And the search continues… looks like Allison & friends were out looking around Illinois Beach State Park on a rainy & gloomy Tuesday morning. Guess their persistence paid off with three fortune cookie finds! Well done… and HAPPY NEW YEAR ALLISON. Hope these fortune cookies bring you good fortune in the New Year!

Looks like Tina found the first TWO fortune cookies this afternoon while hiking out at Illinois Beach State Park! She was so excited since last year she found NONE!!! So today was her lucky day… and someone else’s too! Tina was so nice that she left the second one for another lucky person to find on another day!

Looks like the fortune cookie anticipation has been building… a little text message conversation between Ashley & her husband this afternoon!!! Too cute! They randomly found one last year & apparently Mark wants… err, needs… to find more!!!

Celebrating a new Mugshot Monday with this great shot of Donna’s new purple mug… which surprisingly matches her Kitchen-Aid stand mixer!

Looks like Kelly is kicking off her New Year with a quiet moment, a cozy blanket and a warm cup of coffee in her new mug! A fun “surprise” Christmas gift from her daughter Merryn!

… or just an AMAZING COINCIDENCE?!!!

So I was hiking through Illinois Beach State Park yesterday… headed back towards my car in the North Unit of the park. I had already hidden the first half of my fortune cookies. I decided to take a little side path back to the parking lot instead of along the lake… as I had a done that headed the other direction. The park is always pretty secluded – not a lot of people around. So it was kind of surprising when I ran into these two… Heidi & Steve who live up in the area. Steve even joked about there being no one else out there!

So we talked for awhile about Illinois Beach State Park… and how I “found it” as one my Covid excursions during quarantine. They kept telling me about other areas I need to check-out up there… parks, boardwalks, sweet shops, etc. They were the nicest… and only... people I chatted with all day. Like I said, Illinois Beach State Park is pretty isolated without a lot of people!

And then as we continued to talk, I told them that I would let them “in on a little secret”… I told them that I was a potter… and then I told them that I was there hiding my clay fortune cookies! Twenty-three for 2023!

Hold on… wait for it…
Then Heidi stopped me in the middle of my story and said that she found a fortune cookie like that two years ago at the Sand Pond fishing area of the park. She was even impressed that they rattled! I think it took her a second for it all to come together… but what a randomly strange coincidence that I would run into a random new friend out there… who just happened to randomly find one of my fortune cookies TWO YEARS AGO in a random state park covering over six random square miles!!! Crazy coincidence, right?!

We continued to chat on our way back to the parking lot. When we crossed a little wooden footbridge, I pointed out to Heidi that someone else has been hiding things out there too. Like this little Christmas Tree painted rock… that I had seen earlier while I was headed the other way!!! Heidi was so excited… another fun find for her collection!

A little fortune cookie Scavenger Hunt at Illinois Beach State Park!
Handmade ceramic fortune cookies… textured, patterned, stained…
oh, and they rattle too!!!

So here we go… a few visual “clues” to help people find the hidden fortune cookies! Remember, there are twenty-three ceramic fortune cookies hidden throughout Illinois Beach State Park… both North & South Units. Kind of my way to share some “good fortune” for the New Year!

I hid them yesterday… so go get ’em!!!

Of course I’m not going to make it easy for you…
so these little “clues” may or may not help?! Plus, the photos are in no particular order! All part of the game… and FUN for me!!!

And a good thing I brought a couple extra fortune cookies with me…

I found this great piece of driftwood and thought that this would be a perfect place to stash a fortune cookie. When I set the fortune cookie into the hole on the top, it seemed a little wobbly. So I pushed it a bit further back… and it fell right in! ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM!!! I could hear it tumbling down inside… like through a “tube” down the center of the log! Never to be found until this piece of drift wood rots away! Whoops!

Continuing a new New Year’s tradition…

I started this little tradition of mine two years ago during the Covid-19 Lockdown. Remember when there were to parties, no get-togethers, no way to safely celebrate the New Year! During the lockdown, I started exploring some of the Illinois State Parks by myself… safely “quarantining” by myself enjoying the outdoor air. What could be safer?

And then to “celebrate” the 2021 New Year… after a long drawn-out, Covid-filled 2020… I decided to “celebrate” by hiding 21 handmade ceramic fortune cookies for people to find out in a State Park. Then I did it again… with 22 fortune cookies for 2022!

Well, today was the day… bringing in the New Year!!!
23 clay fortune cookies for 2023!!!
Hidden out in a state park for people to find!
Happy New Year… happy adventures… happy searching…

Kicking off the New Year in nature…
Yesterday I took the day off to spend New Year’s Day hiking through the Illinois Beach State Park. A beautiful lakefront park just north of Waukegan, A “treasure: that I found during my Covid quarantine a couple years ago. I had never heard of it before… and apparently very few other people have either! It’s always so unpopulated with people. You can hike for hours and barely run across more than a handful of people out there. Wonderful!

Yesterday was a bit cloudy & overcast, but still a beautiful day to hike around the park. As the name implies, Illinois Beach State Park has a lot of beachfront area. A lot of sand dunes & driftwood. A lot of open prairie grass areas away from the lake. And a lot of swales… yes, I learned what a “swale” was yesterday!!!

New this year, there was no snow & ice formations! Prior years I was up there during Winter marveling over the frozen spectacle, icicles & glaciers all over the lake. So this time, it seemed a lot more like a Fall day that Winter!

Quite a few “tee-pee” structures have also popped-up along the lakefront. This was the largest of them… kind of a structure built out of driftwood logs. Very cool, all uninhabited… but from the looks of some of them, there have been people inside them… some even had brick fire rings inside!

This was a cool stick I found on the beach… literally covered with shells. Like barnacles on a ship!

And a couple more “tee-pee” structures along the beach. Kinda wonder how long they’ve been here?!

Cattails look like they’ve weathered the storm!

Always fun to see some stacked rocks along the beach. I found this grouping in the South Unit. Already stacked by a cute young family… the kids were so excited about their creations as they posed for photos!

Loving the lichens!

Celebrating 2023… with 23 handmade fortune cookies!
For those who know… YES!

For those who don’t know yet… more details tomorrow!!!