Visit to Iowa

I left on a Thursday, June 26, for Iowa, arriving Friday morning, sans luggage. It arrived later on Saturday morning. I stayed with Betty and we drove to Shell Rock and surprised my parents--they didn't know I was coming. So instead of my weekly phone call, they got a personal visit. Visits with dad are usually brief, 20-30 minutes, but he seems to appreciate the time, though he says he doesn't recommend getting old. He still has his sense of humor and keeps up with what's going on in the world ("Who are you going to vote for?") by keeping CNN going on in his room. Beyond that, he only ventures out of his room for meals and not interested in much beyond that. He goes to the cafeteria a few feet beyond his room--doesn't complain but I could tell from his reaction that the meals aren't great.

Mom keeps busy with shopping and some of the activities at the care center--the sing along, playing for their church on Sunday, and club. We visited Dave and Susan Nicholson (she was one of my classmates throughout school from Shell Rock through graduation, played in band, and dated one of my friends--we triple dated a lot) and I played the organ for their wedding. They're building an impressive home with 2100 square feet on the first level and 2100 square feet on the second level with geothermal heating and cooling--Dave is a retired engineer.

Another treat was seeing Jason Meyer and Sunny (Layne) in church and then going to dinner with them later that week; Sunny is a news anchor for KWWL (Channel 7 in Waterloo) for the morning show; she graduated from Kahuku (niece to President Shumway) and Jason was a studying business while he was at BYUH. They both transferred to Provo and I hadn't seen them for several years.

I enjoyed my visit with mom and dad each day from Saturday until Wednesday--it's always hard to say goodbye to everyone! Eating maidrites, doing some shopping, walking around UNI, staying with Betty and of course seeing other family members were also highlights--Betty will be visiting us in a few weeks! But emails, phone, and blogs help us all to keep in touch--I even set up a blog for mom, though she hasn't added anything after our first entry (www.loisneal.blogspot.com)

I headed to Cedar Rapids on Wednesday evening to see Gaylord and Mary and to catch the flight on Thursday mornikng--they gave me a tour of downtown CR to see the effects of the flood--and later we enjoyed talking and eating Mary's chocolate pie. We always love our time with them! It was fun to see the albums Mary assembled with our Canada trip pictures, too--many great memories.

A lasting impression from this visit is how the floods and tornadoes dominate the newspaper, TV, conversations, and thoughts of everyone there--it's hard to imagine that the flood level in Cedar Rapids was so high that the river flowed over the top of the bridge railing! http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hw95ek5Sllmi4SoQ_N4HJvwHE0ZAD91AL9C80 Everyone talks about the floods, reads about it, and will remember this summer for the rest of their lives. But I was also impressed with the resilience they demonstrated in Iowa--some areas have shown full recovery; though sadly some areas/homes will never recover.

The trip back was uneventful--three flights: CR to Chicago, Chicago to San Francisco, SF to Honolulu. All flights were on time and the luggage made it in spite of the short layovers. AND glad to be home again! Dianna and Megan were at the airport to greet me.

I didn't take the camera this time--so no pictures this time.