Weird but Good

Hello everyone (at least everyone who is still checking our blog). We will pick up our activities where we left off at the Java House sipping our coffees. We have a few more things to share with you about the vacation phase of the end of our trip. After our delicious delicious coffee from the Java House, we set off to cook dinner for our parents since our Mom had spent the whole day teaching. She had requested that we prepare tilapia filets and also told us that there were peaches in the fridge that needed to be used. We decided to make up a recipe for peach chutney to accompany the tilapia and it turned out to be quite strange but delicious. This “weird but good” food situation seems to have been a theme on this trip. Things that fit into this “weird but good” category: hippie bunny fruit snacks (Ruth says “speaking of weird but good gummy fruit snacks, I could go for some of those right about now), garlic and herb flavored cashews, peach chutney, chocolate mint tea, cherry salsa. After dinner, since it was still about 100 degrees outside at 9pm, we asked our good friends the Stensvaags if we could come for a late night swim in their pool. John Mark and Nancy are always wonderful hosts and were welcoming to us even though they were recovering from all the activity of their son's wedding that past Saturday (the same wedding we attended). When we got home there was a new episode of the bedtime story for us that Ruth actually stayed awake for this time.

Next day...Wednesday. Ruth and I actually did some work. We got up and went to the church to do touch-up recordings for our CD. We also recorded a silly vocal version of Ben's piece since it was Ruth and Ben's anniversary and she wasn't in Hartford with him. She later emailed it to him as a joking anniversary present. Our recording session went surprisingly smoothly. Ruth says “just call us 'one-take Bergmans'...or maybe not.” On our way back from the church we were singing along to the song “Tiny Dancer.” Ruth confessed she had always thought the lyrics were “lay me down in fields of granite. I had a visitor today,” which is actually kind of the opposite of what is actually going on in the song. Ruth also took several pictures of me singing along to the song emphatically, but they will not be posted on the blog. That afternoon we had high tea at a wonderful little restaurant in Iowa City called “The Leaf Kitchen.” We found out that everyone was more lady-like than me, including Philip, mostly because I was a failure at cutting my scone without creating a mess. Our tea time at “The Leaf” included two large pots of tea (we got Ginger Jasmine and Chocolate Mint), tiny bowls of cold eggplant-tomato soup, curried chicken salad on crustinies, scones with accompanying jam and whipped cream (no, it wasn't clotted cream), flourless chocolate torte, chocolate toffees, and fruit. We felt quite decadent and satisfied.

When we returned from tea, there were flowers waiting for Ruth from her husband. They were very pretty and were her favorite colors. 

Nancy Stensvaag had actually invited us back to swim that day since it was 110 degrees. It was very refreshing and we got to meet some other people from the neighborhood who had also congregated at the pool to cool off. Here are some pictures of us having fun in the pool: 

After the pool we headed to the farmer's market to get a few things for dinner and also for me to get Iowa sweet corn to bring back to Minnesota. When you grow up in Iowa, no other sweet corn compares to that from your homeland. I have often been called out on my pretentious taste for sweet corn, as has Ruth. Then Ruth bought an enormous pile of kale to make her famous raw kale salad to go along with our dinner. Right before we got home we stopped by our neighbor's house because they had a free futon mattress up for grabs. Philip needs one to take with him to grad school so he and I carried it down the street to his van.

When we got home, Ruth began to teach Philip how to make the kale salad because it will help him to seduce cool hippie girls. He was quite pleased with the prospect. While they prepared their womanizing salad, I started frying eggplant for an eggplant parmesan, which is one of my specialties. Our last dinner with our family in Iowa City was farmer's market fresh and quite delicious! After dinner, we played a card game, and then our parents went bed as the children stayed up playing video games and then watched a movie late into the night. When the movie was over, we heard the sound of rain pattering on the roof and I was quite pleased. However, it didn't rain very much because our mother had told too many people about the powers of the Rainmaker and there was too much pressure on me. My hope is that the rain continues after we leave as it did in Ohio and Minnesota.

This morning we had a lovely breakfast outside on the patio because it had cooled off slightly from the rain the night before. After a leisurely morning with a few final rounds of Crash Team Racing, we met up with our Dad for lunch at Lou Henri for some famous onion rings. Ruth had devil eggs (Huevos Diablo...not to be confused with deviled eggs). Also, Dad and Philip both got giant pork tenderloin sandwhiches as can only be found in good restaurants in Iowa. You know us Iowans...we love to eat pork and sweet corn. After lunch we had to pack and say goodbye's so that we could hit the road back to Minnesota since Ruth is flying back to Connecticut from the Minneapolis airport tomorrow afternoon. Now we're on the road somewhere near the Iowa/Minnesota border. We're looking forward to eating dinner with Jessica and Charles in a couple of hours.

Here is a video of Philip narrowly beating Ruth at Crash Team Racing. Enjoy: