Peoria, Illinois

Cindi is giving me the privilege of writing our blog again today.  Peoria holds a special place in the Hulsebus family as my dad "Pop" and my grandpa were both born and raised here.

 Tomorrow I plan to include some more Hulsebus family history so stay tuned. 

We had a relaxing morning inside our motorhome as it had rained over night and was rather wet outside.  After breakfast and homeschool we decided to head out of the "not so great" campground, Millpoint Park, on the east shore of the very wide Illinois River.  The kids have informed us over and over again that back in Granite Bay, this is the last week of school before summer vacation.  They also explained to us that this week is full of fun activities, not difficult school work.  It didn't quite work but we are taking it into consideration.  Later in the day we found an inexpensive movie theater so we all went to see the newly released, Narnia Prince Caspian.  As it turned out the movie theater was just blocks away from my dad's first house when he was a baby.  The house is 3203 Biltmore on the corner of Biltmore and Hudson.  Cindi and I were pleasantly surprised that although it was an older street it was full of very well maintained houses and yards with nice street lamp lining the road.  Of course I had to call my dad to reconfirm the location and get addition fact on the property and the neighborhood.  I found out that my grandpa actually designed and built this house.  In addition, my dad pointed out his grammar school buddies house, Ralph Lawler, just down the street.  Ralph is now the TV play by play broadcaster for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and he and my dad are still friends.  As we drove around Peoria my dad then proceeded be our tour guide leading us over to Bradley University where he studied his first 2 years before heading to USC where he ultimately graduated. (I should mention that Bradley's basketball team made it to the NCAA final game,  about 50 years ago, and the sweet 16 as recently as 2006).  As we drove around Bradley my dad directed us past his fraternity house, Theta Chi, and his church, Westminster Presbyterian.  We also saw the street HIS grandparents lived on, Institute.  We then got to see the place where his Aunt Dadie (my grandpa's sister) and Uncle Dick lived, 902 West Moss.  I have fond memories of Dick and Dadie visiting us in Los Angeles during the holidays when I was a kid.

After we all played at a park for an hour on Peoria's Riverwalk on the west side of the Illinois River we headed to WM.  It was just about dark so it made sense not to hook back up in a campground.