Two days before they came, we had one more snowfall which was very unexpected by everyone. It was beautiful and I had wished they were here to see it. I was just in awe so I took MANY photos.
They flew in early and waited for me to get off work before we all headed out to eat but first, we stopped at the lookout park. It was very cold.
I wanted to take Adrien to the best wing place in town, which I have never been to because I don't eat wings. Mike said the best wing place in town is a dive and shouldn't we take them to a nicer place? I thought Adrien should experience a dive wing place.
It was decided to go to a different place and good thing, because everybody loved their food and the atmosphere.
On the way home we stopped at the sky bridge and took this photo.
As you can see, the river was starting to leave it's banks.
The next day we went to Le Claire and found a wonderful restaurant that had the best food I have had in awhile, a blanched asparagus and red pepper sandwich with an appetizer that didn't last very long!
It was then time to tour the distillery, my fourth of fifth time. It was different this go around because now they can serve drinks. There was some kind of weird law in Iowa where they could only offer taste samples of their products. Now you can order a drink and enjoy during the tour. You can still taste their products as you can see here. We tasted every single one.
Molly enjoyed a cup of coffee with Iowish Cream after the tour while Mike photo bombed her.
Of course after the distillery, you always have to go to the brewery. The bartender was very excited when I ordered a flight of all 15 beers. I caught her taking a picture and asked her about it. She said we were the first to order all 15 on her shift.
When we were done trying all 15 beers, the bartender asked if we found our favorites. I told her yes, but we couldn't remember which ones they were and then everything started to look green.
Whenever we take visitors to Le Claire we always stop at the American Pickers but Adrien didn't know who they were so we just drove by. I guess they don't have that show in France. If anyone asks him, he can say he had been there.
A few other Le Claire photos....
Why not stop at one more brewery?
Saturday morning we headed to the Farmer's Market for breakfast before heading to Wild Cat Den for a day of hiking.
We found a brewery near Wild Cat Den and had a good time making up our own rules for the shuffle board game. Adrien had never played before so it was extremely fun because he was my partner and we won!
Adrien was very excited to drive through the very small town of Montpelier because that is a famous city in France. On the way home we stopped on the highway so he could jump out to pose for this photo. The people across the street on their patio were wondering what the heck we were doing.
We spent Sunday in Lisbon and Sutliff. Every visitor needs to experience the Sutliff Tavern and bridge. The Cedar river was very high.
The last night they were here, I got out the photo albums and Adrien made a comment on this one stating the woman to the left looks like Meredith, my niece. Adrien and Meredith have known each other their whole lives. The woman on the left is my sister Jo, Meredith's mom. That is me in the front and then my sister Sherry.
We had an excellent time with Molly and Adrien. It is aways sad when my family leaves.
