Ahhh! What a fun weekend I had! Just what I needed after most of July being a bummer.
Friday after getting off work, Bill and I headed about 2 hours north to Clear Lake, Iowa to see a couple of 80s bands play at The Surf Ballroom. Due to The Surf being historic, the entire weekend turned into a mini history tour and I LOVED it!
Why is The Surf historic, you ask? Well, let me tell you.
The Surf is the last place that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens (lalalalalalala bamba!) and the Big Bopper played before they met their untimely death in a tragic plane crash in 1959. I was always aware that these three musicians died in Iowa in a plane crash, but I did not realize the details. It was very sad!
The day after the concert (Saturday) Bill and I, plus his hilarious family which included his uncle and cousins, deemed the day "Adventure Day" because on the way up to Clear Lake Bill asked me if I had to be back to DSM before Monday and I said no. After that he suggested going on an "adventure" (which means, "let's go do something other than go home) and I latched on to this idea and would NOT let it go. Ha!
Everything we did was "adventure!" What can we say, we like to make things fun cause we're fun people! :)
Saturday morning, Bill and I woke up, went on a nice 4 mile jog around the lake area (one of the only runs I have ever done with Bill because he is faster than me) and then headed back to his grandma's house to get ready and head over to his uncles house for lunch. After lunch, we were trying to decide what to do and it came out that his uncle had never seen the crash site! We all decided then and there that it was absolutely NECESSARY that we go see it!
After some gravel roads, a few detours and then a walk through fields (surprisingly not a cornfield!) we found the site!
Marking the trail to go to the actual site is a statue of Buddy Holly's glasses. After posing with them, we made our way about a quarter of a mile through the field to the site. The sky was absolutely gorgeous with big fluffy clouds meeting farm fields on the horizon
The actual site was a little anti-climactic and we were disappointed that there wasn't something a bit more memorializing than glorified garbage! There was cheap movie theater 3d glasses, beer cans, credit cards, latex gloves, coins, t-shirts... just random crap! You can tell some people left nice things like flowers, but most of it was junky and gross. There were four small headstone type things that someone left (a fourth for the pilot), and those were nice. We couldn't leave without a few tears shed from Bill and his uncle... it was very traumatic for these two old(er) men. :)
After leaving the site, Bill's family decided I need a more appropriate tour of Clear Lake because I had never been there, so we headed down to the beach and park area and found a small art festival going on. So, we looked around for awhile, and resisted our urge to buy stuff! I was SO close to buying a spoon ring, but ultimately resisted since I am on a strict no spending freeze!
After leaving the festival, we checked out a new meat shop called Louie's Customer Meats and More, where we bought some bacon and hamburgers to head home and grill bacon burgers. Gosh, I wish I had taken more pictures of the food we ate, because we ate WELL this day. Grilled chicken for lunch accompanied with corn (what else?) and enough cheese, crackers and summer sausage before the meal to last us a long while, then grill bacon burgers for dinner. Mmmm, it was all so delish!
Oh, and I didn't mention the ice cream we stopped and got while their cousin was working! This day was so indulgent, lol! Good thing we got in a run at the beginning of the day...
The rest of the day and night we just laid around, relaxing, talking, reading (well, I was the only one reading. I'm weird) and playing games until it was time for Bill and I to head back to DSM. We got home pretty late, but it didn't bother me one bit because we had such a good day! I had so much fun with his family and in a new part of Iowa that I quickly fell in love with!
Do you have friends that can make everything fun and never seem bored? I am so grateful to have found a guy that seems to do just that. He makes everything a good time! :)
So it looks like Bill was able to schedule you a run in your busy schedule ;) Hubby is faster than me too so I won't run with him either, he tends to forget that I have to step two times to catch up with his one. Glad you had fun!
ReplyDeleteClear Lake is fun in the summer. It's sad that the Ritz burnt down on the south side. Great place to eat when it was there. It was my grandpa's favorite place when we went on vacations. And the bakery had the best donuts. Also on the weekends in the summer they used to have sail boat races but that's not done alot any more.
ReplyDeleteThe week after the 4th they also have Bikes and BBQ that is pretty cool.
Sounds like a great weekend! I definitely feel like Eric and I have fun no matter where and what we are doing (within reason). I am also always the one reading when everyone else is relaxing!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it was a really fun time/adventure!!
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to have friends that you can do silly stuff with and it's fun! Iowa has a lot of strange attractions. When I was there we went to the world's biggest pitchfork and the Luss Hills and John Wayne's house... they are kind of silly but totally fun if you are with the right people!
ReplyDeletethat's my hometown! glad you enjoyed it. :) i absolutely adore clear lake.
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