What a fun weekend we had. It was parents weekend where William goes to college, so we headed down on Saturday morning to Ames to go and visit him. We were a little worried about the weather that we might get on Saturday and Sunday, so we packed about 3 times more stuff than we needed. We packed clothes in case it was warm, in case it rained, and in case it was cold. Well, at the end of the weekend we did get all three types of weather, but what we didn’t get was the storms and tornadoes that they were also predicting.
The first thing for the weekend was the football game we had tickets for. And even though the Cyclones lost, it was still fun! And I told Daryl that I even was half way understanding the game. We got there just in time for the beginning of the game and it sounded like we missed all wet weather of the day. The sun even came out later during the game to warm everything up.
Iowa State football game
We met up with William after the game and brought in more supplies for his room. We did end up taking some things out of the room and back home with us, so that’ll give him a little bit more space. They have so much ‘stuff’ in there, that he said that they blew the fuses on the dorm floor. I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but he looked a little proud when he was telling us about it. We walked around the campus because Daryl had never had a chance to tour it before , and I never had seen the new fitness center before.
William giving Daryl a tour of the campus
It was getting close to supper and with it being parent’s weekend, we knew that finding some place to eat was going to be a challenge. We checked into our hotel and off to find a restaurant we went. There is a place that we like to eat at when we’re in Ames, so that was the first place we headed to. The place was packed. It was more than packed! There were so many people outside waiting to get inside to eat we thought that there was no way we’d be able to get seated in any near future. But I went inside anyway to check it out and soon we were on the list. They said that it wouldn’t be too long for us because we only had 3 in our party and not like the other parties of 13. The restaurant specializes in smoked food and we found out that on a busy week they can use over 23,000 pounds of meat and have seated 17,000 people. Amazing isn’t it? I forgot how much ice cream they also serve, but on most of the tables there were ice cream glasses that were once filled with malts. OK, so after we ordered and they brought us our food, we died laughing on how much the small platter of ribs were that I ordered. I usually (or never) order ribs because they are way too messy, but I thought I would that night.
Even though we laughed how much food we got, we ate most of it!
Once our bellies were full, back to the hotel for the guys to watch a baseball game on TV and I called it a night. In the morning we had some time to kill, so after dropping William back off at the dorms we went to a nearby town – Boone, to check out when the next train rides were leaving. I love trains and any time I can get a chance to ride one, I want to take it. There was one that was leaving fairly soon , but it was a picnic train ride and we didn’t have anything to eat to bring with us, and didn’t have time to get anything either. I’ve been on the picnic ride before and let’s just say it’s so much more fun when you have tons of food to share.
Some of the trains waiting for the next rides
So back to Ames we went and found a movie theater and a movie we wanted to see. We ordered the large popcorn and drink and thank goodness we didn’t order the tub of popcorn. It must have been HUGE. We ate all during the movie and took the rest back to the car with us.
I made Daryl hold up the 'large' popcorn and pop. It lasted us through the movie and all the way home
It sure seemed like we sure ate a lot this weekend because off to another restaurant we went before the afternoon concert that William was in. The concert was really nice and it was also fun to see William sing again.
The Iowa Statesmen Choir
After the concert we headed back home. When we got home everything was just fine and it even rained some last night. Even though it’s nice to be home after a busy weekend, it was also nice just hanging out with William for a couple of days.
Parent's weekend - 2012