Sorry.
I couldn't help myself.
We had a busy weekend again. On Saturday we headed out to go to Nebraska City to have lunch with my Grandpa B. and Uncle D. They took us to Parker's Smoke House. I thought it was yummy. Peter said it was ok........sauces at such places are never spicy enough for him.
I think he needs to start carrying a bottle of hot sauce when we go out to eat.
Anyway.... then we headed back to Grandpa's house. Grandpa suggested we go over to the Arbor Lodge to walk around. (The link takes you to the Nebraska game and parks web page for a little more info.) I have not been inside Arbor Lodge since I was a wee one. I forgot how big it is. It was built by J.sterling Morton in the late 1800's and donated to Nebraska Game and Parks by his son Joy Morton in 1932. J.S. was a political/ news paper man. It has 3 stories and a basement...and it has it's own bowling alley.
This is also the family that owns the Morton salt company..... that's right the "When it rains it pours." brand. I did not know that until this weekend.
As we walked I wondered what this house was like when people lived in it. The family had 4 boys and numerous other relatives and diplomats that visited them. I could imagine the carriages and horses bustling around the house and yards. It is a very neat place to visit and it is such a wonderful taste of Nebraska history.
Grandpa took Carter outside to play while peter and I walked around. They had the front doors open and we could hear Carter laughing at Grandpa all the way up on the third floor.
We left Grandpa's house after the lodge and went on to Clarinda, IA to my cousin M.'s graduation party. She actually graduated last week from Cozad, but she spent the majority of her summers in IA being a rodeo queen and staying with her grandparents there.....so she had a party over there too. Neither Peter or I had ever been there so it was an adventure to get there. We managed to find the house relatively easy.....I did call them when we were sitting right outside.....just to be sure because I did not recognize any of the cars. We were early so I helped do a couple things to get ready.
M had promised someone who was coming that she would have a horse saddled. So the three of us went out with her to watch . Carter had his first encounter with a horse. He giggled and laughed and had the biggest grin on his face.
Then the ultimate of ultimates......... he got to sit on the horse with M.
They also had an old rickshaw that the kids were playing around with. They took turns riding around. This is M's cousin C......he was pretty cool and took Carter around a couple times.
We left the party after eating some fantastic roasted pork. Good job Uncle Moose! We drove through a nasty storm on the way home. Other than the rain storm it was a beautiful day and we had a great time.
