Dubuque and a box of Chocolates

I have been so lax on my blogging. It has been a very busy month, with last weekend the first weekend in four that I had been home. And I ended up working for part of Saturday so I still was out and about.

This weekend I have 4 days off-FOUR! Yesterday it rained all day which turned into an inch of snow. Now today it is in the upper 50’s. Go figure.

Anyway, back to the story of. The last trip we took was to Dubuque for a Dave’s niece's wedding.  It was such fun and very relaxing.

We left on Saturday, Oct 10th. We took this route-

You can’t see it very well but it is HiWay 61.

(From the Rand McNally Website)

Anyway, we stopped in Viroqua so I could go here

                          

I suggest if you are passing through you stop there. They had a great selection AND very reasonably priced. I went there to find local yarns for a swap I am doing. It is very difficult to find local yarns for under about 35/skein, but I found them here, the yarn is made by  Driftless, in SE Wisconsin. Blend of bamboo and Marino and oh so soft.

After that we went to Sinsinawa, Wi where the Dominican sisters live.

It was very nice there.

We found our way in and I took pictures during the wedding. I should have had my other camera because 1) it takes better pictures and 2) it doesn’t make so much noise.

               

First come the sister of the bride and the son of the groom.

Then came the bride, Katie, and Mike, Dave’s brother

She was quite lovely.

I was trying to get a shot of the front of the church, didn’t do so well but you get the idea.

Here is the handsome couple, Katie and Keith. He is quite dashing in uniform, don’t you think?

So after that we went to Galena, Illinois. I, however, didn’t realize we were in Illinois until we were back in Iowa. I had never been to Illinois before-I missed out on the whole excitement of it! Jeepers, paying attention is not as over rated as I once thought.

The reception was at the Ramada

In this dining/conf room

I should have taken a picture of the food. Absolutely delicious.

I did get a few pics of the Meldes.

Ed and grandson Hunter (As you can tell by the blur, Ed  moves much more slowly than Hunter)

Here are the Meldes-back row from L-Ed, Dave, Mike

Front row Joe and Barb. It is very dark and blurry. Told you I needed my other camera.

Here’s a bigger shot of more Melde’s

Sorry about the quality-like I said, needed other camera. But it was lots of fun to visit with them all.

We then went to Dubuque and spent the night here

At the Mainstay Inn and Suites. Now the blur in this picture is entirely the fault of their website, not a reflection of my photography skills

It was very nice, had a kitchen, sitting room, bedroom. Why I didn’t take a picture of that I don’t know. Slipping I guess.

The next day we drove back towards St. Charles taking this route. (HiWay 52)

It was a pretty drive. Some of the scenery looked like this

    

                           

Black cows and smudge on window-

 

We stopped here to go to the bathroom. It was somewhat disturbing that in the women's bathroom there was a sort of hangman’s noose made from wire. I think it was supposed to be a handle of sorts to help one get up and down. Sort of a handicapped equipped type of outhouse…I hope.

This outhouse was in a little park with a church, cemetery out back, and a pavilion.

        

This plaque was on the church.

Then we went to a trail outside of Decorah.

This trail wound around by the river-

It was very peaceful.

We got home on Sunday.

The following week we had snow-in October. This prompted much complaining from the locals-too cold, too snowy, too wintry. Which I find rather odd since this is MINNESOTA! I mean, if we were in L.A. I might be concerned, but I thought it was OK.

It melted the next day.

I am one of those strange birds that likes both summer (although I don’t like big humidity) and winter. I like having seasons. Winter does tend to get old around April, but spring is right around the corner at that stage in the game.

I promise to keep up on the blog now.

Oh, I forgot one thing-

My friend Alicia, aka Frostyknits, nominated me for the box of chocolates award.

Isn’t she sweet? I am so happy to get my first blog award. I want to say thank you to the people that actually read this, and I hope it amuses just a little.

Thanks Frosty! And feel free to visit her website (I linked above)-that girl knits like nobody’s business. She knitted a cover for a chair! That really impressed me, along with the lace shawls and cute hats.

So I am paying this forward to Caillie because she sent me the sweetest swap package for the last Starbucks swap, and she went to Ireland last spring, and she now has a regular day job. She is also my neighbor in S Dakota.

These are the rules for a box of chocolate award-

Here are the rules for the Box of Chocolate Award.
1. That you must pass this award to others.
2. Link back to me when you have passed them forward.
3. Write a nice post about this award.
4. You must read this award with a southern accent. I call it southern day where we all have to speak with a southern accent. I know that will be hard for some of you, but for the rest of us, we will be fine. So now, ya’ll just enjoy this little ol’ award and have fun with it.
5. And of course let your folks know that they have a nice award waiting for them.

So congrats to Caillie, who reads my blog and I read hers.