26th Wedding Anniversary Recap and other coffee ponderings.....

As I set here on Christmas Eve morning, looking at the plates of Christmas treats, I am enjoying a peaceful cup of coffee before the visitors stir.  The first Christmas in the new house.  Because our children are at the age where they NEED to work on the holidays to take advantage of the extra pay, they will be trickling in and out throughout the next four days.  Chris and Kara are here from Cedar Rapids last night through today.  Jordan will be here tomorrow afternoon with the Dodson Clan.  I can't wait to see and FEED them all.  Since Bailey lives here and her place of employment is closed the next few days, she will be enjoying all the comings and goings of everyone as well.


The sun is just rising up over the roof lines and casting a bright yellow glow on my kitchen wall.

Even though the grass and leaves are in hibernation, I still love the crispy bite of the early morning.  Frost on the deck, breath fog escapes from your nose and mouth and the sharp sting of the inside of your nose freezing.  I guess I am always supposed to be a Midwest Winter Girl.






Last weekend Curtis and I ventured to Davenport to celebrate an early anniversary.  We splurged and stayed at the Hotel Blackhawk.  It is this beautiful refurbished New Orleans style hotel.  The staff were incredibly friendly and the rooms were beautiful.  As I always do, I asked for a FREE upgrade from what we had booked and paid for through www.hotels.com  - One of my favorite sites and I now have an app on my iPhone - "OF COURSE" said the very friendly desk clerk.  So we got a two room suite.  

This is the room when you walk in the door.  Couch on one side of the room, desk on the other.  Hooked to the desk is a flat screen television in case you and your guest want to watch two different things apparently.  There was a fully stocked minibar to the left of the couch.  Quite nice.

Stepping in to the next room, are the very comfortable beds, a walk-in closet and of course a luxury bathroom.

Beautiful walk in shower that I would like to duplicate in my own bathroom.

And a television in the mirror of the bathroom!  It really doesn't take much to impress me because I am used to cheaper hotels, but this was really cool.  Watching sports updates or the news while getting ready?  HEAVEN!!

We started to explore the hotel and discovered in the basement - a martini bar and bowling alley.  It was very retro and very well decorated with soft neon.  The bar was really cool and we found out is a hopping place at night.  We went back after our evening activities and couldn't even get in to the place they were so packed.

After we investigated the hotel, we set out walking in downtown Davenport.  I could not have said that 26 years ago when we were first married.  Walking around in downtown Davenport would not only have been dangerous but STUPID.  However, they have done A LOT of work to rebuild this area and it is quite pretty.  Business looks like it is still being conducted and restaurants seem to be very successful.

Of course we found a local brewery:  Great River Brewery.  When I saw the outside, I expected this larger area similar to a Granite City type brewing company.  NOPE!  A very small, biker type bar with pretty good beer.  I was pleasantly surprised and very glad to support a local company.

Gotta love those iPhone self portraits!  If Apple could invent a long arm app (to hold the phone out), I would download it.  Otherwise my chin (or should I say CHINS) always seems very LARGE in these types of pictures.  But this is us sitting at the bar at the brewery.

From there we walked down town a bit more and then headed to dinner at "THE BIX".  The hotel restaurant.  Amazing food.  So good that we forgot to take pictures of our anniversary dinner.  OOPS.  But trust me....my pasta and Curtis' steak was some of the best food I have ever eaten.  YUMM-O!

Our next adventure was to trek to the East Davenport Art District and find my friend who is an amazing artist and watch her do her thing.  She is a painter however, has an amazing twist on it by taking photos of her work when finished.  She paints live models.  I am lucky enough to own a couple of her photo pieces and wasn't sure what to expect for the live show.  WOW!  I couldn't take pictures.  BUMMER!  She paints a back drop canvas first.  Then when she is finished with that, she brings out her model or models.  Then proceeds to paint their skin, their hair, their faces until their entire bodies are covered.  When they are then the same patterns, colors and shapes as the back drop, she poses them into various pictures.  It is really quite amazing.  Here are her websites:  http://durbinedesigns.wordpress.com/?ref=spelling

and

http://www.etsy.com/shop/durbinedesigns

Some time when you are here visiting, make sure I show you the finished results.

After that, we headed back to the hotel and decided to call it an evening.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Curtis got a chance to reminisce in his hometown.  I was able to see my friend Nicole do her amazing art work.  And we celebrated another year.  It was a year of MAJOR changes for us.  Hopefully this next year will be a bit quieter, but I have a feeling that it is just the beginning.......thinking WEDDING!  YIKES!