We rolled into Charles City around 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon and immediately headed for Melrose Place located on Blunt St. just a few blocks from Main St. and two blocks from the Cedar River. Most of the houses in Charles City are big and old with really grand front porches. Melrose Place was no exception. My Aunt Carole greeted us and gave us the tour of the house, including their new, gorgeous kitchen that had only been completed a week before (a five month project total). In the meantime, Carter arrived home from school and in classic Carter style excitedly asked if there were “steaming cookies” waiting for him on the counter as he had made a special request the day before.
After picking up Nicholas at the high school we headed back to Main St. and to the only café in town –Aromas- to grab coffee’s and hot chocolates. Aromas was quite big and very homey. Almost has the feel of hanging out in someone’s living room. From Aromas we made out way to the offices of Melrose Insurance where we said our hellos to Uncle Mark who was comfortably situated in his corner office overlooking the street. From there, Nick and Carter headed home (safe and walkable are two excellent features of small town America) and Aunt Carole, Caleb, and I headed to the salon where A. Carole works – Classy Styles to check out her digs. U. Mark met us at the salon (another convenient feature of the small town – not many places to look for someone) and we headed back to the house to prep for dinner. U. Mark had purchased some amazing looking pieces of Iowa beef for our feast.
Carter headed to football practice at 5:30 and about an hour later A.Carole, Caleb, and I were sitting field side watching him practice his QB skills in preparation for a big game on Sunday. Carter has quite the arm - he informed us after practice that the coach told him they were going to start including “hail mary’s” in their play sequence because he is such a good distance thrower. It was really entertaining to see a bunch of fifth and sixth graders in full football gear (with shoulder pads 4 times as wide as their heads) running plays, tackling, and celebrating in typical NFL fashion.
The sirloin that U.Mark marinated and grilled to absolute perfection was some of the best meat that both Caleb and I have had in a long time. It was fabulous. I think the two of us together must have eaten almost an entire cow.
Throughout the years, U.Mark has always played the role of official family videographer. We settled down after dinner for what turned out to be hours of entertainment – watching clips from our family vacation in Montana this past August as well as breaking into the archives. Caleb got to see me at the height of my teenage awkwardness and we also found the all time favorite Guesstures moment (it’s a tradition that we play this game at family gatherings) caught on tape when my Mom so eloquently and hilariously tried to act out “pipe”. We still talk about it to this day. There proved to be other surprises on the tape as well which I won’t go into in the interest of protecting the pride and integrity of our family.
We spent the following morning between Aromas the coffee shop and Classy Styles hair salon where A. Carole had some clients, including me as her last one around Noon. Luckily, both A.Carole and U.Mark were able to rearrange their work schedules to free up their afternoons so we could get lunch and go for a hike (the weather was amazing). We headed to a town about 15 miles from Charles City (through other smaller towns and corn fields) to Osage where we ate lunch at a little pub charmingly name the “Teluwut”. Below is Caleb with his “Big Mouth Vinny” – he ate every last bite in about 2 minutes flat.
After lunch we hiked along the Cedar River and out into some open fields dotted with farms, silos, and wild turkeys. We stopped at a picnic table at an overlook and rested while sipping on some wine and chatting. The sun was illuminating the fields and farms behind us and the knee high grass was rustling in the warm breeze. A very beautiful, peaceful countryside surrounded us.
We arrived back to Charles City just in time to quickly stop by U. Mark’s parent’s house. They have a lovely spot overlooking the river and just down the street from the swinging bridge – which we sadly could not walk across because it’s under construction. It was great to finally meet U. Mark’s parents – incredibly, this was our first meeting. Although I felt like I knew them already because I have always heard so much about them.
We grabbed Carter from football and Nick from the house and headed to the Mexican Restaurant in town. Although, aside from Nick and Carter, the rest of us were so full from lunch we could barely eat more than a few chips and salsa.
(I randomly want to mention the Honey Crisp apple. A. Carole introduced them to me during a supermarket run. I had never heard of them before but they are delicious. If you can find them at the store I highly recommend that you give one a taste.)
Post dinner, we had stopped at the video store and randomly picked up the movie “Next” starring Nicholas Cage and Jessica Biel. What a weird combination. The premise of the movie turned out to be an interesting idea – a man who can see two minutes into the future. The execution fell short.
After saying our goodbyes we headed to bed (thanks to Nick for giving up his room for us) with plans to be on the road by 6 am. Good bye Melrose Place and thanks for a wonderful stay.
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