Joe and Clara Jane: The Great State of Iowa

Fans, we are back from The Great State of Iowa. Many Midwestern states are vastly underrated, and Iowa is certainly among them. We stopped off at Iowa State University in Ames on our way to and form Des Moines which has a truly beautiful campus that is worth a stop should you enjoy observing nature (or today's youth; skateboards seem to be big, at least in Ames). The ISU campus is park-like, with a 20-acre central lawn flanked on one side by a campanile. It was the perfect spot for Birdie to gather up fallen leaves and pine cones and the like to take to school where her class is studying autumn. It was also the perfect place for the boys (we were in Des Moines with our friends Anne and Brent who have two boys, Nathan, seven, and Andrew, five) to chase and tackle each other.

ISU is also home to the Reiman Gardens where, incidentally, the theme this year is More Than Meets Iowa. It is a 14-acre botanical garden and includes a butterfly wing that is particularly well done. When we were there, the butterflies were perhaps too active even; Birdie was rather frightened by their flitting about in such great numbers. But our brave girl agreed to go in if Julie held her.

We also had great barbecue, saw the Science Center, went trick-or-treating at this place called Living History Farms, and swam in our hotel's pool. It is worth mentioning that at the Science Center, there was an exhibit at which on could construct a rocket and then launch them into an area measuring 40 feet long. It is also worth mentioning that Clara and Joe's rocket flew 40 feet at first flight. Joe actually started to cry because his got stuck in the netting bounding the flight zone and he thought he wasn't going to get it back. Happily, many more missions were flown.

Ted planned the whole trip and drove both ways. Iowa is great, and so is Ted.

The pack runs across the ISU campus. (Joe was mostly running with Nathan and Andrew all weekend so get used to not seeing much of him in these pictures.)