We had two adjoining rooms at our Cedar Rapids hotel. It was perfection! Aubree and Bryce stayed with Sue, which meant I could put the younger kids to bed earlier in my room. In fact, Sue took Aubree to work out (Aubree is planning to run cross country in the fall and needed to prepare herself at least moderately for the summer workouts), and Bryce and Thane played Candy Crush while I put Nellie and Graham to bed. Sue is the world champion Candy Crush player, so there might have been a lot of game-time during her foray with us.
This was mostly a drive day; we drove all the way across Iowa and into South Dakota. A couple thoughts about Iowa/South Dakota...
1. They weren't nearly as flat and boring as I'd expected.
2. They really aren't very original when it comes to city names. It's like they picked a few key words (Iowa, City, Cedar, Falls, Sioux, and Rapid) and paired them up in every possibly order to name their cities. I had a terrible time distinguishing where we were and where we were going.
At the recommendation of our friend and neighbor, Kelly Smith, who used to live in Sioux City, we stopped at Palmer's Chocolate store. It was worth the stop! They had chocolates and candy galore, all at surprisingly reasonable prices. You might be thinking, "yeah, but the Palmer's Easter candy is disgusting! Of course it's cheap," but you'd be wrong because this is a totally different Palmers.
The best part of their store was that you could have a free sample of any of their wares. They're famous for "Twin Bings, " which are cherry nougats covered in a hash of roasted peanuts and chocolate. The outsides were amazing. We weren't quite as fond of the cherry nougats. We came away with a nice supply of chocolate for the rest of the trip.
While in Sioux City, we also stopped briefly at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. It had some impressive animatronic displays, but didn't hold anyone's attention for very long.
It was good for a quick visit, and soon we were ready to continue our trip to Sioux Falls (see how confusing these city names can be?!).
In Sioux Falls we stayed at a Homewood Suites, and it was extra exciting because we met up again with Kevin and Katie and their girls! They were finishing up their three week road trip adventure to the west, and this is where our paths crossed. We were able to have dinner together (hurray for soup and salad!) and catch up on all of our adventures.
After dinner everyone quickly changed into their swimsuits for cousin-time in the pool. Thane and Graham have improved their swimming abilities significantly on our trip.
After I put Nellie and Graham to bed, Sue stayed with them and I took Aubree, Bryce, and Thane up to Kevin and Katie's room to squeeze in as much family time as possible. Staying in hotels with family makes everything more exciting and enjoyable.
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