Saturday Shopping

A couple of our finds...Jean is already spoiling her new nephew.

I picked up Jean for some yard sales over in Solon a couple of weeks ago. 

After our shopping, we picked up Jaymie and went for lunch at a new place in North Liberty called Foundry.

It was ok, good enough for us anyways.

 

Home Show with Jean

So, a couple of weeks ago I went to the local Iowa City Home Builder's Home Show with Lovely Jean. I always come away with a lot of stuff...pens, shopping bags, a snow scraper,and a T shirt too!Jean and me both need more shopping bags, right?!

 There's a lot to see at shows like this. These guys had ways to make your cement floors look great.

 I just had to laugh at the name of the roofing company....Malarkey!

 Pretty furniture from the folks at Amana...always so nice to see.

 OOOO, look at these beautiful tiles! I'll take some! Wouldn't that make a wonderful back-splash in the kitchen!

 And take a look at these beautiful glass shower doors. A gal can dream, right? We worked up an appetite dreaming about all those great home products!

 We stopped to have lunch at twelve01-it's inside the Hampton Inn. I had a Cuban sandwich and Jean had the Shrimp Flatbread. It was a pretty good lunch.

Twelve01 has a nice menu and is not too crazy expensive. It was nice to go to a place with no crayons for a change!

Minnehaha and Beyond!

 So on the list of  "things to see" was Minnehaha Falls. the day was bright and clear and not too cold so off we went!

 It's a really nice park and easy to get to with a great tour guide!

 DD and my favorite cousin, Robin- aka a great tour guide!

Here's a statue of Minnehaha and Hiawatha, you know like in the poem. It's very nice!

 I think we'll need to come back to this park in the summer, I bet it's full of park loving folks!

 So then we drove over to the Minnehaha house, that nicole Curtis rehabbed on the TV program Rehab Addict. We love her show!

 Look there's DD sitting in the car because she didn't want to be a stalker, person taking pictures of a strangers house.

 Still it was a very lovely house, in a wonderful location right next to a nice walking path and a creek or small river take your pick.

 So then we went over to Stillwater Minnesota. They are famous for their shopping and the lift bridge. Here's the bridge. Of course in my mind they are famous because in the John Sandford books somebody is always needing to go to Stillwater. We chose not to shop, even though they are chock a block with shops offering everything from Antiques to yarn.

 Instead we had lunch.

 We stopped at a very nice restaurant. hmmm, too bad I can't remember the name....Dock Cafe maybe?

 I had the oriental salad...not the greatest thing I ever ate...I think the oranges were bad.

 Robin had a beef dip sandwich-it was good! And DD had breakfast.

 See what a nice view of the river from the dining room. 

So on to more adventures!

The Saturday Tour

 A few yard sales,

 An awesome new quilt shop,

 And lunch at Olive Garden

What a great Saturday!

Lunch at Mama DiGrado's

So DD and I went to Marshalltown to take my Mom & Dad out to lunch for Mother's day.  Mom had heard that mama DiGrado's was good so we thought we'd give it a try. The restaurant is located at Marshalltown mall, easy access from outside on the west-side, or from inside the Mall.

I ordered the calzone sandwich-meatball version. I asked for the lettuce, tomato and such on the side. It was very good-excellent crust, I'd leave off the salad stuff altogether and just ask for a side of marinara sauce next time.

Dad had the chef salad minus the turkey. Nice big heap of lettuce and a nice pile of ham & bacon too. A really large portion!

Mom had the spaghetti-she had the kids portion size and it was the  perfect size. She really liked the garlic toast too.

Darling Daughter had the chicken Alfredo. I tasted hers of course, and the pasta was cooked perfectly and it was tasty. I almost always say this so get ready...avert your eyes... "Dan makes better Alfredo."   OK you can come back to reading now.!! We all enjoyed our food. The prices are very reasonable, and the dining room was clean and simply furnished.  The server did a nice job getting all the special requests correct and it was a nice place to have lunch. I think I'd like to try their pizza next time. Here's a Link
To the menu for Mama DiGrado's. Best of all I got to have lunch with my Mom & Dad!