In the summer of 2019 the boys and I took a trip back to Iowa to see friends a year after we had moved away. We wanted to do it again in 2020, but Covid put the kibosh on that. So this year I wanted to make sure it happened for sure, especially after the hard time we'd had that winter and spring. And happened, it did! We decided to drive out instead of fly, and my mom came with us to help, and it turned out to be a fun ten-day road trip halfway across the country and back to very special places that are near and dear to our hearts.
We stopped for the night in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. My favorite hotel chain is Holiday Inn Express. Among other things, they (usually) have nice pools.
Here we are the next day at a rest stop in Indiana, where we had stopped for lunch.
Hello Illinois!
And hello Iowa! 🙌
We pulled over at a rest stop soon after getting into Iowa so that we could switch drivers (my mom drove most of the way, thank you Mom!). There was this neat plaque there about the Mormon Handcart Trail. I love the Midwest's church history.
This was another relevant plaque that was there. I loved living in Iowa City for eight great years.
That evening after we'd arrived we picked up John's friends Craig and Cyle (they're brothers) and went out to dinner at HuHot, one of our favorite Iowa restaurants. (We really wish there were a HuHot in Massachusetts!)
And then just like old times we went next door to Cold Stone for dessert. It was so good to be back here again. (In Iowa, not Cold Stone. Well, there too actually. 😆)
The boys were thrilled to be together again!
And finally, after a very long (but good) day, we stopped at our old HyVee to pick up a few things. I loved this grocery store! Maybe it's a little weird to love your grocery store, but I really did love it. It was nice and new and well-organized and clean and very homey feeling and not far from my house. I had missed it, and I still miss it!
We were looking forward to spending the next five days in our former home sweet home of beautiful, wonderful Iowa!
