Woodstock, Illinois Road Trip
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This past week, my friend and I took a road trip to Woodstock, Illinois to see what we could discover on a very cold, blustery, winter day. Because of the freezing temperatures, we didn't plan to spend much time outside, just mostly photographing from the car. We found a lot of neat things, so come along as I share some of my favorite things we saw. As usual, you may purchase any of my photos by clicking on the copyright link underneath each photo.
We weren't quite to Woodstock yet when we found this adorable Christmas tree farm. I believe we were in Harvard, IL at this point and the vintage Ford truck almost buried in the snow says, "Wild Pines" and has a Christmas tree in the back all covered with snow. We loved the teal color and it reminded me of this adorable shower curtain.
A little further down on the same road as the truck, we saw this charming wagon all decked out for Christmas with evergreen branches, red berries and an antique metal milk jug in it. We were like kids in a candy store. Backroads make my heart leap for joy. It doesn't get much cuter than this.
We got a little side-tracked on our way there and found a couple adorable barns. There is something about a weathered barn with an American Flag. We pretty much will stop every time we see one. Bonus points for the ladder leaning on the tree, which helped tell a story of an active working farm.
This barn was unique as it had signs for Harley Davidson motorcycles, McDonalds's and Pizza Hut on the front of the barn. We were trying to figure out what the tie in was, but we couldn't pass it by.
We finally made it to Woodstock. Our first stop was at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, located at 503 W. Jackson Street. I adore churches with red doors. The snow really helped to make those doors pop. They still had their Christmas wreath up which gave it a nice Christmas time feeling with all that snow on the ground.
We drove around the side of the church and found these winter icicles hanging down. I love finding details that are temporary. This photo would look very different in summer and be rather uninteresting.
As we were pulling into town, near the train station, we were struck by this building and the large icicles coming out of the window. It almost looked like the building had a fire and the ice was from the fire department putting out the fire, but that is just a guess. I suppose it could also just be a lack of installation or leaking pipes. The building had lots of interest with the different stair cases, multi colored bricks and the ice and snow highlights.
We saw a few of these pretty clocks around town. We left our house at 1:00pm. Woodstock is only about 30 minutes from our house. I guess you can say we took the long way to get here, but it was worth it.
Next on the agenda was the town square, which has the Old Courthouse and Sheriff's House which was built in 1857 and is listed on the National Register of Historic places.
My favorite part of downtown Woodstock is the Woodstock Opera House. Not only is it beautiful architecturally, but I have fond memories of seeing the Nutcracker Ballet there with my girls and some friends from church many years ago.
As we were driving out of the square, we spotted this abandoned railroad caboose sitting in someone's yard. It was really weathered and in pretty bad shape, but so interesting.
Moehling Christmas Tree Farm located at 10904 Bull Valley Road, has twin barns and one with a quilt on it. I collect photographs of quilt barns, so I was super excited to find this place. Although pulling over on the side of the road to get this shot was a bit dangerous since it was on a corner with snow piled pretty high. But we survived and I have another quilt barn for my collection.
Most of the nature preserves we tried to find in Woodstock were gated and not plowed, but we found one near the end of the day that was opened and the sun peaked out from the clouds enough to give us a nice show.
On the way home we stopped at Glacial Park Conservation Area in Ringwood, Illinois. I loved the ice formations along the river, but the sunset photos and hearing the sounds of the geese was a perfect way to end our road trip.
When we pulled into our subdivision, the sunset was still showing off, so we pulled over by the lake to grab one last photo before calling it a day. I hope you enjoyed the highlights from our road tip.
Until next time, always choose the scenic route.
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