Iowa

We spent the weekend in Dez Moynez with our old neighbors from Woodstock. They have family there, so we decided to meet up and let the kids swim, swim, swim... Friday night a blizzard blew through and left a few inches of sticky white stuff all over. Every sign post and tree was platered. Fortunately, we went out Saturday AM and had nothing but blue skies to accent the snow.

DesMoines has an incredible mall!! We went there for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, but decided that the 30 minute wait with 6 kids would not be prudent. We opted for supper at the food court. The kids had burgers & fries, and the grownups had some tasty Panera chow. After dinner we poked around the mall. I wish Nebraska had a mall like DesMoines. Pottery Barn, Coach, J. Jill, etc. The Scheele's there was the same as Lincoln's, but the tree in the middle is an Oak (vs. Redwood) and they have a floatplane hanging from the ceiling.

Sunday I parted ways with the family and took a rental car from DesMoines up to Cedar Falls, which looks like it is very close to DesMoines, but is not. I stopped in Boone to see if I could see the fantastic Boone & Scenic Valley RR bridge, but I only had my Iowa road map and didn't feel like getting lost/stuck on a dirt road as the sun set. I did manage to find the train depot, which was closed. Maybe next time I'm in Boone, I'll take more time and find it.

I'm in Cedar Falls for a week-long LabView training class. It's making my head spin, but that's not always a bad thing. I'm looking forward to going home, but it's a 5.5 hour drive, and the company truck doesn't have cruise control...

This web site has some nice photos of the Boone & Scenic RR: http://www.pbase.com/gazeboy96/boonerr