July 28, 2012

  • Friday, July 27, 2012

    Friday after I managed to rouse Mr. Poe following his enormous breakfast we headed over to see my Mom's friend Mrs. Moldt.  Here they are hanging out:

    Youngran and Hanna:

    After, we headed over to Dubuque's Botanical Garden which we didn't have high hopes for but turned out to be fantastic.  They had this huge Japanese themed section and it was gorgeous:

    There's a yellow rose named 'Julia Child'!  Bon Appetit!

    Mom, Sam and Youngran and the kids headed back to the hotel and I drove Mr. Poe around a bit.  First stop was the Mount Carmel Convent, headquarters of the BVM nuns.  We walked around the cemetery and I didn't realize it, but all the nuns there were Sister Mary something or other.  Because they're BVM nuns and that's their naming convention.  I was all "We're all Sister Mary here girl!!!"  and Mr Poe was all "We're in a cemetery shut the hell up.  The convent buildings are glorious.  Like so many structures in Dubuque, it's late 19th century in a handsome, sturdy Romanesque revival architecture that works very well here.  Like:

    The view of the river from the convent grounds:

    Then we headed over to the Julien Dubuque monument.  It's nice, but there's more fantastic river views from there:

    Me:

    From there we headed over to St. Columbkille's.  That's the celtic spelling for St. Columba the saint who's credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.  I was an altar boy here back in the day.  Try and picture that!  The church is very handsome and pretty inside.  Smaller than I remember but then everything is:

    We drove around.  This fabulous house is on the bluff overlooking the river:

    The view:

    This is the house I grew up in.  It's been extended a couple of times and I have mixed feelings about the additions but it's still good looking.  The garden my Mom planted is pretty much still there:

    We headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up and then headed to a picnic at lovely Eagle Point Park.  It was a WPA project and many of the structures have a Frank Lloyd Wright feel and were designed by Alfred Caldwell.  You can read more about it here:

    The Collins family.  Hum the theme from 'Soap' while looking this:

    These are the beautiful pavilions in Eagle Point Park.  Love them:

    Mr. Poe and I:

    We got back to the hotel pretty late and then we hung out with the family and then we went to bed.  It was a very long ass day.