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Postcards from the Pipers
Ben and Nikki Piper are two of our best friends and were so happy that they were able to take a quick getaway this summer with their young children and Ben's parents, Martha and Steve. For their family vacation, they drove from their home in Crete, Neb., to beautiful...
A postcard from the “villes”
One of our most avid followers, Dale Strehle and his wife, Cindy, recently sent us a postcard from the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee. They stopped there on what they referred to as their "ville" tour which took them through Louisville, Knoxville,...
A quirky place called Carhenge
When we were in Great Britain last month, our first stop was at iconic Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, where a ring of standing stones is set. Its history and purpose have boggled the minds of archaeologists and visitors for hundreds of...
Fort Cody Trading Post: More than meets the eye
The first time I visited North Platte, Nebraska, I was 14. My family drove there via I-80 to attend the wedding of a close family friend. After almost 30 years, I don't remember too much from that visit, but I do remember being intrigued by the western stockade I saw...
A postcard from North Platte, NE
If you've been thinking about visiting North Platte, Nebraska, this is the weekend. Seriously, just get in the car and go! Yes, it's that time of year to put on your cowboy boots, find your hat, and mosey on down to the Wild West Arena where you can wrangle up all...
A postcard from Harry Potter’s world
This summer, our friends and neighbors, the Faltins, visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in California and we were so excited to get their postcard! Kevin and Michelle and their two youngest kids flew to California (where Michelle is from)...
Nebraska’s Nicest Nine
A couple years ago, Steve and I took off on a 6-day journey to find out for ourselves if our home state lives up to its then new slogan, "Nebraska Nice." We wrote about some of the nicest things we saw -- calling them our 2014 "Nebraska's Nicest Nine." The list was...
Rediscovering Historic Stillwater, MN
For me, Stillwater is one of those places that will always take me back to my childhood and ignite fond memories. Every day I spent there as a child was filled with fun and relaxation. We'd fish off the back deck of my grandparent's houseboat, slowly boat over to a...
Postcards from Minnesota
Steve and I are getting ready to head to north to Minnesota again this week. We've been going there several times a year to visit friends and family and for doctor's visits at the Mayo Clinic where I'm being treated. It is about a 7-hour drive from our house in Crete,...
A great pit stop for Midwest travelers
A couple of weeks ago we were invited to visit the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed as guests of the museum. Even though it's located in Lincoln, Nebraska, only 30 miles from our home, we'd never heard of it. After just a little more than an hour there, we...
Ray’s Shabby Cottage Furniture
About this time each year, we make the hour and 45-minute drive from our home in Southeast Nebraska to Steve's hometown of Shenandoah, Iowa, to have our taxes done. We typically meet with our CPA in the morning and then check out downtown Shen, stopping for a vanilla...
Our first trip to see the Sandhill Crane migration on the Platte River in Nebraska
As we began to quietly leave the wooden blind from which we'd watched Sandhill Cranes descend onto sandbars in the Platte River at dusk, there was only one thing on my mind. I simply could not get over the fact that I'd spent most of my life living in Nebraska and had...
A postcard from New England
Happy National Clam Chowder Day! We thought it was a great day to share this postcard we received last summer from some of Steve's college friends from Lawrence University. In doing a little research about clam chowder, we found that according to Savoring Gotham: A...
Wahoo, Nebraska — A Pleasant Surprise
For the last few years, we’ve enjoyed purchasing half a beef from one of Steve’s colleagues who is also a local farmer. This year, they had the beef processed at the meat locker in Wahoo, Nebraska, so we thought we’d make the 55-mile drive from our home in Crete to...
Postmark: Cedar Rapids, IA
This summer, we received a beautiful postcard from the Amana Colonies near Cedar Rapids, IA. The postcard was sent by a friend of ours, Jen Van Winkle and one of her friends, June Biggs. Jen and I have been friends for more than a decade. We met when I was working in...
Thanks, Jim and Kelly
Our friends and neighbors, Jim and Kelly, celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary this summer by traveling back to their original honeymoon destination -- The Black Hills of South Dakota. We were delighted that they would take time out of their anniversary trip to...
Crete’s Great Pumpkin Festival
This weekend, our hometown of Crete, Nebraska, hosted its inaugural Great Pumpkin Festival. It was a beautiful fall day, only made better by the site of a diverse community coming together to celebrate our town. And believe me, there is a lot to celebrate in Crete!...
Postcards from National Parks
Two students from the middle school where I am principal (along with their parents) took what looks to have been a fun trip this summer to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. What a cool surprise that two of my students took time from their vacation to...
Thanks, Meghan!
Our daughter, Meghan, turned 21 a few weeks ago. Sadly, her birthday fell on Labor Day when friends and family were busy with outdoor barbecues and many bars and restaurants were closed for the holiday. Despite reaching the legal drinking age, she wasn't really...
Thanks, Kyle and Shelley!
I'm pretty lucky that as a middle school principal, I get to work with some fantastic teachers. Two of them are Mr. and Mrs. Poore who sent us this postcard from their trip to San Francisco this summer. We've heard for years that summers in San Francisco can be pretty...
Postcard from Tampa
One of my former students from Mississippi, Kalessia, heard about our blog, and sent us a postcard! It was such a wonderful surprise to hear from her after all these years. She was in Tampa on business, but tells us that Florida was as beautiful as always. She also...
Thanks, Jo
One of Steve's colleagues from Crete Public Schools sent us a couple postcards this summer from her vacation in the beautiful Ozarks. Table Rock Lake is an artificial lake or reservoir in The Ozarks of southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas. The lake is...
Thanks again, mom!
My mom has been doing a lot of traveling this year and her most recent trip was to North Carolina to visit her younger brother, Bill, and his family. She had visited my Uncle Bill last fall and had a great time, so I wasn't surprised she wanted to go back. However, I...
Thanks, Melony and Kari!
Lake of the Ozarks is a popular vacation destination for people in our part of the country. You can typically drive there in a day and the rolling hills of Missouri are just beautiful. Last week, we received a postcard from two of my high school classmates, Melony and...
Thanks, Jo and Steve!
Our friends Jo and Steve sent us a postcard from beautiful San Diego, California! They said they loved their time in La Jolla where they watched sea lions at the cove. La Jolla Cove is a beach in San Diego that is ideal for snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, and...
Postcard from Kalona, Iowa
A good friend of mine from high school lives in Iowa now and recently sent us a postcard from Kalona, just an hour south of where she and her family live. They've lived there for years but had never been to nearby Kalona which was settled as an Amish community in the...
Thanks, Mom.
Last month, my mom checked off another popular destination on her bucket list -- New York City. She had always wanted to travel to The Big Apple and had just never had the opportunity. This spring, she got involved in a fantastic lifelong learning organization called...
Thanks, Piper Family!
Our friends, the Pipers, sent us a postcard this week from one of the best zoos in the world -- Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, which is just up the road from us here in Nebraska. This zoo is absolutely amazing and in our opinion, is a must-see U.S....
Our Inaugural Sine Die Adventure: Chicago
Our first ever Sine Die Adventure was to Chicago in 2012. Our daughter, Meghan, and I planned the trip for Ann and she had no idea where we were going until moments before we boarded our plane. Ann had traveled about 45,000 miles (literally) by car for her job that...
Surprise! We’re going to ___________ .
A few of years ago, I told Ann that I was going to plan a trip, book it, pack her bag, pick her up from work and take her directly to the airport for a surprise weekend away. With a horrified expression, she told me that I should never do that because there is no way...
Postcard what?
Postcard jar. That's right. Here's the story. A few years ago, I read a home decorating blog post from Young House Love about saving postcards from places you visit and displaying them in a glass vase. I loved the idea and from that point on in May of 2011, whenever...
Music for the soul
After my appointments today at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Steve and I spent two hours sitting in the lobby of Mayo’s Gonda Building where we listened to Jane Belau play the grand piano for passersby. We’d seen her play before and enjoyed the music, but today was...
A new view of Key West
I'm one of the lucky ones. My grandparents spent winters in the Florida Keys so I've been to Key West many times. I have seen the drag queen lowered in her giant shoe at midnight on New Year's Eve. I've sipped beers in Sloppy Joe's, Captain Tony's and even the Hog's...
We got trouble. Right here in River City.
I'm talkin bout trouble with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool. Do you know that song? The one about the kids in the knickerbockers, shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool-hall window after school? The first time I heard Steve recite...
Nebraska’s Nicest Nine Recap
Earlier this summer, Steve and I took off on a 6-day journey to find out for ourselves if our home state lives up to its new slogan, "Nebraska Nice." We wrote about some of the nicest things we saw -- calling them our 2014 "Nebraska's Nicest Nine." The list was...
Thanks, Mom.
We received our first postcards from a reader this week from none other than my mom, Carol. She had a fantastic time in Mason City, Iowa, the boyhood home of Meredith Willson who wrote one of our families' all-time favorite musicals -- The Music Man. The next time you...
Love me some koh-lah-chee
Cherry is my personal favorite. And it has been since I was a little girl and was first introduced to kolace, usually at the home of my great-grandmother, Olive (Moravek) Rashleigh. She was Czechoslovakian and whenever we got together for family gatherings at her...
Travel Tip #4 – When cruising, book the spa on port days.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy a trip to the spa. I know a lot of men think the spa is "unmanly" but they only think that because they've never been there. Once you get a good, deep tissue massage with hot rocks, you'll put your pride aside and realize that the...
Wilber festival is worth Czeching out.
Polka music, kolaches, and lots and lots of pivo (beer), make the small town of Wilber, Nebraska, the place to be the first weekend in August. Each year, the Czech Capital of the United States hosts thousands of Czechoslovakians (and beer drinkers) for the Wilber...
Nebraska’s Nicest #1 – Innkeeper Jeanne Goetzinger
I met Jeanne Goetzinger several years ago, when my daughter, Meghan, and I were exploring northwest Nebraska. We saw a lot of interesting things on that trip, but none was more memorable than the straight-talking, curly-haired woman who greeted us in the parking lot...
Nebraska’s Nicest #2 – Toadstool Geologic Park
Ann insisted we go to Toadstool Geologic Park on our Nebraska trip because it was such an incredible and unique place. As we rounded the bend into Crawford, Ann reminded me that we had a 19-mile ride on a bumpy road to get to Toadstool. I decided then and there that...
Nebraska’s Nicest #3 – Neon Bar and Grill
The Neon Bar and Grill, located in the Motel Raine in Valentine, Nebraska, makes #3 on our list. Normally, we would not have expected to put a restaurant on our list, especially one located in a motel, but this trip around Nebraska made us learn to open our minds and...
Nebraska’s Nicest #4 – Circle C in Cody
After driving past more than a dozen dying small towns in rural Nebraska, we knew there was something out of the ordinary when we approached Cody, population 155. It's sign read, "Cody welcomes you. A town too tough to die." Many of the towns we had passed on our...
Nebraska’s Nicest #5 – Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park
Ashfall Fossil Beds is located somewhere along Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken" outside of Royal, Nebraska (population 63). The truth is the road to this place should be taken. By everybody. Ashfall, discovered under a cattle pasture, is unlike anything you've ever...
Nebraska’s Nicest #6 – A Kiss on the Butte
Can I tell you something personal? I kissed my wife on the butte. It's okay, though, because there was no one around to see us, and the scenery was so beautiful, I just had to kiss her. On the butte. And she liked it. I know that joke is a little juvenile, but I...
Nebraska’s Nicest #7 – Chimney Rock/Scottsbluff Monument
Any trip through western Nebraska should include a stop at Chimney Rock National Historic Site and the Scottsbluff National Monument in the Scottsbluff/Gering area. I say this, because these are beautiful places with cool history. These monuments are located along...
Nebraska’s Nicest #8 – Wildflowers & Prairie Grasses
Our list of Nebraska's Nicest would not be complete without a mention of the wildflowers and prairie grasses of Nebraska. Throughout our more than 1,200-mile journey across the state, we saw extraordinary displays of colorful flowers growing on the roadsides, near the...
Nebraska’s Nicest #9 – Cody Park
I have to admit, I was pleasantly shocked when I saw Cody Park--I did not expect to find such an amazing park in the middle of North Platte, Nebraska. In my defense, our visit to Cody Park came early in our Nebraska trip, so I had not yet become accustomed to being...
Nebraska’s Nicest Nine 2014
I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled with Nebraska's new tourism slogan, "Nebraska Nice" when it was introduced a few weeks ago. I felt it lacked a certain something and didn't capture all it could. "Nice?" Really? I felt the tourism board could have said "Nebraska...
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
On our way back home from Mayo Clinic, Ann and I stopped in Austin, MN at the SPAM museum. There we learned that SPAM stands for "spiced ham" and there have been billions of cans sold. Believe it or not, the SPAM museum is actually worth a stop. The museum is fun for...
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