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Monday, June 9, 2008
We arrived in Waterloo late Sunday evening and settled in for our three day stay. There had been quite a bit or rain in Iowa over the weeks preceding our visit so we weren’t sure what we would be doing while there. We were scheduled to take a tour of a prosthetic company but the owner was called away at the last moment and we had to cancel. We had hoped to reschedule for Tuesday or Wednesday but little did we know what was to come…
Instead, Jonna took the kids to the Lost Island Water Park for some much needed playtime while Mark remained in the hotel to work. It was a beautiful day and there was hardly anyone there so the kids rode all the slides over and over. That afternoon we cleaned up and headed over to the convention center to help Mark set up his booth for the convention. From there we headed to the VGM BBQ and fireworks show. The kids had the opportunity this year to ride on a giant John Deere Combine. The fireworks show was extensive and well done and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We turned in after a very exciting day.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Today things began to get interesting… We dropped Mark off downtown at the convention center around 10 am with every intention of heading to Mason City to see Music Man Square which includes the museum and streets dedicated to Meredith Wilson, writer of The Music Man. It is about 90 minutes from Waterloo. Much to our surprise, the highway heading north through Cedar Falls was closed due to the rising Cedar River. We decided to take it easy instead and hang at the hotel and swim and relax. That afternoon we visited the Hansen Dairy Farm in Hudson, Iowa. It is a family-owned dairy and we had a private, hands-on tour given by Amy, the wife of one of the four brothers that operates the dairy. She was a wonderful tour guide. We enjoyed feeding calves that were only 2-3 weeks old from a bottle, milking a cow, and making butter which we then sampled. We learned all about how the cows reproduce and how the cows are milked. It was a great experience for us. The tour ended with a delicious treat of ice cream made right at the dairy. This was a great adventure I would highly recommend for whoever might get up to that part of the country. Much to my surprise, Mark called in the middle of the tour to say that the show was cancelled for the evening due to rising water. We headed back after the tour and enjoyed dinner and went to bed.
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