'm fairly new to the whole photography thing. I enjoy taking pictures, and LOVE when they turn out great.

Off we went- it was a little after 2pm when we got on the road, and we made our first stop not long after. My step-mom told us about a small park located between where we started, and where we wanted to go, so we hunted it down to take some photos.

She was not kidding when she said small- but it was lovely. There was a creek running through it, and an old stone railroad trestle. The stones were hand carved, and the date on the trestle was 1885. Above the trestle, the railroad has long since been transformed into a winding bike path.

Some flowers were planted around, but most were colorless this late into the year. I got a few close up shots of the few flowers remaining, though. After that, my aunt had me climb up the slope of the trestle, and pose for her on the stone steps. We got some nice photos of me there.

Once we had finished goofing off there, we drove off towards the dams in Rockford- but it was not without one surprising dead stop because Auntie Em found a lovely little picture spot. We parked along side the creek, and started taking pictures.

She even got one she's never allowed to repost which included me squatting on the ground to get a picture, and her getting a picture of my backside- with some plumber crack showing. Yes, that one should be deleted. Two kyakers passed by us, and we got some shots of that.

Next, we stopped to take some pictures of a large yard with pretty trees dotting it. There were a few other small things here and there that we got pictures of at that stop, but nothing overly spectacular.

Finally, we made our way over to the dams in Rockford. They have this whole little park set up surrounding it, with walkways, brick paths, flowers, plants, benches, and so much more.

The area was packed with people enjoying the gorgeous day. We took oodles of pictures- water, fishermen, flowers, the leaves, the sky- if we saw it, we took a picture.

 While we were there, we wandered over to the shops, and talked with my sister. She was going to meet us and bring Alex with her. That was happy news, because I don't get to see my sister or neice that often. We had time to kill, so we wandered through some shops, took some more pictures, and enjoyed the fall day.

Once Brooke & Alex met up with us, we made our way over to a locally famous place called "The Corner Bar" to have lunch. Alex ate while we waited, then we got to eat. Aftr one big mess on Alex, we cleaned her up and out we were again.

By now, the sun was fading, and it was getting later, but there was still plenty of light to use- just not bright over head sun. We watched a wedding taking place, and took some pictures of it. Aunt Marci was almost ready to offer her services as a photographer when we realized they didn't have one.

After that, we got a lot of shots of Alex & some with both Alex & Brooke. By then, my feet were killing me, and we were all getting ready to head home. When we got to my parents house, I noticed through the woods that the field behind them was lit up very nicely, so we grabby my step-mom, and went tromping through the woods to get some gorgeous fall colors captured. I'm glad we did- that was the most upclose color we actually got all day.

When the sun faded away too much, we were back to tromping through the woods- where I showed my aunt the old bomb shelter. In the woods, just behind the house, there is an old cement "dug out" in the ground- you can only see the roof of it, and the open "hatch" that allows you to climb inside. There are two holes in the top where there used to be metal pipes- now, they're rusted, and almost melted against the top of the cement ceiling.

As children, we were forbidden to go inside there, but we did anyway. There is no ladder to get inside, you have to lower yourself in. One time, my brother slipped, and caught his upper teeth on the edge as he went down. He put his teeth through his lip. I don't actually remember that- I think it was when I was too little to be tromping through the woods just yet.

Either way, it was a neat little area we enjoyed as kids. My brother says it was an old root celler, but both me and my step-mom think it was actually built as a bomb shelter back in the 50's when people were terrified of an atomic bomb going off.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun going around and getting pictures. It was a good day- though next time, I'll wear tennis shoes.