Even though it was cold, Katherine and I went over to the Mississippi River Walk. It wasn't too windy and we were bundled up real good. We went over there to see how high the river was since the storms the week we were gone caused massive flooding in every state the Mississippi touches. Luckily for us, we live pretty far from the river and it wasn't flooding in Dubuque.

Today was the 28th annual bald eagle watch at lock and dam #11 in Dubuque. The dam keeps the Mississippi river from freezing over which gives the eagles a place to fish during the winter months, and a great place for photographers to get photos of eagles hunting. We saw a total of 4 eagles, and they were all pretty active. There is a covered overlook onto the dam that they had some park rangers and volunteers with binoculars for people for this event. It was only 17 degrees Fahrenheit outside and it was a little windy so we didn't stay outside for a very long period of time. We would stand outside and look at the birds for 5-10 minutes and then sit in the warm car for a little bit while our fingers and faces warmed up.

You can't drive through eagle point park in the winter (because the road is closed), but the walkways are open year round. During one of our many visits over the summer, Katherine and I noticed a parking lot that was just outside the park. We drove up to that parking lot and walked right into the park.

Katherine and I drove 45 minutes into Illinois to go to a different ski resort: Chestnut Mountain, just outside of Galena, Illinois.