May 15, 2022

A Stroll Through Mason City, Iowa

 


A Stroll Through Mason City, Iowa
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 15, 2022


Summer arrived to surprise us in Minnesota this week.  It was still winter here only a couple weeks ago.  We celebrated the change of season with our inaugural boat ride on Prior Lake.  


Blue was very excited to join us on the boat, although he was being pretty cheeky for most of the ride.  He recently heard that not everyone is able to roll their tongue so now he's constantly showing off that he can do it.  I just hope he doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.


We stumbled on a turtle party and slowly backed away as not to disturb them.  

They looked like they were having a shell of a good time.


On Friday night, we hooked up with our old buddies, Jen & Dan Walters, to go out for dinner.  We asked where we were going and they said out in the Boonies.  I had no idea this is what they meant.


It was good to see the Walters family.  We congratulated Jackson for his recent college graduation from Minnesota State Mankato and congratulated Connor for his recent win in the Bob Ross look-a-like contest.


On Saturday, I drove down to Iowa for a quick 18 holes of golf with some of my old high school buddies.


We couldn't have asked for a nicer day with the sun shining and the temperatures in the eighties.  I didn't even hate my golf game as much as usual, so that's a day worth celebrating.


I love going to Clear Lake and seeing old friends.  We had the chance to stop at Joel's and see his parents, Dennis & Marsha.


Ron surprised me when he told me they were going to go for a quick spin around the block and he came back with another of our high school buddies, Dancin' Dave Hansen.


Dave was excited to see us and couldn't wait to show off his miniature wiener.  I thought it was pretty cute.


We then drove to Mason City, Iowa and decided to take a stroll through East Park.  I grew up in Mason City not far from here, so it was great to see the Winnebago River and some of my past play areas.  I even found one of my old balls.


This classic train has been sitting at the entrance of the park since I used to visit back in the early 1980's.  Probably a lot longer than that even.  I found it funny that it was all fenced in now.  When I was a kid we had full access and people crawled in every nook and cranny. I'm sure many of the spaces weren't safe for kids to explore which is why they added the fence.  I'd be curious how many children were seriously damaged before they finally said, we gotta lock this thing up!


We ended the day with a visit to one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Northwestern Steakhouse.  It's been operated by the same family since it opened in 1920 and they sure know how to make a steak!


We found it appropriate that our table had a sign celebrating East Park since we had just visited there minutes earlier.  What a crazy coincidence!

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