The Iowa Cafe

Just for kicks when we first got to Arizona, Brett's Aunt Judy took us out to the Iowa Cafe for breakfast. It's really neat inside because it has tons of Iowa-related memorabilia: John Deere stuff, cow & pig decor, and t-shirts and pennants from every college in the state.

Except Palmer.

*Gasp!*

I may have to get in touch with some of my Palmer buds still in Davenport and see about having some Palmer gear sent my way. Gotta represent. ;)

It's Freezing Cold

I really don't have much to blog about this week. Other than the incredibly cold temperatures here, everything else has been pretty normal. Last week I headed to work in -44 degree windchill. That is officially the coldest I have ever been. The air temperature here reached -29 degrees last week- that doesn't even factor in windchill. Even penguins would be cold. The day that we reached twenty-nine below was the coldest day in recorded history for Davenport. How lucky that Brett and I could be here for that. :-P <---Note the sarcasm.

I hope that everyone reading this is warmer than we are right now. ;-)

Flooding

Yes, we are still here. No we have not floated away. :-) Thanks to everyone who has been concerned for our safety and well being here in flood-ravaged Iowa. Thankfully, we are okay, and we are enough uphill from the river to not be under any threat from the floodwaters. We did get a slightly flooded basement last week after some very intense storms that rolled through our area. Fortunately, there was no actual damage, just a soggy basement that needed to dry out.

We have been having some really crazy weather lately. These past few days we have finally gotten some respite from the relentless rains, but it seemed like it rained everyday for days on end. A couple of weeks ago (the same night our basement flooded) Brett and I actually had to go to the basement for the first time since we moved to Iowa. There was a tornado warning and a rotating wall cloud passing right above Davenport and lightning was striking SO close to our house that it was definitely time to take cover. For those of you who don’t know what a wall cloud is, this is what it looks like:

(Please note that this is just A wall cloud, not THE wall cloud- image from tornadoexpress.com)

Definitely enough to freak me out! Luckily, the whole thing blew over without incident (well, except for the flooding I guess).

Last weekend when we were flying to the Quad City Air Show, I took the opportunity to snap some aerial pictures of our swollen rivers.

If you look toward the left side of the picture above, you will see that there is water covering the city streets.

This picture is of Credit Island Park where the Palmer softball team plays, and also where Brett & his friends like to go golfing. As you can see, it is completely under water. You can make out the faint outline of the baseball diamond, tennis courts, and that building completely surrounded by water is the clubhouse.

Quad City Air Show

Last Saturday we had the exciting opportunity to fly into the Quad City Air Show with our friend Scott who is a pilot. The funny part was that we live in Davenport, drove to Moline to go to the airport, and then flew back to Davenport for the air show. Either way it was still a great time. Here are some pictures from the day:

There's actually a guy standing on top of this plane:

Blue Angels:

Beautiful Spring

It was such a beautiful spring day today that as we were out and about this morning this little lake near our house caught my eye and I just had to stop and take a couple of pictures.


These geese were kind enough to let me get close enough to take a picture:

Fall Colors

Swing Game

We went with friends to our local baseball stadium to watch the Quad Cities Swing play a game. The Swing is a local minor league baseball team, and so long as you aren't looking for a whole lot of exciting baseball action, going to one of the games makes for a pretty fun night out. Also, if you stick around on Friday nights there is a pretty good fireworks show that follows the game.

One of my favorite things about John O'Donell Stadium is the fact that it sits right on the Mississippi River, and you have a pretty view while you are watching the game. In fact, it's so close to the river that home-runs are often hit right into the river.

Mississippi River Cruise

Hello all. I apologize for my lengthy blog hiatus. I've been busy and haven't updated at all since San Diego, but now I'm back and I've got so many blogs to post you can't even believe it.

First, the Mississippi River Cruise. A couple of weeks ago we went to Palmer's Homecoming event which is when a bunch of alumni come from all over the country to attend seminars and various other events. On Saturday night there is always a fun "night out" type of event, and we signed up for the river cruise and it was a very good time. Here are some pictures:
Us at dinner on the boat.


The I-74 Bridge


Us again.


Our friends Derek, April, Amber, Amanda, and Kyle

Quad City Air Show

This afternoon on a whim Brett & I decided to head out and see if we could catch a glimpse of the Quad City Air Show that is in town this weekend. We found a great little spot to watch the show. Brett was our designated photographer:

(And yes, that is a cornfield in the foreground)

As always, you can click the photos to enlarge them.





And my personal favorite:



Excellent job, Brett!

We plan on heading back out there tomorrow to catch more of the show, so hopefully I will have more pictures to share with you then. : )

Too Close for Comfort...

...but we are still here.

It's that time of year again. Time for severe thunderstorms, and even the occasional tornado. Here is our forecast right now from Weather.com: (Click to Enlarge)



Don't be alarmed if you hear on the news about some tornado action here in Eastern Iowa. We did have an F3 tornado touch down in an area close to, but not in Davenport. No need to worry because we are all fine here. The cat is hiding out in the closet because he is afraid of the thunder...but other than that the occupants of the Vowles house are doing well. Here is a picture from our local news station's (KWQC TV6) website of the tornado:

(I should emphasize that this picture was NOT taken by me.)

It was definitely a stressful morning. They initially told us that we would not be in the path of this dangerous storm...but the weather people were wrong again. The tornado sirens went off while we were picking up some groceries at Wal Mart. We quickly left the store and went home. Fortunately, the intense storm only lasted for about 20 minutes and aside from some typical flooding, it passed through Davenport without incident. We are still under a tornado watch until 7 pm tonight, but we have nothing but blue skies and sunshine outside right now, so I think that we are in the clear.

Polyuria Puns, Part II

Just in case you missed Polyuria Puns Part I, click here.

Things You Never Knew You Wanted To Know About Davenport

Welcome to Part 1 of my blog mini series: Things You Never Knew You Wanted To Know About Davenport. I plan to use it to share with you interesting facts and history about Davenport and the surrounding Quad Cities area so that you can know more about the place we live.

Today I begin with the Centennial Bridge:

The Centennial Bridge is part of US Route 67 and it runs across the Mississippi River from Davenport, IA to Rock Island, IL. The Centennial Bridge was built in 1940 and was the first ever 4 lane bridge to cross the Mississippi. The bridge has since become a symbol of the QCA (Quad Cities Area). The 5 arches are designed to represent the Quad Cities. I know what you are thinking: Shouldn't there be four arches? Well, technically the Quad Cities are Davenport and Bettendorf on the Iowa side of the river, and Rock Island and Moline on the Illinois side. But sometimes (depending on who you ask) they let East Moline come and play too, hence 5 cities in the Quad Cities. I know. It's bizarre. But what do you expect? It's the Midwest. Sometimes it's like a whole different country. : )

"It's Go Time!"

Before we begin the story, here's some backstory so that the story can make sense: Polyuria is a condition that causes excess urination. Brett and his friends have learned about it in their physiology classes, and for some reason his friends decided to give that name to their softball team.

Now, on with the story:

Last night we went down to Credit Island Park in Davenport to cheer on our friend's team, The Polyurians, as they played on one of Palmer's intramural softball teams. The teams motto: "It's go time." In keeping with the theme of bad puns relating to polyurea, Brett & I crafted a sign to show our support for the team:



Stay tuned, as we plan to come up with a new polyurea pun for every game that we attend so that we may further fulfill our roles as official softball team cheerer-oners. Just don't ask us to throw the ball. : )

Spring at Last!

Well, it looks as though the dark and dreary days of winter have finally given way to the glorious warmth and sunshine of spring. The grass is green, the tulips are blooming and the birds are out and about. We went for a walk today on the bike path near our house. Here are a few of the beautiful glimpses of springtime that we captured along the way:

The bridge that we take to access the bike path:


Duck Creek:


Eastern Avenue Park: