Giant City State Park

John and I certainly have not been in our usual mode of traveling and sightseeing.  Have no fear, that will eventually pick up again.   However, writing on this blog will be sporadic for awhile during the time we are in the Midwest.  For now we are enjoying our grandson Nathan.  Every day brings changes in his development, it is like watching a flower slowly open up.
My sister Linda and her granddaughter Ellie came from Georgia to visit us this week.  Ellie has been so enamored with Nathan.  She is pictured below holding the baby.  Ellie was so happy to finally get him asleep that she flung out her arms with happiness- she could finally relax them!

We took Ellie and her Grandmother to Giant City Park to do some hiking on Tuesday.  The park is known for its very large sandstone formations made up of arrangements which resemble city blocks.

It was the Illinoisan Glacier back some 1,000,000 years ago which brought about the large sandstone formations.  Large blocks slid downward from a hill due to undercutting of a glacial stream (which is now known the Giant City Stream).  Differential weathering made possible the formation of the Devil's Standtable.

Karen Binder, author of Giant City State Park, comments that the park has some of the "best traveled streets in the Midwest".  Naturalists have studied the flora, residents of nearby towns have picnicked on its bluffs, and Civil War renegades have hidden in its caves.  Some of those visitors etched their names on the sandstone walls.

Our day in the park ended with a brief shower and a beautiful rainbow, one of the largest I have ever seen.  From newborn infants, to nodding heads of daffodils to colorful rainbows which fill the sky, certainly there are signs which portent of a wonderful spring season ahead of us!  God is good.