It is an annual tradition of mine to kidnap John around Father’s Day and take him (and the girls) out to the Quad Cities, where we met and attended college. He never really knows when it is coming and this year, we got him good.
We have quite a few trips coming up in September and October and, given that is it now practically August and we hadn’t gone yet, he thought it was going to be an off year. This is why, when I told him that it was time to go shampoo the carpets at our townhouse and asked him to please let me drive so that he could call his mom, he didn’t bat an eye. Then, I asked him to open the glove box for some gum and he found this:
He knew. Inside the card, a terrible little poem that I wrote on a whim, telling him that we were off on a little journey:
It’s horribly written, I know. You can only write so well in the grocery store parking lot with a four-year-old asking 47 questions a minute in the back seat.
In any case, he was over the moon excited. And thus, our 36-hour whirlwind trip began.
I love this.
We ate dinner in one of our favorite QCA restaurants and went swimming in the hotel pool. Tessa loved it, Ellie was totally freaked out by the depth of the water.
After swimming, Whitey’s Ice Cream, another must-have when we visit what feels like our second home…
Where the heck is my ice cream, Dad??
After ice cream, it was time to get the children in bed, so back to the hotel we went. It’s always a curious thing, finding a way to stay awake and chat as adults while sharing a hotel room with the children. This year, John tried putting on episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, but after a couple of references to testicles and a vampire commercial, we thought maybe we should try the quiet reading time method. After about five minutes, we got a lecture from Ellie.
“Guys, no lights, no TV. It’s time for bed. Come on, let’s go, lights out.”
Alright then.
In the morning, we visited Jimmy’s Pancake House for the most delicious pancakes that we have ever eaten. We come here every time we visit the QCA and are never disappointed. This was the first time that we had brought the girls with us. Tessa was hammin’ it up with everyone around her. The waitresses all came over to say hello and at the end of the meal, our waitress asked if she could take her to meet some of the other staff. It’s a small place and we have had this waitress a few times, so since Tessa was ok with it, we let her go. She was high-fivin’ everyone she met! Hilarious. I asked Ellie (who was just a little bummed that she didn’t get paraded around) if she thought Tessa was being a ham and she said “No, she’s not a ham. She’s a lover. She just loves everyone!!”
Also, I’m not sure if you knew this or not, but if your kids are starving, jelly packets make a great appetizer. Just FYI.
No visit to the Quad Cities is complete without a visit to the Family Museum… as long as the kids are with us, that is. 🙂 It’s one of the best children’s museums that we have visited, mostly because it’s small enough to let the kids do their thing and they can actually interact with all of the exhibits without being overrun by 50,000 people.
They have added a really neat area that is designed for crawlers and new walkers. Tessa loved it and got a lot of PT practice that I’m sure her therapists would appreciate. Personally, I appreciated the time to just sit and watch her safely crawl around and explore.
The real reason that we love the Quad Cities is our emotional tie to Augustana. It’s a small school – and graduates of Augie are sickeningly devoted to our alma mater. We can’t help it, it’s just a lovely place to be.
We also visited the John Deere Tractor Museum…
And then Ellie let us know that it was time to go home.
See you next time, Quad Cities. We can’t wait to come back!
These last three of Tessa are from today… I can’t wait to print them to hang in my office. She is so pretty! 🙂 
Yo soy La Lay 
