Author: bbpeck

Today was our first full day by ourselves at our short housesit with Samee the cat in Waconia, Minnesota. We will leave on Sunday morning. Yesterday, our homeowner flew to Las Vegas to watch her battalion’s hockey team compete in a tournament.

Waconia is about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Its population is just over 13,000. “Our” home is located a few minutes drive south of downtown, and we are conveniently located near running paths and a Super Target.

Today we walked into downtown to check it out. Below are some of the pics from our 2.5 mile (each-way) walk. The downtown area was very quiet, but it seemed to have a good mix of shops — a few restaurants and bars, a bakery, an ice cream shop, as well as a variety of small retail stores and a theater.

Bob and I finished our Iowa City housesit midday on Friday and headed off towards Chicago for a football/baseball weekend with Bob’s sister’s family and friends. We met up with them for dinner on Friday at Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse, where Bob got chummy with Harry.

On Saturday, we had a great visit with everyone again at our nephew and niece’s house and finally got to meet their adorable son, Harrison, in person.

Then Bob and the crew were off to watch the University of Iowa football team play Northwestern at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Football on a baseball field, apparently it works, and they had a beautiful day for the game. I did a 1.5 hour walk back to our hotel along the very long and active Clark Street and captured some of the highlights along the way before getting on a Zoom to talk about a possible housesit in March with a homeowner.

We left Chicago Sunday morning and spent a couple of hours with my mom before driving onto La Crosse, WI. Tonight, we’ll land at our next housesit in Waconia, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis. Oh, and we just learned that we got the housesit that I interviewed for on Saturday, so we’ll be back in Chicago in March for two housesits.

Happy Halloween! Here in Iowa City, it’s been all wind. I feel for the trick-or-treaters, as they’re gonna need coats over their costumes.

We got out for a relatively short walk today to visit a new (to us) park, Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. We had seen that among the other paths, there was a paved path around a lake. It provided good practice on our layering and also identified areas where we need to get better Midwestern winter clothing — mostly head and hand coverage.

The Terry Trueblood Recreation Area is 152 acres, including a lake, paved paths, a park lodge, picnic tables, equipment rentals, a playground etc. We had a nice walk, although quite bracing in the parts against the wind and with no tree blockage. It was 30 F but the windchill made it feel like 14 F when we were out. We weren’t the only ones though, we saw another walker and 2 runners as well.

When we can, Bob and I have tried to visit the museums and/or libraries of former US presidents. We have always found these pretty informative and helpful in learning more about the man (sadly, still only men) who have held this office as well as the larger context for their policies or actions.

Iowa has been the birthplace of one president, and today, we visited his museum. Herbert (called Bert as a child) Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, just outside of Iowa City. He was the second of three children. Both of his parents were deceased by the time he was 10, and he ended up living with an aunt and uncle in Oregon. He then got an engineering degree from Stanford and also met Lou Henry, his future wife, there. She was originally from Waterloo, Iowa, and was the first American woman to get a degree in geology.

Herbert Hoover was a very successful mining engineer all over the world before moving into various roles in public service, including being elected the 31st President of the United States.

The weather has taken a decidedly cooler turn. Friday started out at 63°F at midnight and then cooled off from there. This morning at 5:30 when I went for my run, it was 33°F with a feels-like temp of 29°F! The lows will continue to fall over the next few days with a projected 20°F on Wednesday. Highs will be in the high 30s until Wednesday as well when they’re predicted to get back into the 50s. We are well into fall now, so I guess we need to adjust to the cooler temps.

About 11 this morning, we headed towards downtown and campus to check out the Farmers Market and then the Stanley Museum of Art, the university’s art museum.

Due to the prior art museum building being destroyed by flooding in 2008 (though the art collection was evacuated), the current building is new, having just opened in August of 2022 at a cost of $50 million.

Before we went in, Bob noticed his first two big heads in Iowa City.

The museum has some modern art, ceramics, drawings, prints, etc, but they also have a significant collection of African art and artifacts, which we were surprised by. However, having just perused their website, the art museum received significant donations from C. Maxwell and Elizabeth Stanley in 1984 and 1990 which allowed the museum to become a Mecca for African art studies. (I was sure this must be the Stanleys for whom the art museum is now named, but Dick and Mary Jo Stanley provided $10 million towards the fundraising for this building, so I guess it’s more likely named for them.)

One of the places of interest listed for Iowa City is something called the Devonian Fossil Gorge. Since this is an outside area to peruse, and it was another beautiful fall day here, we drove about 13 minutes out of town to check it out.

Life apparently is recorded in layers, and the Devonian layer stretches (from Iowa City) east 60 miles to the Mississippi and north 150 miles to southern Minnesota. It occurred 382 to 389 million years ago. If you had been around at that time, you might have seen the Dunkleosteous, the largest predator of the time, an armor plated fish 33’ long and weighing 4 tons! That to me sounds crazier than sci-fi.

Anyhoo, due to floods in 1993 and again in 2008, Coralville Lake flowed over the emergency spillway and washed away up to 17’ of soil and rock, exposing the Devonian bedrock that became the Devonian Fossil Gorge. The exposed fossils pre-date dinosaurs by almost 200 million years.

We walked through the informative panels and the gorge, trying to wrap our minds around the ancient history of this area.

For this beautiful fall day (mid-60s F, no coats needed), Bob found us a route that took us on a trail along the Iowa River and then in and around City Park.

The Iowa River Trail is a 16-mile paved, multi-use trail network that (not surprisingly) runs mostly along the Iowa River, connecting the communities of Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty.

City Park features a playground, sports fields, pool, and amphitheater. It was buzzing with people watching a rowing meet as well as a couple of girl’s softball games.

Lovely day!

Today was game day in Iowa City, which this time of year means football (US style). The Iowa Hawkeyes took on the Minnesota Gophers at 2:30 at home in Kinnick Stadium. Since our two nephews graduated from U of I, they and their dad have season tickets and were in town for the game. They offered us tickets, so we went.

Of course, first is the tailgating, which began about 10:30. Bob joined Jody, Nick, and Zack for their spread, libations, and watching other football games on tv via their dish link. I came about 1:40 for a quick tailgate visit before heading to the stadium.

The game was good, and we got to see (me for the first time in person) some of the Iowa traditions including the waving to the children in the Children’s Hospital next to the stadium, even the other team and the officiating staff join in. Very moving. The winner of this particular rivalry, unfortunately this time Minnesota, wins a bronze trophy in the shape of a pig.

Bob and I went to the Iowa Old Capitol Building today, which once was the center of government for the territory and then state of Iowa before being given to the university. It now stands as the most prominent landmark on the University of Iowa campus. It is now a free museum providing history of the first Iowa capitol building as well as some exhibits.

The Iowa Territory was opened for settlement in 1838. The cornerstone for the Old Capitol Building was laid in 1840, and the legislature moved into the Capitol in 1842. Iowa became a state in 1846, when President James Polk admitted it to the union as the 29th state. The first Iowa General Assembly chartered the University of Iowa 59 days after Iowa became a state. The state capital was moved to Des Moines in 1857 and the Old Capitol was then given to the university.

One of the exhibits that was on display was photos of their annual corn monuments which are created in conjunction with Homecoming. These are massive monuments coated in corn (but of course) as a symbol of the Hawkeye spirit. Unfortunately, Homecoming was last weekend, so we just missed this year’s monument, but we enjoyed looking at those from prior years.

The museum also had information posted on various individuals who have made a significant contribution to Iowa football. Not sure if this was also in relation to Homecoming or just an indication of the importance of football to the state.

Yesterday, Bob and I arrived in Iowa City (about 2 hours east of Des Moines) for a two week housesit. Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, the alma mater for two of our nephews.

We are sitting for two cute and playful cats. Meet Sam and Maddy.

We spent most of our time at the house yesterday getting settled in, but this morning we headed off to the nearby Hickory Hill Park that had been recommended to us by one of Bob’s high school friends who lives here. Hickory Hill Park is a large natural area consisting of 190 acres of forest, fields, reconstructed prairie, and parkland centered on Ralston Creek.