Our nephew is running across Iowa for a cause! Starting in March 2022, Anthony Kinley will run 333 miles across the state to raise funds for the Austin Smith Inclusive Playground.

This spring, John and I did a Midwest road trip with the Honda Pilot. Our destination was his niece’s high school graduation in his hometown in Eastern Iowa, and our the overall goal of our journey was to introduce me to other Bollwitt family members that I haven’t met yet — in 10 years of […]

Photos and write-up about a visit to Maquoketa Caves State Park Iowa

It’s become a tradition for John and I to return to his hometown in Iowa to ring in the new year. During our winter visits, we usually do our first photowalk of the year, sliding around the ice-covered streets and crunching through knee-deep snow. Winter 2009-2010 in Iowa When we arrived this time around, we […]

Beat the Cougars! the poster-sized sign read as it clung proudly to the front of the supply store on Main Street. I was heading to my first high school football game and it was homecoming no less. John and I spent ten days back in his hometown in Eastern Iowa and although we mainly worked […]

This afternoon I grabbed my new Nikon D90 and we bundled up for our third annual ‘first photowalk‘ of the year in Anytown, USA – otherwise known as my husband’s hometown in Iowa. The sun peeked out and began to melt piles of snow that quickly re-froze as solid puddles, causing my less-than-adequate soles to […]

During our trip to Iowa this time around we made it to the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville. Tour bus loads of baseball teams, families on picnic blankets, and old friends playing a round of catch all flock to this site made famous by Hollywood. Although it was the first time I felt […]

It’s hard to describe the beauty of the rolling hills covered in hundreds of hues of green that smell of freshly cut grass and sweetcorn here in Iowa. I wasn’t able to snap photos of every piece of scenery but heading from the freeway the asphalt gives way to limestone concrete that covers dusty yellow […]

Monday turned out to be far more productive than anyone thought given the previous day’s festivities on the Fourth of July. We hopped in the car and headed East into Dubuque for lunch at the Dubuque Star Brewery. Located along the Mississippi and heavily populated by mayflies (aka fishflies) the old brick building that once […]

Yesterday I experienced my first Fourth of July in Iowa. The skies teased with raindrops every few minutes but luckily by noon, when the parade began, the sun had peeked its way through the grey blanket of clouds above. We sat along the side of the road in John‘s hometown as other families with tarps, […]