“Wherever the journey takes you, as long as the earth is round, may your path lead home one day.” –The Downstairs Girl
It’s that time of year again. It’s beginning to warm up in South Texas, spring is over and summer is quickly arriving. The last few years we’ve been taking our time getting back to New York. It’s fun seeing new places and catching up with old friends. This year our first stop will be in Lockhart to visit Stan’s sister and family. From there we’ll drive straight north, first to see a friend in Iowa and then to Chicago to spend a few days exploring a place I used to visit as a child. From Chicago we’ll head east to our son’s home in Pennsylvania. We’re not in a hurry to get back to The Pearl since our marina doesn’t open till May 1 and spring is only beginning in upstate New York. Our migration lets us enjoy two springs. This blog is about our first two stops.
We had a wonderful time catching up with family we haven’t seen since 2020…lots of talking, laughter and food.
Iowa welcomed us with a little snow…luckily it didn’t last too long.
My friend Karen calls her beautiful property near Albia, IA Cabinland…it’s a little piece of heaven. We really loved the parts of Iowa we saw. It’s a beautiful part of our country.
Looking towards Karen’s home from her pond.
We visited Pella, Iowa, it was a little visit to the Netherlands. It’s a cute little Dutch town full of Dutch heritage, architecture and food. It also has the tallest working grain windmill in the United States and tulips…lots of tulips.
Just a few of the beautiful tulips in Pella…there are 180 flower beds of tulips throughout the town. In May they celebrate the tulip with an annual Tulip Festival.
Central Park in Pella.
We went to Jaarsma Bakery, which was founded in 1898 with family recipes brought from Holland. One of the most popular items they sell are Dutch letters cooked in a brick oven. They feature almond paste inside puff pastry. The sugar-coated treats usually come shaped like the letter “S” for Sinterklaasavond, the Dutch name for the night of gift-giving from Saint Nicolas. In the Netherlands, the holiday is much like Christmas, but celebrated with gifts on Dec. 5 or 6. Dutch immigrants who landed in Pella in 1845 brought the tradition to Iowa. Visitors to Pella’s Annual Tulip Time Festival stand in long lines to get a taste of their famous Dutch Letters.
The Sunken Gardens Park in Pella.
Karen and I had fun painting a few rocks and then hiding over 30 in the area. We love to spread a little kindness wherever we go. We even got to see white pelicans on the Miami Lake, which is behind her property. They are migrating north too.
What a treat it was to see these white pelicans…I wonder if they are the same ones that winter in Rockport.
Monroe County courthouse in Albia, IA.
This Monroe County’s
Freedom Rock there is one in each of the 99 counties in Iowa. They are painted to honor America’s Veterans and to promote Iowa tourism.
The
Welcome Home Soldier Monument is a public monument in Albia of national magnitude to honor all the United States Veterans, living or deceased, in the nation’s heartland. It was very impressive…I haven’t seen anything like it except in Washington DC.
