Amy update, Jud's coming and Yankee Doodle Pops

We heard from our darlin' girl a couple times this week. She was joined in Panama on Sunday June 30th by college roomie Rachelle, who will travel with her for 10 days.

Rachelle is a teacher in Ames. She had not traveled outside the United States before - so this is quite the adventure for her! Amy met Rachelle in the airport so she didn't have to maneuver around there all by herself. The girls knocked around Panama City for a couple days, staying in the Spanish In the City Hostel for $12.50 per night. Amy reported Panama City was "awesome".

Next they are on to Boquete, Panama - which I see is listed as a retirement town for Americans and Canadians. They went on a coffee plantation tour, which Amy loved. She purchased a burlap sack.

Amy so reminds of my mom. She is so fascinated with travel and seeing the sites of foreign lands. She enjoys researching where she is going on each leg of this trip and what she will see. As Amy put together the trip, she built a spreadsheet on Google Docs showing where she'll be each day, with color codes for type of transportation she'll use, and columns for town, country, accommodations and cost. (called "where I rest my noggin") Yes, perhaps a little OCD going on...in a good way.

They are off to Costa Rica today, the 4th. They are still doing some planning for the activities there. Some of the locals suggest things to do and Rachelle took her iPad, which helps for booking when they are near WiFi. Paul and I still count down the days until Amy comes back on to our place on the 22nd. She has the price of that listed as FREE. (She's sadly mistaken - we will make her pay in hugs).

Judson David will be appearing at our doorstep this Saturday all by his lonesome. GF Kara is traveling for work. Though we saw him at Kelli Behr's wedding in early June, it seems we haven't really talked with him for a while. So this will be a treat! Odie will be happy to see her bro too.

Last night Paul and I attended Yankee Doodle Pops in Governors Plaza right by my office. Since 2009 I have watched the setup for this event, but have headed back to Creston for Independence Day where we hosted friends to watch fireworks off our driveway. Except Conover's trees grew and we began wandering over to their driveway the past few years...

It's a new era and we're trying new things! We headed back downtown after a stop at home for the pooch. We parked on the west side of the river just south of Wells Fargo Arena for quick getaway later and had a sandwich at the Standard, which was very quiet - though cars were streaming by on their way to the Iowa Cubs game.

Next we stopped at Lime for a cocktail and met some people from Norwalk who know Creston natives Tracy and Karla Purdum. Our new friends' daughter must have played volleyball against Amy, we decided. We talked concerts with our friends, and the bartender who is also a big Fleetwood Mac fan. Well drinks were $1, so the vodka cranberry tasted specially good.  Then we walked the couple blocks east to find a spot for our chairs for the show.

It was already packed - I saw people setting up their chairs and blankets before I left work at 4 p.m. So our 7:30 p.m. arrival was late...we located near the Wallace Building and couldn't really see a thing. The sound system was good though.

We noticed this youngster rolling down the hill - reminding us of the time little Jordan Alvillar did that at Mom and Dad's in Atlantic. She ended up with chigger bites in places where the sun don't shine. That resulted in me sending a text photo to all parties with some hilarious comebacks from my fam - including new Momma Leslie, who sent a pic back of baby James. Aww.

The evening featured the Des Moines Symphony playing many traditional patriotic tunes such as - the Star Spangled Banner, When the Saints Go Marching In, and we got a real treat when nationally known Iowa grown baritone Simon Estes sang God Bless America. The guy is getting up there - he graduated from the U of I in 1957, but he still has the pipes!

I can't resist a pic of that reflection...

The DM Symphony

 

As the sun slowly went down on the night, they broke out the Sousa songs (Dad would have loved it) - and the booming fireworks. Since the trees were in the way, Paul packed up the chairs and we began walking toward our car.

That's Paul in the visor on the right

We walked across the footbridge by Wells Fargo

We are so fortunate to be Americans - to be able to calmly take in a beautiful evening like Paul and I did last night. God Bless America!