River Drive

John and I went exploring a little on Friday...drove to the Alton-Grafton area.  We were curious what was out that way and discovered a beautiful river drive through quaint little towns, which I plan to go back and visit.  We ate lunch at the "World Famous" Fast Eddie's.  Had pork kabob, hamburger, brat, fries, 6 shrimp and 2 drinks all for less than $13.  Now granted, it's not the kind of place I'd like to go often...definitely a bar atmosphere and you have to be 21 to get in, but the food is really cheap and actually tasted good.  We didn't stop for a whole lot of pictures this time, but I did get a couple and plan to go back for better ones.  The river was really high and flooded out a lot of the areas you can pull off to get good views.  It was a really nice day and we just enjoyed each other's company.

On Saturday, we tried another new deli, well, new for me...the Blue City Deli.  They've got great sandwiches and the place was crazy busy.  I overheard an employee say they only advertise by work of mouth...they are obviously well-liked.  We ended up back out at the Botanical Gardens...which were in full bloom with the summer show.  It was my first trip back since spring and, wow, it's just as beautiful now as it was then.  I wanted to experiment with my 50mm.  Discovered it's great for taking shots without the flash, the drawback is not being able to get really, really close.  Though it didn't do too bad on some of the flower shots.  Actually, I love some of the results I got.

My two (hmm...three) favorite shots of the day!

...and look Beki found her way to the gardens all the way from Mexico.  Haha!  I photoshoped her into a background I took at the Gardens.  Looks like she was there!