Vacation!

I love vacation. I have two parts to this one.

Part 1: Vacation in Dubuque.

Why Dubuque? Well, I was trying to concoct a nice little anniversary present for Chuck and me. My mom agreed to meet us in Iowa (halfway between Mpls and StL) and take the kids back to StL with her as her part of the present. I decided that we would head to some quaint little town in Iowa for a few days before Chuck needed to get back to work. Dubuque seemed as good as any.

On Friday we drove down to Waterloo, met my mom and ate lunch together, then threw the kids in her car and screeched out of the parking lot. Not really. I couldn't watch as they drove away. Something feels so WEIRD about sending your kids away with someone else. And all we talked about for the beginning of the REST of our drive was how confused the kids looked as we packed them and their things in a different car and shut the doors. But they have Grandmommy and that is HEAVEN to them.

We stayed in this fancy hotel in Dubuque that has been renovated, and we had a corner suite with a whirlpool. There were windows all over the place, and the ceilings were really tall and it was REALLY nice. And I slept for 12 hours. Ahhhh.

Saturday morning we got coffee at this cute little coffee shop. I sat in an awesome chair and he took a picture, then threw this huge tin thing on my lap and I frowned because I knew, without knowing what the tin thing SAID, that he was making fun of me. Here's the shot to prove it. He's such a romantic, isn't he?

Then we went downtown and walked around on the River Walk and watched a train come through while we waited for the winery to open.

Then we did a wine tasting, which I've never done. It was so much fun. The woman was great and pouring generously. And that's sort of funny because it was noon and Chuck and I hadn't eaten a thing since the night before. AND she gave me Ghirardelli dark chocolates and they were so good. She poured them into a napkin for me to take home when we were done. We bought three bottles of wine from her.

Then we ate lunch and headed over to Galena. I had never heard of it, but they had a brewery and we thought that would be fun. We drove into town and it looked like a normal little sleepy old town. Only it's NOT sleepy because there were HOARDS of people walking up and down the streets. We got to the brewery and asked the lady what was going on and she looked confused. I was like "why are there so many people here?" and she was like "oh, it's like this every weekend". Weird. We walked around for awhile and ran into a wine shop - Jamie's Wine Shop. Ha. The sign was too high over the door so we couldn't get a picture of me with it, but we went in and it was CROWDED, of course, because apparently that's how it always is. I asked the woman if SHE was Jamie and she said no and I explained. Turns out they have a label too, so we are now the proud owners of a bottle of a Jamie cab. I'll let you know how it is.

Back in Dubuque, we drove around downtown and tried to find an ATM. We found it, and also found THIS (look carefully, that's me at the bottom of the pitchfork):

Saturday night we went to the casino. The sports bar in there was delicious. We played video poker and figured out that I am a SPEED gambler. I have no idea why, but I play really, really quickly. Chuck was laughing at me. I lost $20. Chuck won $2.

Then Sunday came and we had to head out. On the way back, however, I spotted the town that the Field of Dreams was set in, and decided a quick visit was in order. Who can pass that up? Chuck, for one. But he told me it was all me and kept talking about me "livin' the dream" and that little joke seemed to keep him entertained enough, so off we went. It was ADORABLE. They keep it up really well and it totally is the FIELD OF DREAMS, complete with the corn fields in the outfield. Awesome. We rounded the bases and everything. That's me coming out of the corn just like the players, and crossing home plate. Score.

Then back on the road and home again home again.

Now starts Part 2 - the Staycation. Yay! But I miss my babies. Thanks to Grandmommy for taking good care of them and letting us have a little quiet time.