A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The most unbelievable winter weather here in Iowa lately, today was 58! It is the rarest of treats to have a nice January, sure I'll be complaining loudly when the inevitable blizzards arrive, but what a wonder to have today. I first woke up and wanted to pull the covers over my head, but got up and put the sheets in the washer just to avoid temptation of slipping back into bed. I was dreading taking the girls to the dentist, but all for naught, they had great check ups, no work needed, and since we were downtown, we parked and walked down to the river to see if we could spot an eagle. No eagles today, but a beautiful walk. The university campus is right in the middlle of downtown--I started school at Iowa State in Ames, where the campus is a completely separate entity from the town and had quite a shock when I transferred to U of I here, kept looking at my campus map and wondering why on earth French class was upstairs from a jewelry store. We got a nice photo of the Pentacrest (I am standing in the shopping area taking the photo--the university is still on break, thus no people around), some river views and just a shot of my favorite restaurant in town, Givanni's.