Over the River and through the Woods

My title started out "Over the Riviera...." whoops, I didn't go THAT far, although that's not to say I didn't WISH to go that far!

Anyway, I'm back to real life, and it's good. The weather is cooler, friends are good, the house is tidy and I SHOULD be well rested. And I am. So a bit about the trip...Mom and I left on Tuesday and decided to stay off freeways and take "blue highways", secondary roads through Iowa and Minnesota. It was a VERY LOVELY trip! We left at six, an hour before sunrise, then watched the sun break the clear horizon over Iowa. We kept a little notebook (thanks for leaving it in the car Willy) of how long it took us to get places, trains we saw and other attractions. Lake Okoboji is beautiful on either side of Hwy 71 in northern Iowa. Another highlight was our hour long visit in New Ulm, Minnesota, a German settlement and the home of children's author Wanda Gag (remember Millions of Cats?) We found a little place to have lunch and walked a few blocks around the town. These are a couple of places that Den and I will have to return to some weekend...

We drank a lot of coffee, had good meals, breathed fresh woodsy air and read books. It was a very relaxing couple of days. See the Flickr for photos of various and sundry relatives. Every day was warm, well, hot, until the morning I left. I drove straight home via the freeway and Minneapolis this time using the route through "the cities" that Grace gave me. It was perfect! And I sped through.

The Midwest is really lovely at this time of the year!