I've had a lot of anxiety about flying on a plane. I've never been out of California, let alone on a plane. Understandably, I was terrified. I left Sacramento International on July 13th, at 9:00AM, and boarded a Frontier flight. The poor man sitting next to me had to deal with my freaking out, nearly hyperventilating and panicking as we hit turbulence coming into Denver (turbulence was bad, as I understand, several people were throwing up around me). Once I landed in Denver, Colorado, I only had around 45 minutes to make it to my next flight, and I practically started running to my next gate, until I realized I was running the wrong way, had to backtrack and barely made it to my flight in time. My next flight to Omaha, Nebraska was much better, most likely because I knew what to expect this time. I was next to a window, and really got to experience how beautiful taking off and landing was.
I arrived at Omaha airport, still shaken up and nervous about being so far away from home. And worse, nervous about meeting Tyler's mother, who I knew was waiting to greet me at the airport. Navigating through the terminals, I finally found Tyler and my welcoming party, and experienced my first awkward silence with his mother. After that, I waited for my bag I checked in with the airline, and we started the 2 hour drive to the hotel Tyler reserved for us. Man, the corn. I've never seen so much corn. From my understanding, most of the crops growing was either corn, or soybeans. When we finally made it to our hotel, I was exhausted.
He put on some kind of little treasure hunt in the room, which was really cute, where he had fixed my engagement ring (the band had broken a couple days before leaving), and gifted me with a locket, complete with a photo that was taken when he visited me back in April. We made chocolate dipped strawberries, and he let me relax and calm down after my emotional day. The room had some jacuzzi tub, which was so funny to me - it took about an hour to fill up halfway, seemed like it was the size of a small swimming pool, and Tyler had... a slight problem with the jets. He turned them on when they weren't covered up by water, and yes... it sprayed all over the place. It was crazy, but extremely funny when I needed a good laugh. Not to mention he slipped when getting out of the tub, which had me laughing even harder.
Early the next morning, we went to grab some donuts for breakfast, and he showed me a park, which we visited several times during the week. It was spacious, and had this gorgeous rose garden. He'd mentioned to me before that it was a contender to a place to get married, and I agree. This park was so big though, I think the park alone was three times the size of any park we have in Rocklin, California. It was really enjoyable, but even so early in the morning, the humidity was making me miserable. Humidity is something I'm really not used to, considering I live in California, where its just HOT. All the time. So, it was a huge change for me. I was miserable for the first couple days, but I think I started to get used to it towards the end of my stay.
Day 2, I had told him that I wanted to get photos for my family back home. So, he took me alongside of the Missouri river (I believe thats what it was), where there was several things to look at. We walked through some little park, and a little area where a couple guys were fishing. Also came across this area with boat docks, and a lone picnic bench by the shore. We walked along a little more and found another little garden, a museum, and a statue of 2 men and a dog, which I assume was important in Iowa's founding somehow. I think he tried to explain the significance of these men to me once time, but I've never been great with history.
He also took me to the other side of the park area, where there was some sort of flight memorial, and where I took this shot of this bridge. The river was moving really fast, and every time I tried to get close to the water, he pulled me away. Then once I really started paying attention to the water, I noticed that it had small whirlpools going around in it, so I thought maybe he was right, and I should really stay away. Didn't help that the rocks around were jagged and looked very easy to fall into the water. But, it was pretty, the humidity was crazy, and there was tons of areas to walk through and enjoy together.
Somewhere in the chaos of the second day, we changed hotel rooms. They had put us in some crappy room that looked from the 70s. It was rediculous. When we changed rooms, he went to get the key and turn on the air conditioning in the room... the first thing he said to me when he came back to me was: "Oh, you are really going to love the new room." I walked in it and yep. Horrible. We only really stayed in this room for a couple days, before we got to change away from the 70s room. The orange and green was a little too depressing for me. It even had matching bean bag chairs, and a broken futon. Really.
Day 3, he took me to... I'm not even sure what he called it. But, it was some really pretty park with a (what I called) a giant pond. Apparently it was great for fishing in, but you couldn't swim in it, or really go in the water. But it was still, probably one of the most beautiful places he took me to in Iowa. It had adorable little piers where you can walk on, and I suppose fish at, but I enjoyed just watching the fish in the pond... from afar.
I took a silly amount of photos of this giant pond, I could not get over how peaceful it was, how still the water was, and the most mind boggling thing of all - why wasn't anyone allowed to swim in it? I still had a great time with just watching the ducks, fish and admiring how green and lush the scenery is. Tyler and I found a good place to sit and talk for a while though, which was really great and calming.
That same day, we went to a really great nature park. It was a museum, then you picked up a map and headed outside in the wilderness for a nature trail. It was really beautiful, and something I've never really done before. I'm not really a nature type of person, and we literally walked a whole nature trail. It was really fun at first, seeing all the weird looking insects and bugs they have in Iowa. I wasn't too keen on him spraying me with mosquito repellent though, but I suppose it was necessary.
About halfway through the trail, the heat and humidity definitely started to get to me. Then about three-quarters of the way through I kept asking, "How much further?", as I huffed and puffed. He took my complaining calmly, and while I loved the trail, I think the route we took was just a tiny bit too long. But, I kept wondering how beautiful the trail would be in the winter, covered in snow. Stunning, I'll bet. But, he kept patiently waiting for me as I slowed down on the trail, carefully holding my hand through it all. It was really sweet.
Day 5, Saturday, we went early in the morning to their farmer's market, and he bought some really good bread. We went a little later to Walmart for some sandwich making supplies and we made a couple sandwiches for a picnic with a movie in the park. The idea of a movie in the park was bizarre to me, I've never heard of anything like it where I live in California. It was just as it sounds. We brought our snacks, a blanket, and bug repellent, laid down the blanket on the grass and watched The Goonies together with a parkful of people. It was really great, he laid his head in my lap and we (supposedly) watched the movie together. He'd seen it tons of times, and I was bored with the movie, but just enjoyed my time with him instead.
Sunday, we took a trip to the lake. It was a long drive, and I couldn't help but marvel at the amount of corn along the way. It was about an hour drive to the lake, and the whole drive, all I seen was corn. I grabbed a photo while he was driving, so it's not the greatest quality, but it still turned out pretty well, I think. There was a TON of corn.
Once we got to the lake, I realized I didn't have any cash for their soda machines. So, I had him go all the way back to the nearest town, so I can use my bank card to purchase a couple Dr. Peppers (2 for the price of one deal! Win!). But anyway, once we got back to the lake, it was an interesting time. We laid down our blanket, our stuff, and realized: the beach is filled with mosquitos. So, the duration of our lake trip was really just me clutching onto him in fear of the giant fish swimming around us, and him trying to catch the fish. I've never swam in such close proximity of fish, I seriously thought they were going to bite me, or swim up my bathing suit.
I didn't get photos of everything we did. I'd never seen a firefly before, so he took me to a park to see them, and I tell you, I've never seen anything more beautiful than the fireflies. They were romantic and exciting to see. We also went swimming at his mother's house, then sat on the floor and watched a movie together. We watched Shrek in the hotel on TV (which ironically, we also watched Shrek in April when he came to California). I got to see a couple deer, just hanging out on the side of the road. Tyler pulled over so I could snap a photo, but of course - by the time I got out of the car, they were gone. And, I experienced the most tasty fast food place ever - Taco Johns. And the best take out ever - Townhouse. So yummy. I keep telling him he needs to ship me Taco Johns via US Mail because we don't have them here in California. We had a really sweet date night as well. We dressed up in formal wear, ate from Applebees, and it was a really cute idea.
The day before I left, I was extremely emotional, and I didn't want to leave the hotel. I knew I didn't want to leave, and I was having a really hard time with it. It got worse as him and his mother were taking me to the airport, all I did was cry almost the whole way. I tried really hard not to, but I could not help it. He walked me almost to the security checkpoint, and my crying was worse than ever. And once I thought it couldn't get more worse, he started crying too, which set me off even more. I partially joked that next time he came to California, we were going to drive to Las Vegas and elope, and then forced myself to go through the airport security. I cried the whole time I was waiting for my plane. The whole time. I forced myself to stop crying when I boarded, and was okay on the plane. In fact, I was much calmer on the plane back than I was on the way to Omaha airport. I stopped in Denver once again on the way back, and go figure - the plane was delayed. I cried even more at the Denver airport, until I was finally able to board to come back to Sacramento International.
I really enjoyed my week long stay there. Somewhere during the trip, I really fell in love with Iowa. It has houses with charm, peaceful landscapes, good food, no congested traffic, beautiful fireflies, family oriented activities, and I felt really at peace there. I'm looking forward to the day that I can live them permanently with him, and do the activities we did during the week on a regular basis together.
