August Happenings

The first week-end of August we made a trip to Michigan. Matt was there for his class at Calvin and we were able to stay with him at Cheryl's Mom's condo.  And we also spent time with the Wissinks.  This also happened to be the time that all the Diekemas were gathered at Tony and Jeane's house, so they hosted one of their big Waanders gatherings.  The photo quality isn't great on these shots, but it's fun to remember what it's like when there are 70 to 80 people in their house!

Mindo.....hopeful

It was another wonderful family gathering with lots of great food and fantastic fellowship with some family members we don't get to see all that often. There were people from Washington, California, Maine, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and of course Michigan.

Another August event was one of our field trips with Roger and Sheryl.  On the 15th we went to the Field Museum in Chicago for the special exhibit of the Chicago World's Fair and we also had a bus tour of the area where the fair was held.  We had an early dinner after the tour at a great Italian restaurant and then went back to Roger and Sheryl's to see pictures and hear about their trip to the Netherlands.  A fun day!!

                                                  The Field Museum

Museum of Science and Industry, which

was part of our bus tour.

Just a few days later we took a little 2-day trip to Galena, Illinois.  Galena is a very old, and very interesting little town.  We were disappointed that we couldn't tour Grant's home, because it was closed on Mondays, but we found lots of other interesting things to see and do.  We took a trolley ride through the town, and we had a great driver/narrator who had lots of interesting things to share about the history of the town.

Bob and Ulysses S. Grant

Grant Park, not the one in Chicago

The old train station

The smaller building on the left is a great little

restaurant, Otto's Place, where we had lunch.

We spent Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday all day exploring Galena.  On Tuesday we went to Dubuque, and spent several hours at the National Mississippi River Museum.  That is a great museum---definitely worth a stop if you're in Dubuque. 

Bob got to pose with Grant, I got to share a bench with Mark Twain!

Our national bird

Bob fulfilling his lifelong dream of being the captain of a boat.

We ended our day with a boat ride on the Mississippi River---it was a beautiful afternoon and very enjoyable ride.

Yep, it was a paddle-wheeler.

When we would drive through Dubuque on our way to and from Ankeny, I would always wonder about that castle-like structure on the hill.  Well our boat captain/narrator informed us that it is not a castle, just someone's home.....a very large home!

So I think that about sums up our month of  August.  And I'm only about 20 days late in posting.  Will I ever get this done in a timely fashion???