Illinois: Grafton

Day: 86
No Travel

We walked around the town of Grafton today with finding ice cream as our objective.  We knew about "The Whole Scoop" but as we walked around town, we discovered a couple of more choices. Ultimately, we ended up getting cones from the Grafton Fudge Country Store down the street.  On the walk we noticed some interesting sights in town.

Port of Grafton Illinois Lighthouse

Grafton Ferry to Missouri
(note here the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers join)

We found several second-hand / flea market type establishments.  The Fudge & more store where we purchased ice cream sold a very interesting assortment of products from moccasins to fudge and candy to antiques and jewelry.  

Antique Coke for $187 anyone?

Antique milkshake machine
and other interesting articles from the past
including table and chairs from the 1950s

Just down the street from the Fudge shop we found the old Grafton Bank building which has been converted into a gift shop.  I could not believe how small the building was for a bank building. The picture below does not do justice to the small size of this bank.

Grafton Bank - now Gift Shop

 The Grafton Harbor marina was interesting in and of itself and must be a hot party spot in the summer.  Many boats are decorated in very interesting ways indicating a general party theme.  Below is a picture of one example.  Note the woman on board is a mannequin.

Wayne's World Party-er's boat

At 5:30 the loopers at the marina got together for Docktails (Cocktails on the dock).  We had a large crowd and many new-to-us faces.  We came away with a stack of new boat cards (like business cards but with boat name and contact details).  We met Gold Loopers at the get together (meaning they have completed the loop already) from the boat Bucket List who gave us some tips on the next phase of our trip including Tennessee and Florida.  By 7:30 I had to leave to get back to the boat to cook dinner.  Clark stayed for a while longer soaking up as much information for our trip as possible.

NOTE: I do not plan to post a blog tomorrow night as we are taking a small road trip tomorrow from Alton, IL, and I do not expect to have time to work on my blog.