It happened again!

If you've been following me, you might remember this from last year. We'll we did it again!

Here's some pics of our week in Minnesota and Iowa....

Getting ready to get in the new truck for the trip to take it home. I've never ridden in a semi but I have to imagine the ride in one of those is alot more pleasant than riding in this thing. You feel every bump in the road. We had lots of stops so we could just get out of the truck and walk around. I have been having a sore neck for several weeks but on this trip we hit a bump and my whole head, neck and spine cracked enough to make the neck feel tons better! The Honey kept telling me that if the tank had been full, the ride would not have been so bumpy. Uhhhh....no thank you. I'll ride in a nice, new sewer truck but have no desire to see how one rides when it is full!

On this trip, we headed down south to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Beautiful scenic area. I am still impressed with Iowa. I love seeing all the cornfields throughout the state. The Amana colonies are comprised of 7 little villages with some quaint old houses and stores. We went to the museum and were quite interested in how the Amanas were able to live communally for over 80 years in the area. The houses didn't have kitchens. You went to a communal kitchen to eat with your family. Women worked in the kitchens, gardens or the kindergarten. Men did the rest of the work. In some houses you lived with 2 or 3 other families. It was fascinating to hear how they lived.


We found one of the old cemeteries. When you died, you were laid in order of your death. You were not buried with your own family.

Have to show this pic. I found it funny that when we stopped to eat in Nebraska that the walls were filled with "bugs" or things crawling on the walls. Just the place you want to eat at...a place that caters to bugs! The waitress thought I liked the decor when she saw me snap a couple of pictures. The other pic showed a cat crawling down the wall to catch a fish! LOL! I love finding quirky things!

Is it already the middle of July?

Yet another business trip for the Honey. But it meant that we got to visit the oldest child with his very cute wife who is having our 2nd grandbaby (girl) at the end of September.

Getting ready to eat at Saltgrass restaurant. Was fun trying to find new places to eat!

 

Had to attend a Rockies game. Too bad they lost. And it rained.

 

Downtown. I love old buildings!

 

In all the times I have been to Denver, I never knew there was a blue bear peering into the window of the Convention Center downtown! I know! Where have I been?!

 

Moose Jaw, SK

I have to admit that I did a bit of googling before we left for Canada. With the boys at a conference all day, for several days, us girls were going to "have" to shop and tour. One of the closer towns to Regina is called Moose Jaw so I looked it up online and found out that it was going to be my kind of town! Just a quaint, cute place.....with quilt shops included! They were even having a quilt show on the day we were there but I knew no one except me would be interested so we took a tour of some underground tunnels they have in the downtown area. The story is that Al Capone, the famous gangster, may have hidden out there at times.

This stands in front of the visitor center of Moose Jaw.

 

Darling daughter took this pic....I wanted one to show the whole board----it is all the flavors this resaurant had of wings or chicken strips. Plenty to choose from! Their shake board was filled with just as many flavors! Have you ever tried a lime shake? Me neither. I stuck with good ol' chocolate.

 

Loved their downtown area! I should have taken more pics of all the murals that were downtown. Here are just a couple:

 

 

Next....what I found at the quilt shops........you knew I had to have bought something, whether I needed it or not.

Away on Business....

Have had a couple of busy weeks traveling with the Honey on his business trips. Our first trip just happened to coincide with the big Spring Snow Storm in Denver. Where I live, the snow falls horizontally. It was pretty seeing it come down in a straight fall. And fall it did....for 4 days! By the time it was done snowing, we had about a foot of snow around us! The most interesting thing about the storm was that when we left to drive home, we had alot of snow. When we got to downtown Denver, there was nothing. The drive between the two places was about 15 minutes. Such an odd storm. Here's some pics while we were with our kids:

 

 

This past week was spent in Canada. I finally have a passport so I hope to be able to use it more than just this trip!

 

Not all grocery stores were like this one where you had to pay to get a shopping cart but I had to take a picture. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to shop there much since I never have money in my purse. I wouldn't ever be able to get a cart!

 

Been awhile since I have seen a new car so I was intrigued with the gear shift being on the dash and the keyless key to start your car with!

 

My daughter recently found out she is allergic to soy so she was VERY happy to find this ice cream shop with all natural products. We had to go there more than once since she finds it hard to eat out in restaurants since soy is in almost all packaged foods.

 

All I can say is that I was happy no one was around......

 

Regina is the home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy. It was interesting to visit the museum but I'm still not sure if they are like our highway patrol, regular policemen or if they are deputies/sheriffs. Of course I didn't think to ask until we left the museum.

 

While waiting for a movie one night, we decided to go bowling. My goodness! The game has really changed or this is a new Canadian version! You only bowl 5 pins. It is not as easy as you might think! Very hard to hold a small ball and let it go at just the right time.

 

Customs. This was to get into the country. Getting out was a different story. I didn't know that one child had put his trinkets in my carryon. Of course I got searched. Heaven forbid you try to help the baggage security guy. If I had known what he was looking for, I might have been able to point him in the right direction in my suitcase without him taking everything out. I was so afraid he was going to have to go through my dirty laundry. Finally he found the culprit. What he thought was scissors, turned out to be a key ring. Of course my daughter was behind me having her own bag searched---they finally decided it was her makeup letting off the wrong signal. My son's bag was also searched. Dear Honey was patted down. The only one that got away was sil who checked his bag. When we entered Minneapolis, we all breezed through security.......no commment.

 

Next post I will show Moose Jaw....isn't that the best name ever for a town?!

Hawaii

This is what the weather was like when we left the mainland. Yes. Those are snowflakes on the plane's window.

 

Blue ocean, white sand and green mountains made for beautiful scenery!

 

This was at a scenic point. Looking out at the opposite side of the island from Waikiki.

 

If you follow football, this is the stadium where the Pro Bowl was played this weekend.

 

Pineapple fields. Hard to believe those pineapples can sit on top of the plant to grow so big!

 

800 years ago, royalty came to this place to give birth to their children. Immediately after birth, the chiefs would take the baby away to a safe place to raise until they were grown. The mothers would not see their child again until they were adults. Nowadays, this is a place where families come to give respect for what happened here. They leave tokens on the birthing rocks because they feel this is a sacred spot.

 

Snowcone shop. The line was out the door and around the corner just to get a Matsumoto snowcone! Great on a warm day!

 

I had to go inside a grocery store to see the prices on the food. This was the most crazy price I found!

 

A sunset on North Shore. The surfers would surf until dark.

 

Chinaman's Hat on the other side of the island. So gorgeous!

 

A tsunami came through years ago and blew this hole into this rock in one day. When the ocean is rough the water will come through the hole. I bet that is a site to see!

 

Our hotel. I loved the "no door" concept!

 

Pittsburgh trip---Part Two

After we rode the Incline, dh decided he wanted to eat BBQ for dinner. He asked a man at a gas station where we could find good BBQ and the guy told him to just stay on the road for 24 blocks and we couldn't miss the restaurant. Well, we almost did---who would be expecting an old gas station to be a new BBQ joint?! Look really hard and you can see oil cans as the lights, the bay doors open in the summer, hub caps lined the ceiling and look at the tires holding the mirrors in the bathroom! The food came on tv dinner tins...and no I couldn't finish all of that! It was ALOT of food!

 

 

 

 

Downtown Pittsburgh. While honey was in meetings, I walked around the area.

 

 

Years ago, honey was t-h-i-s close to taking a job in Wheeling, WV. We never got the opportunity to go out and see the area so on this trip, we drove over to see it. Here is a suspension bridge and an interesting building in the downtown area.

 

 

We weren't sure what else to see in WV so we decided to head east and north into Ohio. I knew there was another concentration of Amish and I was hoping to be able to see them there. I am so glad we made the decision to stop and stay awhile. To me, Ohio is a surprising state. It is really beautiful. The first picture is taken from the balcony of the Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Such a quaint, cute village. We met some people from Cleveland that said they come down every few months and stay there to shop then take the back roads and just drive around because it is so peaceful and beautiful. I hope to go back here some day.

 

We stopped at an Amish grocery store in Walnut Creek. Here is where the buggies had to park. I loved this store! I wish I could have brought so many foods home with me! Especially the bulk spices.

 

Front of the store.

 

Saw this sign and had to take a picture.

 

More beautiful Ohio countryside.

 

 

The area had some cute shops. Lots of tourists, which surprised me since it was October 31st.

 

 

I was even able to see the famous Lehman's store in Kidron, Ohio! It is a store that caters to the Amish and has lots of items that are non electrical. I saw a mixer that had a bowl that looked like Bosch's. Cost was "only" $650!!! Remember this is non-electric so I can't understand the price being so high. Wonder how many they sell?!

 

The day was getting late but we hoped for one more stop before heading back to Pittsburgh for an early flight the next morning. We finished our tour of the Ohio Amish area and knew Kirtland was pretty close so we decided to run up there to see the Church history area. Since it was Halloween night, the missionaries were having a pot luck Halloween dinner. The visitor center was closed but they opened it up for us and one nice gentleman took us on a tour of the Newell K. Whitney store.

 

 

The room where the school of the prophets met.

 

By the time we had finished our tour, it was near 9 p.m. I knew I didn't have any light for good pictures but was pleased with this one of the Kirtland temple. It was a nice way to finish off our vacation.

 

On the way back to the Ohio turnpike, we saw a sign for gas....$1.98/gal!!! Everywhere we went we saw "cheap" gas prices but that one beat them all! I wish I had gotten the camera out and taken a picture. It could be one of those pics of "remember when".....out here, where the oil and gas fields are, we are at $2.47.

Great, fun trip! Now we get to stay home a bit and get ready for the holidays.