Superheroes and a Federal Arsenal

We took Sunday, November 11, 2018, slow and easy.  Jonny and Jennny's church meetings didn't begin until 1 p.m., so we spent the morning playing with Sam, Henry, and Thomas.  Henry wanted to show off his Halloween suit, which he now wears to bed.  It brought back memories of the faux fur caveman suits I once made for Michael and Jonny, which they also wore to bed all winter!

We admire the way Jonny and Jenny center their lives around their LDS church.  Jenny is the secretary for the Primary (children's meeting) and Jonny teaches the 7-year-olds in Primary.  I sat in on Jonny's lesson on forgiveness, during which he had the children take turns wearing a backpack loaded with heavy computer parts, to teach them how emotionally heavy it can feel to drag around old hates and grudges.  Sam is already an expert hand-raiser, answering all the questions the teachers ask.  It is an essential life skill!

 The Mississippi is the artery that pulses life and commerce through the Midwest.  We drove back and forth across the Mississippi yesterday, and today we visited an island right in the middle.

Rock Island houses a federal arsenal, which manufactures, stores, and distributes all sorts of weapons--bullets, guns, and even grenade launchers.  The island became a military base in 1816, to protect the frontier from the Indians, and it is now the home of the US First Army.

We wandered through the national cemetery on Rock Island.  The headstones we saw were for soldiers who served in WWI and WWII.  There is also a confederate cemetery on Rock Island, the only remaining evidence of the huge prison camp on the island during the Civil War.  It was opened in 1863 and housed more than 12,000 prisoners, many of whom died of smallpox and pneumonia.

 We ate dinner at yet another local institution--The Shed Restaurant.  It featured old-time home cooking.  I went wild with mac-n-cheese served with pulled pork--luscious and totally unheart-healthy!

 The next morning, after Sam left for school and Jonny left for work, it was time for Dave and me to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Des Moines, Iowa, to catch our flight home.  We invited ourselves back over the Memorial Day holiday, for another Midwestern adventure with some of our favorite explorers.

We had one more treat in store.  Jonny introduced us to La Mie Bakery in Des Moines when he and Jenny lived there a few years ago.  We stopped at La Mie for lunch, and feasted on its gourmet salads, breadsticks, macarons, croissants, and brownies.