November 2020

In November Cynthia and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary by going to DSM and staying in our nifty mid-century modern hideaway again. And we visited Peace Tree when we got there:

 

A picture-perfect breakfast:

After a brisk walk around Gray's Lake we explored the new tunnel connecting to Waterworks Park:

All those years living in DSM and we never visited the Salisbury House. So we checked that off the list and it was even better than expected. As cool as it was I still think I like Glensheen better. This place is quite the castle, though. It was built for Carl Weeks, a pharmacist who made a killing making his own cosmetics and selling them in his stores, later distributing them nationwide. The Weeks family didn't have much money prior to their unexpected success, so when they achieved overnight wealth they didn't really know what to do with it all and went a tad overboard. They spent uncontrollably until the cosmetic business declined around a decade later and they lost ownership of the home, donating it to Drake University with the agreement that they could remain as tenants. Drake gradually placed more limitations on how they could live there and which parts of the house the family could access until they eventually moved out and lived in a small ranch-style house nearby.

The entryway was designed to impress and although I didn't get a picture of it from the main floor, I did get this shot from up above in the balcony overlooking the room:

The back stairs coming down from the balcony:

They had an enormous garage and a separate building for grounds keepers and a mechanic. They ended up in the center of controversy when one of the sons raced around the neighborhood in one of the cars late one night and killed another driver.

A Thanksgiving with just the four of us:

One of Cynthia's coworkers asked if I could draw a picture of her childhood home. This is my first completed color pencil drawing in over 20 years:

We found this snake on the trail on one of our walks. He/she was very cold and could barely move. I helped the snake find some soft earth to tunnel into:

Every spring and fall I clear out the Conrad's gutters. This year I installed gutter guards so their gutters wouldn't keep clogging:

Time to put up the tree!

I think this squirrel is ready for winter:

Daniels Park. A few months ago on July 4th we celebrated on this very spot pictured here with friends and family. It will be a very long time before Cedar Rapids recovers from the derecho.

Birthday and Thanksgiving

Birthday! At our yooshuwall place.

Thanksgiving! Dave and Daphne joined us right before they moved to Huntsville. Mom and Dad weren't able to make it since Mom was still recovering. Daphne made pumpkin flan with melted caramel on top.

Hello, November

In the eleventh month of the year of our Lord two thousand and fourteen, we did some stuff. Most of it was interesting, some of it was not. Some interesting/uninteresting events have been selected completely at random and posted below. I would suggest ignoring most of it and just looking at the pictures.

On the second Saturday of the month, Rose had some artwork that was put on display at the ELSC. Her class painted a life-size silhouette of a girl doing a backflip that they painted on a large square sheet of plywood. It was really cool! There were several large panels like that the kids at her school painted and they will be hanging in the gym.

After the art show, we went to Cynthia's grandpa's 90th birthday in Independence (no matter how many times I spell that word, it never looks right). There was a good turnout with 90 people showing up for it and I took pictures so that we can make a photo album for him. A side note: it is WAY easier to photograph a 90-year-old's birthday party than a 9-year-old's party. A lot less running around and not nearly as much screaming.

This month we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary! It's crazy how quickly time passes and it's weird to realize that 2001 was so long ago. I can remember that day so clearly and the funny thing is that this year on our anniversary the weather was exactly the same as it was the day we got married/eloped. It was cold and snowing lightly and the air was so still. Unlike the day that we got married, though, I was able to take the full day off work this year so that we could have a lot of fun together.

The following weekend we took a trip to Dubuque and stayed at the Grand Harbor hotel by the Mississippi. The girls came with us and we played at the indoor waterpark (which was really the main highlight for them). We spent some time at the Mississippi River Museum and then took a tour of the William Black steamboat.

A solemn moment with Mark Twain.

A hut outside near the steamboat. It was a cold day!

I think Emily's eyelids froze shut.

This was the view from our hotel room that evening:

Rose and Emily warming up while watching TV after spending a few hours at the waterpark.

It started snowing that night, but we only had an inch of snow by morning.

A cold winter sun the next morning.

Next, we took a ride on the Fenelon Place Elevator. Back in the day the elevator cars were pulled up the hill with hemp rope. When you get about halfway up the hill you start feeling good about the fact that they are pulling each car with two steel cables instead!

Emily wasn't sure she wanted to ride the car at first, but once it got going and she saw how slowly it moved she was OK with it.

There's our car!

The view from the top.

I wonder how long it would take to reach the bottom if the cables snapped. Not very long, I bet.

We celebrated my birthday with some great food and fun. I've often wondered what the world would be like when I reached age 37. Now I know. No robot butlers, flying cars, hologram TVs, time travel, or personal jet packs. Thanks, science.

We visited my folks for Thanksgiving and Dave and Daphne were there as well. Daphne is still adjusting to the exotic winter climate in Illinois, so she keeps the thermostat at their place set to 83º, hahaha. For his birthday, my brother asked to turn it down to 75º for just one day. It's the little things in life...

Abby wasn't able to get plane tickets to fly home, so we video Skyped her on Thanksgiving day. She's got 45 boxes of stuff stored in my parent's garage (in addition to all the stuff she already has in her apartment down there) and is wanting them to haul it all down there to her. Good luck with that!

Skyping with Abby.

We've got the tree up and if Lily keeps attacking it she's gonna become one of the decorations on it. I think we could replace the star at the top with a large stuffed cat. Should make a good conversation starter.