Big Red's Big Blog: Iowa Trippin'

So it's been a while since I posted. Friday though Sunday we were out of town. We went to Mason City, Iowa to see Nathan's grandma and just hang around town and shop and stuff. Today is her 90th birthday and of course her birthday party is THIS Saturday, not when we were visiting. Oh well, whatever. We took her out to dinner as an early birthday gift. We also had plans to spend July 4th mostly in Clear Lake at their carnival. Here's some pictures of our Iowa Trip!

And we're off!

We stopped in Hinckley and had breakfast at Tobies, and it was yummy! I ended up buying a loaf of that bread they made my toast on

I had brought along (and wore) patriotic clothes & accessories for this trip so I could look festive for the holiday weekend. I painted my nails too!

We had stopped at Kwik Trip for some "road fuel." We "each got 24oz of stay awake"

My favorite part of the journey is passing through Minneapolis on the way down. Very pretty! This picture does not even hardly show it because it was a quick from the back seat type deal

We arrived in Mason City and stopped at Pro's Sandwich Shop, where Nathan's mom ordered their classic "Made Right" loose meat sandwich. Their root beer is also made on site and is FANTASTIC! Very good chicken strip meal with VERY tasty fries!

We then headed over to Kinney Pioneer Museum, where Nathan's grandpa had a handmade ship on display, and I saw some cool marionettes

Nathan had always joked about wanting a switchblade comb, and they had them in the gift shop! He gonna COMB you, fool!

We checked into our hotel, which had a king size bed, a jacuzzi type tub, and a weird sliding WINDOW with blinds between the tub & the main room. It ended up coming in handy though when we sat in the jacuzzi and watched Saturday Night Live through the open window while the TV was in the other room

We visited Nathan's grandma and took her out to Ruby Tuesday for an early 90th birthday dinna

Nathan had been wanting to go back to Birdsall's Ice Cream and share a banana split with me, so that's what we did!

The next day was July 4th, and we were up early for a tasty hotel breakfast to start our day

They had a whiteboard in the breakfast room that was different every day. I captured the one that was up on Sunday

We headed out to walk on the Willow Creek Footbridge, which became famous in the movie The Music Man, so famous in the Iowa area due to Meredith Willson being originally from there and all. We've been to his museum a few times. There was also a cool sculpture called "Kinetic Weather Disturbance Ensemble" made out of trumpets and stuff

We had lunch at Rib Crib, which was really tasty

After that, we went on to Clear Lake for the Evans United Shows carnival. We went on the Sizzler, the Tilt-A-Whirl, the carousel, and the Ferris wheel

We also of course had to enjoy some fresh carnival funnel cake. Mmm!

We had planned to stay at the carnival into the night so we could see the fireworks. Our ideal plan was to watch part of them from the Ferris wheel, which we were able to do!