So here’s the “other” part of my annual tradition!
Wishing everyone a healthy, happy & “fortunate” New Year…
by hiding ceramic fortune cookies all over ILLINOIS BEACH STATE PARK!

The tradition started during Covid when we couldn’t all gather to celebrate the New Year… and I’ve been doing it ever since. So to celebrate 2026, I hid 26 of my fortune cookie rattles for you guys to go find!!! These are the “clues” to kinda show you where they are. So have a good time searching… and if you find some, I’d love to see your photos!

But do me a favor… take lots of pictures, but only take one fortune cookie.
Leave some for everyone else to find!!! Have fun… and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As I’ve been going through all of my photos from Alaska, it has taken me quite a while to edit them down & prepare them to start posting. But I think I’m finally ready!!! And what better way to start than with another little “teaser”?… and a fun game?!

I had a wonderful adventure up in Alaska for my Pottery Workshop with the Fairbanks Potters Guild. Followed by some great travels afterwards with my new Alaskan potter-friend Theresa. And there “might” just be a trail of fortune cookies waiting to be found along my route… hiking all over & driving from Fairbanks, through Denali National Park to Wasilla, Whittier, Portage Glacier, Seward & Anchorage! Some are easier to find than others… but here are some “visual clues” to help! And then as I start posting more photos, there might be even more “clues” in the posts that follow! Giddy-up…

Also in the kiln… a fresh batch of fortune cookies!
With a nice wash of iron oxide to help the textures “pop.” We’ll call this batch “replenishment.”

Getting ready for Alaska!!!

So… while we were packing up at the end of the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR… I might have had a “few” fortune cookies that “fell off the cart” & never made it into the car. Instead they may have found their way into some hidden spaces in the park “near” where my booth was.

This weekend at the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival, a “few” of my ceramic fortune cookies “may have” fallen off my cart as I was packing up! Ten textured fortune cookies to find out in the park… and here are the clues to find them! Thanks to my art fair friends Rhonda & Maria for helping me “locate” the cookies. Happy searching!!!

Apparently there are still some fortune cookies to be found at Illinois Beach State Park…
if you’re willing to face the weather!

From Adam…
“Wow Gary, great hiding of the cookies this year! I spent 6 hours between the North and South Units yesterday on my bike and only found the one on the Poplar tree. Thanks for that, I knew I rarely saw that species there, so once I found the only grove of Poplars in the South Unit I was confident I’d find that one and did. Then last weekend Mom, the kids and I were out there with no luck until we finally tuned our senses & vision to that green moss/lichen and we found the one on the Willow Tree at the North Unit. I’m loving the ever-building excitement and attention your annual tradition is getting and the competition with other passionate hunters as a result! We will stick with our two for 2025, but always hoping to stumble upon one that remained unfound from a past year as well! Thanks as always for this annual thrill! Can’t wait for my birdhouse to be inhabited come Spring time! And if I do go for another fortune cookie hunt, I gotta locate that damned birds nest, it’s evading me so far and it’s killing me!”

Thanks Adam – glad you and the kids had a great time!!!
And now for that bird’s nest one…

My cousin Kim went hiking at Illinois Beach State Park and found a couple fortune cookies along the way! Braving the bitter breeze & bone-chilling temperatures to play along with my silly little game. So fun to see people enjoying the scavenger hunt & kicking off their New Year searching for fortune… cookies!!!

Looks like the fortune cookie search has begun!!!
Allison & Michael were out at Illinois Beach State Park today searching in the bitter cold.
Let the fortune cookies be found!!!

From Allison…
“Don’t be mad at us!!! We found FOUR fortune cookies this morning but only took THREE. Decided to leave the fourth one even though my body had trouble resisting! Figured one for me, one for Michael, and the third one for Mamma Molloy. My Dad plans on going on a hike tomorrow morning with Ricky if they can tolerate the cold. It was bitter WINDY from the west and DARN cold!! My face was beet red in the end but I persisted. Decided to check out both the northerly route and main beach space.”

“Pretty sure I saw a fellow scavenger hunter in a white coat who likely got the little birdhouse one & one you may have put at a pavilion in the northern sand dunes area. Pretty sure she must know you directly!! We didn’t converse though because she was far off from where I was but I saw her inspecting things only like a fortune cookie hunter would!!!“

“And I had to take the third one we found because it was on the back post of a turtle crossing sign and my spirit animal has been a turtle since high school!!! I’ll likely make a post about it, too! Hope you’ve heard from others! One of my favorite traditions I’ve the last, what 4 or 5 years now?“

“Apollo was checking them out when I returned from delivering artwork to a shop! He was a VERY curious cat indeed.”

So that’s three down… twenty-two more to go!

Has anyone else been out there searching yet???
Send me photos when you find’ em!!!

“Gotta keep searchin’ searchin’… find a place to hide… searchin’ searchin’!!!”
Let the games begin… and WELCOME TO 2025!!!

To celebrate, I’ve hidden 25 ceramic fortune cookies for people to find!!! Twenty-five for 2025… get it?! Anyway, they’re hidden all over Illinois Beach State Park. An annual tradition that started during the pandemic. And now every year, more & more people are starting to search for their fortune… cookies!

So new this year, I’m also asking that you find all you can, take pictures & selfies along the way… but try to limit yourself to taking one per person home for your collection. Let’s leave some there so more people can experience the fun of the search! Use the photos in this Reel for your clues… and let the searchin’ searchin’ begin!!!