French Canyon / February 2024 in Ottawa, IL
Hiking to French Canyon in Starved Rock State Park | Spending 2 Weeks in Ottawa, IL | February 2024
Returning to Ottawa, Illinois this spring felt a little bit like returning to a home, a place we once lived, even though it had only been for a month. We arrived at the same hotel as last year, and were greeted by some of the same women working there that we had gotten to know, as well as another wife who travels with her husband to his assignments. It was like a little happy reunion in the lobby, Charlotte especially loving the attention. We moved into the hotel room, ran some errands, and went to one of our favorite local restaurants that night for dinner. Everything about coming back made me so happy, being able to drive around without using Google maps, remembering all the roads, walking around the downtown square, and feeling so comfortable here right away. It was our favorite assignment from last year, and we were quickly reminded of why!
However, this year our circumstances were a little different. We would only be here for 2 weeks instead of a whole month, and Curtis would have to work every single night that we were here. But the reason for this is overall good — he’s now working the position that he wants to be his main focus, which seems to be the best fit for him in this company. It was last year when we were here in Ottawa that he first met the guy in charge of this program, that gave him a better idea of his career goals and what he wanted to do. One year later, that position is now what he’s doing primarily, and he was leading that division at this assignment. So while it was another long 2 weeks of work right after 2 weeks straight in Georgia, he was at least doing what he wanted to be doing!
We did have a little extra time together on the first day when he was adjusting his sleep schedule, so we used that time to go for a hike in Starved Rock State Park. We drove to the main visitor center and started on the trail here. Our main goal was simply to make a big loop around and enjoy the beautiful day and the relatively easy trails. But when studying trail signs, we realized that we never hiked to French Canyon last year, so we made sure to include it today. The canyon was pretty impressive, though Charlotte decided that she wasn’t interested in walking down the steeper rock steps, so Curtis and I took turns walking down into the canyon, then up through the stream to the waterfall which was barely a trickle. We continued on to Wildcat Canyon before looping our way back to the lodge, where we saw the Whispering Giant statue yet again.
Our 2 weeks in Ottawa went by quickly. We easily fell into our same routine as before with Curtis working nights and sleeping during the day, Charlotte and I entertaining ourselves until he woke up. Then we would go for a little walk, usually around downtown Ottawa, then pick up dinner somewhere before Curtis returned to work. Our favorite restaurants this time around were Rosatti’s Pizza (specifically the Chicago deep dish style pizza), Dragon City Chinese, the Cheese Shop, the Thai Cafe, and BASH for sushi. Weather-wise, the weeks were pretty mild for February in the Midwest, except for when we had both a light snow and tornadoes in the same week. Before we knew it, the project wrapped up and it was once again time to move on to the next one, which would be a much shorter drive, to a new plant, in a place we had driven through many times but never stopped. All that, coming up next!
