Time Away!!!

Norm and Joan came to town this weekend and were gracious enough to watch the boys for us while we went away to recharge our batteries. Brian and I went to Galena, IL/Dubuque, IA. We stayed in Dubuque (only 15 miles from Galena). While we were away we were able to go to a nice restaurant called Pepper Sprout. The chef was a very talented lady, the food was really good, as was the wine, but oddly enough the desserts were not impressive so we went down the block for that. Brian's was in a beer glass, mine involved chocolate and ice cream.



On Saturday we went kayaking in the afternoon. To bad the sun went away, but it was still a comfortable temperature. Besides we were infinitely more comfortable than the guy who launched with us, who managed to tip his kayak (Wasn't really aware this was possible since they are far less tippy than a canoe.) on entering and ended up waist deep in the river. We had lots of fun but it took a few reminders from Brian as to how to do it. I kept doing 360° every time a came out of a rapids area. They were rapids in the slightest sense really just swifter and bumpier than the rest of the river. We also got to see a blue heron come flying down the river and he was calm enough for us to cruise by and get a picture.

We also managed to do a little shopping in the trinkets and trash stores. And Brian played the craps table at the Diamond Jo's casino three times. The first two were better than the third, but he was able to leave Iowa with there money so all is good.

Here's some of our pics.