Cold Weather, Warm Friends

Our excursion to the 'south' did not provide much warmer temperatures than here in north Iowa but we did have some "warm" visits with loved ones.

First, we stopped to pick up Gabby at Cedar Falls. This aligned with lunch time so we decided to stop at Gilbertville at the 10th Inning for lunch. I texted Fr. Huber that we would be there in 10 minutes and that he was welcome to join us. Actually, I couldn't remember the name of the dive -- I thought it was the 11th Frame and Micah said 10th Inning, so when I texted him I called it the 11th Inning. I am surprised he didn't call me out on it. We had a nice visit over lunch however I am not recommending this place as a 'must stop'. It is no Red Rooster. None of the food had any actual taste. All of those facts were negated by our lively conversation with our friend though.

After our visit there, we headed to Cedar Rapids. Since Mike had his new Garmin along and we had some time to kill before my sister got off work, I hit Points of Interest. We drove by St. Wenceslaus church and then off to Czech village. We parked the car and wandered into Sykora bakery and bought some kolaches. From there we went across the street into a "collectible" store. Mike told the kids that they may "channel their inner Czech" and see something that they just might need in there. I said that I would be helping them to "channel their inner Norwegian" and just say 'no' to the temptation for clutter and junk. We went into the temporary Czech and Slovak museum and looked around and Mike bought his dear little wife a cookbook that had several recipes for kolaches and the like. Do you think he is trying to tell me something? We then hopped back into the car and one of the kids asked, "Where are we going now?" I said, "Well, we are just going to drive around until you two shut up and fall asleep!" Just like the good old days!

We made our way to Swisher and arrived at my sister's house about a half hour before she returned from work. So, we made ourselves at home and read the paper and entertained ourselves. She suggested we go to a vineyard nearby that served prime rib and some other things. They had tried to go there one other time, but there was a wedding and they could not get in. I would like to see the place in the daylight and maybe even in the summer when everything is green. It was a very nice place where you presented to the bar area and sampled different wines until you decided on what you wanted. There you ordered your food and went and sat at a table. Everybody got the prime rib except for Gabby and I. We had a woodstove pizza with prosciutto, mushrooms and arugula on it. It was very good. I would recommend this restaurant and did do so to Fr. Dellaert when we visited him. Upon returning back to my sister's, we visited for a while and watched a very good documentary on St. Francis that she had.

In the morning, she had her usual bountiful breakfast that she has for guests. I swear, she should open up a bed and breakfast. There were Belgian waffles, bacon, eggs, and some kolaches of course. If you leave her house hungry it is your own fault.

After visiting a little more (we just don't see each other often enough!), we headed out and programmed Mike's Garmen for Fr. Dellaert's address in Norway. I texted him that we were in Walford and would be there shortly. The Garmin didn't disappoint and brought us right to his front door. He gave us the grand tour of his rectory and we caught up on everything going on in our parishes and so on and so forth. He then gave us a tour of St. Michael's in Norway. It is a beautiful church, much smaller than ours but attractive. Following this tour, we headed into Cedar Rapids and had lunch at Applebees. We decided to just stay and attend his 4:00 p.m. mass in Van Horn so we took him back to Norway and followed him to Van Horn for mass. There he gave us the tour of the rectory that he could have chosen but didn't. I think he made the right choice. The rectory in Norway fits his personality and style much better. After mass, we said our 'good-byes' and hit the road and dropped Gabby off at her place.

It's been a long time since I have done so much 'visiting' but we saw so many different people this weekend, including one I have not seen in months, so there was pretty much non-stop chatter from all parties involved. It was good to see everybody and I wish we could see each other more often, but I guess that's the way life is. It goes to show that the saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" seems to be true.