Q: Is this heaven? A: It’s Iowa.
The title of this post is taken from a baseball movie made in 1989 called Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones. The film takes place in Iowa and is about a farmer who is convinced that he needs to build a baseball diamond in his very profitable cornfields.
Well Marc and I made a trip to
Iowa City, Iowa – also home to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes – to see one of our friends get married. Matt and Rebecca (pictured to the right) are both from Iowa and met at the University of Iowa, so it only seemed appropriate that they decided to hold their celebrations back where it all began. Iowa City is definitely a college town, and we were told that the population swells from 30,000 to 60,000 during the school year. We actually met up with Matt, Rebecca and some of the other wedding attendees at a bar that played songs that I don't think I heard since I graduated Oswego back in 1993. Oh yeah, check out what Marc's company has on the Hawkeyes here.
Matt INSISTED that we check out Kinnick Stadium (home of the Iowa football team) while we were in town, which we did. According to Matt's father, the stadium was recently renovated to include luxury boxes and press booths. It's a pretty nice football stadium – at least compared to any other D-1 college football stadiums I have seen. Another tidbit – the stadium was named for Nile Kinnick, a player who won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and graduated with distinction because of his excellent grades. Unfortunately he was killed during a Naval training flight during WWII.
The other cool thing we checked out while in Iowa was the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, about 10 miles east of Iowa City. Now the only thing I knew about our 31st President was that he had the unfortunate luck of being in office during the Great Depression in the early 20th century. What I learned is how this man really took a leadership role in trying to end world hunger during WWI, amongst other endeavors. The most striking thing to me was the "Child's Bill of Rights" (scroll down) that he created while he led the American Child Health Association – no longer in existence. He cared a great deal about the welfare of children and put programs in place to reduce disease and famine. Unfortunately because of the time he was President of the US, he lasted one term and his reputation was in shambles.
But he turned his legacy around by really getting involved in what is now known as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and by also being asked by the 33rd President of the US (Harry Truman) to assist with famine efforts after WWII. At 71 years old, President Hoover went to 38 countries to avert mass starvation in war ravaged countries. This is before the time of luxury private jets and such. Pretty cool. Thanks to Mike G. for telling us to go check it out!
Back to the wedding – the weather cooperated in the sense that it was about 10-15 degrees cooler than we expected, which was nice. The reception had lots of crazy dancing and I think Marc was truly scared that I knew all of the words to the song "Billie Jean" from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Fun times. Anyway – congratulations to Matt and Rebecca, who are probably sunning somewhere in the Pacific. We look forward to having you guys come and hang in Seattle soon!
Well Marc and I made a trip to
Iowa City, Iowa – also home to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes – to see one of our friends get married. Matt and Rebecca (pictured to the right) are both from Iowa and met at the University of Iowa, so it only seemed appropriate that they decided to hold their celebrations back where it all began. Iowa City is definitely a college town, and we were told that the population swells from 30,000 to 60,000 during the school year. We actually met up with Matt, Rebecca and some of the other wedding attendees at a bar that played songs that I don't think I heard since I graduated Oswego back in 1993. Oh yeah, check out what Marc's company has on the Hawkeyes here. Matt INSISTED that we check out Kinnick Stadium (home of the Iowa football team) while we were in town, which we did. According to Matt's father, the stadium was recently renovated to include luxury boxes and press booths. It's a pretty nice football stadium – at least compared to any other D-1 college football stadiums I have seen. Another tidbit – the stadium was named for Nile Kinnick, a player who won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and graduated with distinction because of his excellent grades. Unfortunately he was killed during a Naval training flight during WWII.
The other cool thing we checked out while in Iowa was the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, about 10 miles east of Iowa City. Now the only thing I knew about our 31st President was that he had the unfortunate luck of being in office during the Great Depression in the early 20th century. What I learned is how this man really took a leadership role in trying to end world hunger during WWI, amongst other endeavors. The most striking thing to me was the "Child's Bill of Rights" (scroll down) that he created while he led the American Child Health Association – no longer in existence. He cared a great deal about the welfare of children and put programs in place to reduce disease and famine. Unfortunately because of the time he was President of the US, he lasted one term and his reputation was in shambles.
But he turned his legacy around by really getting involved in what is now known as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and by also being asked by the 33rd President of the US (Harry Truman) to assist with famine efforts after WWII. At 71 years old, President Hoover went to 38 countries to avert mass starvation in war ravaged countries. This is before the time of luxury private jets and such. Pretty cool. Thanks to Mike G. for telling us to go check it out!
Back to the wedding – the weather cooperated in the sense that it was about 10-15 degrees cooler than we expected, which was nice. The reception had lots of crazy dancing and I think Marc was truly scared that I knew all of the words to the song "Billie Jean" from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Fun times. Anyway – congratulations to Matt and Rebecca, who are probably sunning somewhere in the Pacific. We look forward to having you guys come and hang in Seattle soon!