Not last weekend, but the weekend before, John and I went to his ex-girlfriend's wedding in beautiful Bellevue, Iowa.
We paid the extra $10 for our hotel room so we could have a river view. It came with a three season porch-like balcony, and it was totally worth it.
I brought a few books, just in case I had time to read.
We were supposed to be at the lodge in the state park at five on Friday evening to help set up for the wedding. A lot of mutual friends of John and his ex from when they lived in Boston were going to be there, so I was glad John got some extra time to hang out with them.
We got there a little early, so we decided to do a little hiking before we helped set up the wedding.
We found a gorgeous overlook and then John looked to the right of that and saw a crack in between two rocks and decided to check it out. We had to get skinny to fit through, but sucking in our guts was way worth it.
This was our view on the other side. How incredible is that?
We had a nice time at the pre-wedding party and got back to the hotel room around 10.
The next morning we went to breakfast downtown and then wandered along the Mississippi River for a bit.
The water in the river is VERY high right now. I'm not sure if this staircase actually leads to something that is covered up by water, or if it really is a stairway that leads right into the water.
I took this one of John on the upper part of that same staircase. Doesn't it look like he's running for office there?
After breakfast, we went to hike on the trails in Bellevue State Park. It was gorgeous.
We ended up hiking for almost two hours and if we had time, I could have hiked all day.
Most of our friends who were there for the wedding ended up watching the Hawkeye game at the bar attached to our hotel. The game wasn't even close and basically it meant that they didn't do anything while they were in Bellevue but go from their hotel room, to the bar, back to their hotel room and then to the wedding the entire weekend they were in Bellevue. They missed so much, but maybe they don't really like playing outside, so they don't feel that way about there weekend...
After our hike we headed over to Potter's Mill for lunch. I love this place. It is so cool looking inside. We were able to catch a bit of the Iowa game, and like I said before, it was a total snoozer.
We sat at the bar on the first floor, and while we waited for our food to come, the bartender told us to check out the new third floor coffee shop and art gallery.
It was so cute up there. I told John that if I lived there, I could see myself spending some time reading a book and drinking some tea on a weekend afternoon.
We finally went back to the hotel and got ready for the big event. He doesn't do it very often, but John sure does clean up well when he wants to.
The wedding itself was lots of fun. They had a bluegrass band playing and they served awesome BBQ and Cajun style food. They ran out of beer fairly early on and I can't really drink wine, so I had my two beers and wasn't tempted to drink anymore. That worked well for me.
The other fun thing they did was have a photo booth and asked people to bring in fun props for fun photos. There were all kinds of freaks and weirdos with masks and funky hats and leather chaps out on the dance floor. It was so great.
The happy couple seemed to have a great time too. I'm not much of a wedding person, but man if the food is good and everyone is out on the dance floor, then sign me up for another one.
We finally had to say goodbye to Bellevue on Sunday morning. We had breakfast in Makoqueta, drove home and got to do a 35 mile bike ride in the afternoon. Hiking? Dancing? Eating? Drinking? Cycling? I think all of our happy bases were covered that weekend.
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