Vacation pictures

7-18-11 fried brain
Terrible heat wave in the Midwest this weekend, with no end in sight! Heat Index in KC on Sunday was 104, Heat Index in DM was 110! Even northern Iowa was 107 heat index..... Iowa is known for it's humidity during the summer, (good for growing corn).....but this is ridiculous!

I'm  SO thankful that the weather was not THIS hot over the week I spent in my hometown over the 4th of July. We certainly lucked out there.

I'll share a few more pictures from my vacation:

The 4th of July Parade- Dad did ride on the Honor Flight Float again this year. He got a bit worn out that day, but enjoyed waving to everyone. Dad is the first on the left, in his red hat.

Flying birthday cake was a favorite parade entry this year. Also the Iowa Sullivan Brothers depicted on a cement truck.

Goodbye breakfast with The Culbertsons: "the other Judy", Steve, Vanni and me.

My Mom's garden out back. Jan and Christopher did some gardening for Mom, transferred some hostas, but I didn't get a picture of that..... I was sitting on the back porch, busy making the 4th of July decorations.

Vacation Report part 3 (Jefferson School)

7-15-11 childish brain?
My friend Steve, who I grew up with during my school years K-12, has been teaching in Alaska for at least 30 years. Steve and I reconnected back in 1994 during one of our high school reunions and since then he visits our hometown over the July 4th holiday and we hang out together a lot. Of course Greg and Vanni (Steve's wife) are welcomed to join us, but I know often they can grow tired of hearing the same old stories of the neighborhood we grew up in.

One topic of great interest, this year, was the razing of our neighborhood elementary school, Jefferson School, which Steve and I attended K-6 grades. In fact we were the first class of kindergartners in this new school back in the fall of 1961. The demolition of Jefferson is also a hot topic on my Mother's mind these days and she has been attending all the school board meetings to keep track of what might happen to the 6-7 acres of land which is not far from our house.

Steve, Vanni, Greg and I walked over to the old school yard one evening over vacation, with the purpose of now getting a good look at "The Big Rock". This rock holds special memories to many of us who attended Jefferson School. It was like the center of our small universe back in the day. We loved playing on this rock.

 (it was hot that day, so I had my umbrella for shade)

Steve is so passionate about THE BIG ROCK, that he has been in contact with the school board and Jean Ann's husband Doug, who is in excavation, and there currently are plans to have the rock moved (if possible) to a city park by the museum. We are all patiently waiting to see IF the rock is not TOO BIG to be moved.

(Unlike when we were kids, the rock is now covered more with dirt)

Another solution we talked about was starting a fund drive to collect money to purchase the land outright, then donate the land to the city park association to create a new city park. The rock could remain in place for future generations to enjoy.

Well, time will tell.... there is still a lot of clean up work on the school grounds site and we will see who else might be interested in building on this land- IF anyone! So far there are no serious bids on the land.

GUEST BLOG from Ann

7-14-11 catching up brain
Although I still have much more to share from my 4th of July vacation last week, I'm struggling at work to catch back up, so am happy to post a blog from Ann describing what she did over her holiday weekend. Note: one topic Ann and I both are conservative on and have in common.... we aren't big alcohol drinkers. I believe we'd rather consume our calories with dessert! - Judy

Wine A Bit …… You’ll Feel Better
Who doesn’t like to wine a bit? Answer = me!

Some people like beer, some hard liquor and a lot like wine. I’m an odd duck in that I don’t like beer or wine, for no good reason. Over the years this was a non-issue for me but in the last ten years, my circle of friends have flourished and when we gather, beer and wine seems to be the beverage of choice. Since beer is not my bag, I’ve dabbled in wine sipping, even hosting a wine tasting at my house. I must be a slow learner, because I only know is I like sweet wines, more white than red.

So here I live in the middle of corn and pork country , I find out that Iowa is also wine country. Apparently the fertile soil in Iowa is perfect for growing grapes and for a fine wine, you must have fine grapes. My research point to one of the first wineries in Iowa is in the Amana Colonies. The German immigrants not only brought their religion, way of life, they brought their talent for wine making. The Amana’s are known for their many good and odd wines (dandelion). Fast forward, today Iowa is the home of 74 plus wineries. Yep, 74 plus and several wineries right here in central Iowa. And on a given Saturday at the local farmer’s market, you can find at least 10 wineries sampling their fruits of their labor, not to mention at the local grocery/liquor stores. So I wine a bit, passing up the wine and scratch my head, what am I not getting/seeing here? Here’s a quick guide showing the 5 S’s of wine tasting: see, swirl, sniff, savor and swallow.

  Reminder to double click on the picture to enlarged it.

  

On July 2^nd, I decided to not wine a bit and go visit a winery in St. Charles, Iowa, Madison County Winery, featuring a local singer Chad Elliot and Bonita Crowe.  The event was the grand opening of their micro brewery, Twisted Vine Brewery. The winery was beautiful, on the side of a hill, rows and rows of grape vines with tiny green grapes. I was impressed to say the least. The setting was beautiful, the patio was inviting and it reminded me of the vineyards I saw road tripping through Italy. And the wine, I had to ask “I like something sweet and fruity”. Believe it or not, it was called Lollipop.

Second winery, this past weekend I went to another music event at another vineyard in St. Charles, Iowa. Yes, two vineyards in a small town within 6 miles of each other. Two Saints Winery was hosting their Sunday live music event featuring Bonnie Finken and The Collective (one of my favorite local bands). This vineyard was just as beautiful with a great indoor area for receptions and such. I again asked for a sweet wine and then learned on Sunday’s they have a special drink, Two Saints Mojitos. This drink was sweet, fruity with a kick. And the music by Bonnie Finken was fantastic.

I’ll not worry about why I don’t understand white vs red, dry vs sweet, what pairs or is it pares … with what. I’ll just dabble in the sweet n’ fruity stuff while listening to great music with good people.

Chat Later
That Girl, Ann Marie

Vacation Report part 2

7-13-11 reminiscing brain

The other “new” adventure I had during my vacation week in my hometown was a trip over to Decorah Iowa to see the famous eagle’s nest. I have been watching the Decorah Eagle Cam on the Internet since the end of March and have grown fond of this eagle family as the three eggs were hatched, and the young eagles now are flying out of the nest. My friends Steve and Vanni also have been viewers of the eagle cam, so they, along with Greg and I, made the trip.

Decorah is only one hour east of Charles City and was a fun drive over seeing the beautiful Iowa country side along the way. Decorah is in the part of Iowa totally different from the flat farmland where I grew up. Decorah is rather hilly with limestone bluffs. I knew the eagle’s nest was located close to a fish hatchery, but I didn’t have any idea that it basically was just across the street.

For those of you who have watched the eagle cam, you will recognize the white barn in the back center of this picture, which is sometimes seen when the camera is focused out towards the branch  the eagle like to hang out on. We were happy to see all three babies, which are not babies anymore….. and we also saw one parent. In the foreground is the fish hatchery, which was interesting to learn about and we saw some really beautiful trout of various size.

Another pleasant surprise was the wonderful restaurant (Hart's Tea and Tarts) we lucked out finding on main street Decorah… this was a delightful tea room with delicious food! If you are in Decorah look for it on the south side of the street towards the east end of Main Street, I believe. Eating there was worth our trip alone and the eagles were the icing on the cake! A trip to Decorah might have to become an annual summer activity.

Here are a few other views around the fish hatchery; the bluffs to the east and the small park there.

NOTE: Ann's guest blog tomorrow....

Vacation Report part 1

7-12-11 reminiscing brain
My 4^th of July vacation week, spent in my hometown of Charles City, was filled with many of my family’s usual traditions: parade, fireworks, special dinner with flag cake and homemade ice cream, and lunch with high school friends…. just to name a few…. But this year two new activities were added.

The first one was tubing on the new kayak run on the Cedar River, which runs through the center of town. As this kayak run was being built this last year, many people in town were questioning the logic behind it all. Now that summer has arrived, this has proven to be a popular activity, not only for kayaking, but tubing and swimming in the river.

The first day I was in town, we all went down to the river to observe and we came to the conclusion that this was something we COULD do. Besides a few kayaks, there were people of all ages using tubes and inflated mattresses. A few days later, there were three of us available (Christopher, my high school friend Steve visiting from Alaska, and me) and we agreed that we would go tubing. At first I thought I was going to be afraid, but the first time down the run proved to be easy and not scary at all.

I spent about an hour on the river and was able to go down the run 4 times. We rented these really nice tubes and life jackets at the Davaco gas station only a block from the river. The tubes and jackets were only $10 and were great fun for the price.

Here are some pictures my friend Jean Ann took.  Sitting on the river’s edge, in the shade of a tree, watching the tubing has also proven to be a popular past time in my hometown.

Come check it out! Bring your bikes too…. There is a bike trail looping around the town.

Art in the July Heat

7-11-11 groggy brain
Back from vacation, my brain and body both resist entering back into the work week routine, even though I had this last weekend to recover.

Friday evening Christopher and I returned to Des Moines, and were treated to a delicious meal prepared by Ann. Saturday morning I dropped Chris off at the airport and headed down to KC for my week there. It is hot in the Midwest, but temps in KC this weekend hit 100 (plus and minus a few degrees). Indoor activities where in order.

Saturday Greg and I went to a late afternoon movie; and Sunday Molly joined us in a trip down to the Nelson-Atkin's Art Museum to see the special Monet exhibit. The three large water lilies paintings (triptych)  were together for the first time in more than 30 years. They were taken from Monet's studio in the 1950's.  KC had one, St Louis had one and the Cleveland art museum had the other.

I enjoyed the Monet very much..... and used the inspiration to create my daily peace of art with water lilies in mind:

...... and also loved the new acquisition of the metal tree by Roxy Paine out on the lawn of the KC museum. I love the shape of trees, so I do like this piece and found the shadow it cast on the grass below interesting as well. These pictures where taken with my iphone, so not perfect.

Molly walked up and touched this, and instantly a voice came from some undisclosed speaker, announcing "please do not touch the sculpture".... I'm sure the person behind the voice was glad to finally have the chance to scold someone, bringing some excited to her dull day watching the security cameras.

I know I have much to write about my vacation and will try to get my pictures and thoughts organized tomorrow to begin that story line.

Iowa visitors

7-1-11 excited brain
Iowa has been inundated with many visitors this week… generating varying degrees of excitement. It is a bit amusing that our small state often is a political testing ground of sorts.

This week, the top attention getters were President Obama, and also GOP Michele Bachmann, who was born in Waterloo, Iowa…. Where she announced her candidacy for president this week ….. and then there was Sarah Palin in Iowa, for no good reason at all, as far as I can tell.

Palin was in Pella, not far from Des Moines, a great little conservative town with Dutch roots (which I can relate to)…. Debuting a movie about herself? Why?… I’m not sure.

I believe Sarah Palin is totally irrelevant now that Bachmann is in the ring on the GOP side. Bachmann is not perfect herself, but she has proven she can hold down a job without quitting in the middle…. And she can string words together in a sentence which makes sense to at least ~ 30% of the US population.

“ Cut Taxes!! ”….. still doesn’t make sense to me, when it only benefits the top 1% of the population and ADDS to the US deficit. I’ve noticed that people in KC and in Iowa both are starting to question this GOP mantra, by the Letters to the Editor of the KC Star and DM Register newspapers.

One person wrote: "Tax Cuts since 2001… and where are all the jobs created from that rich give-a-way?"

Palin was wearing jeans the day she visited Iowa, pretty causal if she actually is serious about running for President. I believe she is NOT serious. She already has a good thing going, why ruin it? Now IF only the news media would cut her loose and let her go back to the good-life in Alaska. We now have her daughter Bristol, walking in her mother's footsteps to keep us entertained for awhile.

Ending on a HIGH NOTE here, Thursday evening I picked up a truly welcomed visitor to Iowa… my nephew Christopher flew in and we all will be spending our annual 4th of July together in northern Iowa at my parents.

Here is Chris with "the dog".
Note that Chunks (Sarah's dog) wasn't invited to Iowa. I guess Hunt will be taking care of Chunks this week back in Tennessee.

I made Christopher this sign to welcome him at the airport….. It's fun making people feel special! Maybe that is why the presidential candidates like to visit Iowa ?

PS:  My blog is officially on summer break next week- Happy 4th of July!