US Trip 2011 - IA, IL, Ireland Scenic Views, Flora and Fauna

Indian Creek Nature Center, Iowa and a view of Iowa flying from Cedar Rapids to West Des Moines.

 Theresa and Greg's yard, Gurnee, Illiniois

Fenit, Co. Kerry - a day after we returned.

US 2011 - CO Scenic views, flora and fauna

 These are Dana's pictures from the Butterfly Pavillion in Denver, followed by scenic views from Aravada and Estes Park.

US Trip 2011 - AR Scenic views, flora and fauna

Beaver Lake area, NW Arkansas. These are primarily in Nancy and Hal's yard or taken from their yard. A few are a little further down the road, but close by. It was early April, Dogwood and Redbud season, but a weekend in the mid-80's - a rare combination.

 Below, an interesting visual perspective!

US 2011 - Iowa and Chicago

John and Lorraine drove us to the airport early Sunday morning and we flew to Cedar Rapids. That evening we had dinner at the house with Mick, Jeanne, Jerry, Jean, Dustin and 2 granddogs. Monday we went on an appraisal job with Mick, then had dinner at Jean and Jerry's. They live on the Indian Creek Nature Center      which is beautiful - we had a very nice private tour from Jean, who is a manager there.










On Tuesday we went to Iowa City - we walked around downtown and the mall, then visited for a while with Judy Waterman, which was great. We then met Nita, Barry, Jean, and Bill at George's - and also ran in  to Dick Klausner. We celebrated old times by sitting at "our" table at the front of the bar - very nostalgic. Then to top it off we had pizza at Pagliai's! Unfortunately no pictures of this day.

On Wednesday Mick flew us to Des Moines where we spent the day with Chauncey and Tiffany and had a nice dinner with them. It was fun - we toured the picturesque little town of West. Des Moines and also enjoyed the flights.

Thursday evening we met some of Jeanne's teaching friends for a wine tasting in Solon,

Friday we drove to Chicago. Actually, we drove to Greg and Theresa's in Gurnee, Illinois, north of Chicago. Dick and Pat took the train up from Chicago and we all had a delicious dinner fixed by Theresa. The next day we went to Wrigley and had a fantasttic time. The weather was amazingly good for Wrigley in April and the Cubs made a come-back to win - a very fun day. Greg grilled for us that night - delicious. The Iowa crew left early Sunday and the other 4 of us had a leisurely Sunday morning before they drove us to O'Hare for the flight back to Shannon. It was, as always, a very long day, but all went smoothly.

Here are the first pictures back, showing the beautiful sunny weather, which they had the whole time we were gone!