Iowa - The Hawkeye State

Brandon and I recently took a trip to Iowa. Brandon was raised in the Davenport area of Iowa. I was very excited. First, I love traveling and going places I've never been before. Second, who doesn't like vacation? Third, did I mention I LOVE traveling and not working? Anyway we left St. George mid morning and drove to the Las Vegas airport to catch our Allegient flight to Moline, IL. We made it to our gate in plenty of time, and as luck would have it our plane was late. Brandon requested our seats so we had the extra leg room of sitting in the emergency exists. I will have you know that I had just recently watched the last episode of Grey's Atomony season 8. Yes that is the season where they were in the plane crash.....so I did have a few freaky thoughts throughout the flight. I have never flown Allegient and I will say it is not my favorite airline. The plane is very loud and not nearly as comfortable as other airlines I have flown on. However they did get us to and from our destination without stopping and closer to our destination than larger airlines can. We landed in Moline a little after 9 pm. Immediately Brandon said he wanted Whitey's ice cream, however he had to wait until after we had a family dinner with Jason (his dad who picked us up at the airport), Amy (Jason's wife), Grandpa Roth, Jordan (brother), and Camille (Jordan's wife). After dinner we did go to Whitey's. Brandon has been talking about this place ever since we met, and even more so since we booked our flight. It was delicious, but he definitely liked it more than me.

The next day we went to a farmers market and to a little festival in downtown Davenport. Below is a picture of the Mississippi river. 

A skywalk that apparently changes different light colors at night. I only say it during the day. 

Potatoes on a stick....I thought it looked awesome.

Brandon's dad is a firefighter and they had a water fight activity on one the main streets. Its two teams of two that try spraying the bucket with the fire hose to the opposite side of the line. It was interesting, but we were all freezing due to the unusually cooler weather so we didn't stay long. 

Instead we went to Rock Island Arsenal. If you've never heard of it.....you should look it up. 

Sunday while waiting to see a family Brandon and Jordan grew up with we stopped by a place called pioneer park. At one point in time it was a stagecoach stop and people actually lived there. We also came on the right weekend when there were actually people there dressed up and acting out pioneer stuff.  Later that afternoon we went sailing on the Mississippi. It was amazing! Jordan and Camille have pictures of that, but I forgot the camera, hence no pictures. 

Jordan and Camille

Monday Brandon rented a car and took me to Nauvoo. I was so excited! I have wanted to visit this place since I was a little girl!!! We say the Mansion House (shown below), homestead, and the Nauvoo House (I think that is what it was called.) All of these are owned by the Community of Christ  church so I was unable to take pictures of the inside. But I was able to get pictures at the blacksmith, brickmaker, John Taylor, Willford Woodruff, Brigham Young, and the printing shop!

Nauvoo Temple!

Tuesday afternoon we went to Chicago. After checking in to our hotel we went to dinner, walked around a little, and then went on an architectural boat tour of Chicago. It was pretty awesome I thought. 

Jason and Amy

Brandon and I

Trump Tower in Chicago

Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan. 

Our view the next morning. 

We went to the Shedd Aquarium the next day. Here are a few of the good pictures. 

Creepy eel

"Say Cheese!"-blowfish

Sea Horse

Nemo land

This is a popular Catholic church in downtown Chicago....I thought it was beautiful. 

The backyard of Jason and Amy's home. In the morning we'd sit outside and eat breakfast and enjoy the beautiful weather....except in this picture. It as raining that day so we stayed inside. 

All too soon we had to leave and return home. I could have easily spent another two days in Chicago and probably another day or two in Davenport. It was so wonderful!

Here is a picture of St. George from our airplane window.

Once back home it was once again getting ready for the next week. However I had the weekend off! I was able to attend my home ward for the first time since February! Also I started my new job at Premier Adoption Agency this last Monday. So far I'm loving it. I still have a lot to learn, but I think I'll pick it up fairly quickly. Until then I can't wait until I'm busy doing work, instead of reading policies and manuals :)

Until next time! Ciao!