Saturday, July 2nd
After a quick breakfast and loading the van, we headed west
on I-88 until it merged with I-80 just before crossing into Iowa. Despite all
the toll booths we made good time, and we arrived at our destination,
Williamsburg, Iowa, before noon.
Since it was too early to check into our room, we headed
north into the Amana Colonies. This area consists of seven villages, that were
settled by German immigrants in 1855. They were seeking religious freedom. They
are often confused with the Amish, but while the Amish broke away from the
Anabaptist Church and shun many modern technologies, the Amana broke away from
the Lutheran Church, and do not seem to have any issues with modern
technologies. The Amana lived a communal life until 1932 (there was no
individual ownership of property) unlike the Amish who owned their land. In the
early days the Amana tried to be completely self-sufficient within their
community, with every person having a skill that they passed to their children.
The community became known for the craftsmanship of the goods it produced. In
1932 the Amana formed a profit-sharing corporation to manage their farmland,
mills and other large enterprises and encouraged private enterprise. Many Americans
have owned Amana appliances throughout the years.
We arrived at the main village of Amana just in time for
lunch. The village was full of tourists like ourselves, but we had little
trouble getting a table at one of the traditional restaurants called the Ronneburg
(http://www.ronneburgrestaurant.com/).
The girls both ordered items off the kids menu that consisted of normal kid
menu items (chicken fingers, grilled cheese, burgers, etc). Deille and I both
had German dishes and they came with an assortment of German sides, which were
served family style. These included some very tasty pickled beets and also homemade
cottage cheese. I do not consider myself a cottage cheese fan, actually I would
normally describe it as rather unappetizing, but this cottage cheese was
different and amazing. For the main course, Deille had the jaeger schnitzel and
I had sauerbraten. For desert we had a piece of pie and some amazing rhubarb
sorbet. The entire meal was very good.
With a full stomach we walked through the rest of the
village and I found my way to the local butchers/sausage shop. I was able to
get a Westphalia style ham (yes the entire ham… however a small one), sliced
and packaged in shrink wrap for transport back to Arizona.
The reason we had chosen Williamsburg, Iowa for our
destination was not really for the Amana villages, although that turned out to
be a really cool bonus. The reason was because the Williamsburg Ramada Inn (http://www.ramada.com/hotels/iowa/williamsburg/ramada-williamsburg/hotel-overview)
has a small indoor water park. We thought it would be a good stop for the girls
and would break a long, but doable day trip from Chicago to Omaha into two days
of site seeing through Iowa. The hotel was rather run down, but the girls loved
spending several hours swimming and playing.
There were several other family themed activities, including a nice
playground, and we attended a showing of Kung-Fu Panda 3 hosted by the hotel.
The girls slept well that night.
Sunday, July 3rd
Sunday we continued our drive across Iowa. Unlike most of
the hotels we stayed in, the Ramada did not offer a complimentary breakfast, so
we decided to put some road behind us before we stopped to eat. We stopped in
an attractive town along the interstate and had a decent breakfast, which would
have been very good, except for the fact that they served whipped spread. I
mean, this is IOWA! How can they not understand about butter? Due to this, I
have decided to banish the name of the town and the name of the restaurant from
my mind. Luckily, by this point in the trip I was use to such occurrences and
was able to quickly regain my composure. By the time we reached the Neal Smith
National Wildlife Refuge I was ready for a new adventure.
This refuge (https://www.fws.gov/refuge/neal_smith/)
is dedicated to the restoration of their small portion of the Iowa prairie to
the state it was in prior to the arrival of European settlers. They have a very
informative museum, which starts with a short movie about how the prairie used
to be. They have exhibits about the plants and wildlife that should be on the
prairie, and the ones that should not. Many invasive plants have taken their
toll on this area, including the thistle. I always thought that it was native
to this area, but apparently it is not.
One of the most interesting exhibits for me showed a scene of the prairie
had blank spaces in the shapes of various plants and animals. Once they confirm
that these are again living within the borders of the refuge they add them onto
the picture. About 2/3 of the plants and animals were now back on the scene.
The refuge now has a small heard of buffalo (60+) and also some elk (20+). As
we left the refuge we took a drive through the park and we were able to see the
buffalo off in the distance. We did not see the elk.
After a quick stop for a picnic lunch we continued our drive
to Omaha and arrived in the early evening.
Monday, July 4th
We had a great 4th of July in Waverly, Nebraska,
which is just outside of Lincoln. We were at the home of my cousin Janet, her
husband Royce and their two sons. Janet is the daughter of my grandmother’s
sister, making Janet my 1st cousin once removed. Her sons are my 2nd
cousins. You are probably thinking why does this matter? It doesn’t, but my
family tree software can determine the relationship between people, and I
thought it was kind of neat. We were also joined by my Uncle Carol (who is
Janet’s 1st cousin…. no removes), Janet’s sister Judy with her three
sons, her brother Bill, his wife Rhonda and their 2 sons and one daughter. Janet’s
mother-in-law was also there and very sharp for 95 years old. She spent many
years as a missionary living all around the world.
The reason that the family meets at Janet’s house for the 4th
of July is because the town parade goes directly past their house. We set
chairs out in the front yard and the kids all had bags for candy. Many of
Janet’s friends from around town also joined us in her front yard. The parade
was pretty good for such a small town. It consisted of Fire Engines, old cars
and tractors, local politicians, floats from local businesses , more old cars and
tractors and a couple of bands (although they were on floats rather than
marching). After the parade we had a potluck meal.
As we sat around talking throughout the afternoon, Janet’s
friends started to head home and eventually it was just the family. It was
really comfortable sitting around, telling stories and reminiscing. This is how
every family gathering should be. As evening approached, Royce made burgers and
hot dogs on the grill and we ate again. The older kids brought out fire
crackers, which fascinated our girls. It would have been nice to stay and watch
the fireworks, but it gets dark so late in the Nebraska summer compared with
Arizona. The girls seemed to have gotten a second wind, but Deille and I were
tired, so we headed the 40 minutes back to our hotel. From the 4th
story window of our hotel room we actually had a pretty good view of fireworks
from different displays around Omaha, or at least that is what Deille told me.
I was asleep.
Tuesday, July 5th
On Tuesday we headed north from Omaha to visit family. Our
first stop was at my Uncle Derwyn and Aunt Pat’s house. Derwyn is the youngest
brother of my grandfather and he and his wife always make us feel so welcome.
They took us to brunch at one of their favorite cafes in their hometown of
Fremont. Unfortunately after eating we needed to continue on. We next stopped
in the town of Oakland were my grandmother lives in an assisted care facility.
She seemed comfortable and happy, but I am not really sure she knew who we
were.
Then we drove the 7 miles from Oakland to Lyons, which I
still consider to be my hometown even though I have not lived there since I was
12. This is where my grandparents lived and where my mother and her siblings
grew up. It is also where my grandfather is now buried. Along the way we
stopped and got some flowers and a can of A&W root beer for the grave.
I was a very lucky grandson to have my grandfather so long.
He was almost 95 years old when he passed, and he had no lingering illness or
impacts to his mind in all his long years. He lived so long that my daughters,
especially Elisabeth, got to really know him. Grandpa always loved root beer
floats, and every time we would visit him we would bring root beer and ice
cream so that we could have root beer floats with grandpa. We left the flowers
and the root beer alongside a grapefruit (from my tree) that Carol had left a
day or two before. Knowing my grandpa, he would be please by all the treats…
just missing the cookies and milk.
From there we headed out of town to the farm of my Aunt
Phyllis. This is the mother of all the cousins we had seen the day before.
Uncle Carol was also there because he had been staying with Phyllis on this
trip. We had a nice conversation over a wonderful meal of ham, potatoes and
corn-on-the-cob. After dinner we went
into the basement to play pool. Elisabeth was happy that she was just old
enough (under the house rules) to play.
As we headed out the door for the trip back to the hotel,
Aunt Phyllis handed us some of her family-famous cinnamon rolls. It was a good
end to a good day.
Wednesday, July 6th
We spent most of Wednesday driving across Nebraska and
Colorado on our way towards Denver. Along the way we took break in Kearney,
Nebraska, to visit the Archway (http://archway.org/),
which is just that… an arch over I-80. Within the arch is a museum dedicated to
the transportation methods that facilitated westward expansion across the
continent. The Oregon Trail, the railroad, the Lincoln Highway and I-80 are all
covered as you walk through the arch. It was an interesting stop for an hour or
so, and it gave us a nice break.
The drive went well and we made it into our hotel in the
early evening.
Thursday, July 7th
We started out our day in Denver by heading downtown to the
Denver Botanic Garden (http://www.botanicgardens.org/).
This garden probably has a smaller footprint than others we have recently seen,
but they have used the space they have to great effect. They have a very large
greenhouse, which houses a tropical garden, and this gave us an opportunity to
see many plants that we had not seen in other gardens on this trip.
After a few hours we decided to head out of town and go to
the top of Mount Evans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans).
To get to Mount Evans you go west out of Denver on I-76 for about 30 minutes to
Idaho Springs and then south up into the mountains on what is called the Mount
Evans Scenic Byway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans_Scenic_Byway)
which is the highest paved road in the United States. The road eventually
reaches the summit at 14,271 feet. It took a long time to travel the 28 miles
from the interstate to the summit (even taking a wrong turn into account), and
by the time we were nearing the top, Deille had about had it with the road and
with me for dragging her up there, but then we saw the first of the mountain
goats and things got slightly better.
By the time we did get to the top, we
were well above the tree line and there were mountain goats and a crowd of
people everywhere. All these people were sucking up the limited air, and
climbing around up there was a chore. The views were amazing, the goats were
smelly and not at all afraid of us, and the air was cold. Eventually we started
down, stopping at a lake, aptly named Summit Lake to take some additional
pictures and watch the mountain goats lick car tires.
Friday, July 8th
Friday we drove to Albuquerque. As the vacation approached
its end, we were all ready to be back in our own beds. We did not make any
stops other than for gas and lunch along the way and arrived at the hotel in
time to let the girls swim. We had an unexciting dinner and called it a night.
Saturday, July 9th
Saturday was our last day on the road. We got an early start
and made good time. On the Arizona/New Mexico border we stopped to visit one of
the cheesy tourist shops. Hannah and I got a couple of neat rocks for her rock
collection. We had lunch in Winslow, Arizona at the La Posada Hotel. This was a
really neat place and we will have to make a time to go back and stay at this
place. It was one of the Harvey Houses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Harvey_Company)
at the turn of the century.
At about 3 PM we rolled into Phoenix and the 110 degree heat.
It had been a good three weeks for Elisabeth and I, and two weeks for Deille
and Hannah, but it was good to be home. The girls had missed the cats, but I
hadn’t…
