1-2-3

Days 1 and 2
Drove to Grandma's in Iowa. When we passed Galena, the car automatically turned so we can stop at the yarn store. I swear I had nothing to do with it.

In addition to visiting Grandma, what we really wanted to spend the next couple days doing was relaxing (and doing laundry since we didn't get a chance to wash the bedding before we left Chicago). It's been pretty hectic in Chicago for the last couple of weeks and we were pretty exhausted. So, mostly, we stayed put and people came to visit. Sat. night, my uncle Jeff came up for dinner and we talked about various things. On Sunday, Mom, Meghan and Kelly came up to Grandma's and we all went out to Chinese. I bugged Meghan about her wedding plans which probably got on her nerves, but planning other people's weddings is so much more fun than planning your own, that I sort of forgot how irritated I got when people asked me nine million questions about planning my wedding. John and I went out to Walmart to buy an air mattress for when we get to Pasadena. We got a double tall queen size mattress with an electric pump. I think it only took less than 10 min for it to be completely inflated. And it was pretty comfortable. So, now we'll have a guest bed in California, so let the visiting begin!

Day 3
We left Grandma's around 9:30am. It was hard to leave--always wish I could spend more time there. And, I love Iowa in the fall. The leaves haven't turned yet, but the beans are yellow and the corn is green with yellow tassles and it all looks so pretty against the blue, blue sky (though it was cloudy today). That plus a big red barn (I have strong opinions about the color of barns--they should be red, although a white barn with a green roof can be pretty) and an old stone silo (not a metal one, although the new blue ones are nice) and honestly, I can't think of many prettier scenes.

Our route took us on I-35 south to Des Moines where we got on I-80 and headed west.

We crossed the Missouri River



and entered Nebraska.

This may be sacrilege but Nebraska looks quite a lot like Iowa, at least this part of it does. We got to Lincoln around 3:30pm and after a little confusion over the room (they tried to give us a smoking room--you can imagine how well that went over), we settled in to use the free wireless internet.

The view from our room. Also known as Interstate 80. What can I say? It was cheap and it had free internet.

We may venture into Lincoln for dinner if we feel up to it. For now, we are enjoying the fact that we can both surf the internet in the same room at the same time (ah, the joys of vacation).