Veteran's Day Roadtrip

The three of us here at home took a little road trip over Friday and Saturday to the great White North.  Our nephew got married in August in a small, family wedding and the reception was held over this past weekend.

So around noon on Friday we loaded up the sweet Murano and headed north.  We took a different route than we would normally have taken and it was fun to see some different countryside than we normally do.

As we drove through one of the familiar Nebraska towns while driving we came upon a beautiful Veteran's Day tribute and just had to stop and take a few pictures.

Doesn't that just make your heart sing?  There is nothing like small town America to get your patriotic blood flowing.

As we edged up through Iowa we saw that remnants of the great flooding of 2011 are still in place.  We saw this standing water right after we paid a toll to cross the oldest looking toll bridge ever.  I wanted to take a picture of the tollbooth and the bridge but didn't want to have to stop on a road that didn't have a shoulder to get out to take  it.

I have to say that northwestern Iowa certainly is quite at its capacity when it comes to casinos which for me truly ruined the landscape.  But it was fun to see some hills while we traveled through the "bluffs".

We arrived at our hotel in the lovely town of Mankato (remember when the Ingalls used to go there on Little House?)  around 7:30 and checked into our hotel followed by some dinner.  By the time we were done eating we were all pretty tired.  So we settled in and some of us went to sleep while the other two watched TV for a while.

Saturday morning we got up late and had breakfast in the hotel lobby.  By the time we were ready to check out we decided to just go to the venue of the reception and hang out with our family.  We ended up helping the mother of the bride set up some stuff while we waited for our people to arrive.  My sister in law asked me to help her pick out her outfit so we went back to her room and did a fashion show.  

The reception was fun and here are a few pictures to prove it:

The back of that beautiful dress.

I tried to get a fun pose but I'm not sure that Joel "got it". 

Our sis, brother and the bride and groom.

Cutting the wedding cake.

This cake had a story that I never got to hear.

Some of our family at our table.

It was a fun time and it ended all too soon for us.  We left the party at 4:30 and got home around 1:30 in the a.m.  Along our ride home we saw some towns that brought back good memories for me from my traveling LEM days as did the small towns of Minnesota.

Home felt pretty good to us, especially our own cozy beds.

Congratulations to Joel & Angie!!!  We hope you have a long, happy life together.