. Segars Stories: Trip to the Hawkeye State... Iowa!!

Our friends Keith and Kim got married last weekend in Kim's hometown of Fort Madison, Iowa so we, as well as several of our friends, took the 8 hour car drive southwest to Iowa. Our friends Mike and Sara rode with us and it was really nice to have the company because my goodness it was a boring drive. The drive through Illinois in particular was so flat and unpopulated that we felt like we never drove through a town and saw lots and lots of farm country. We learn about the Midwest farmland in US history class but I got to see it first hand and once is enough :)

Drive through Illinois - I even caught some farming in action

We got to Iowa on Saturday around 2:30 pm (Iowa is an hour behind so we actually got there at 3:30 pm eastern time). The first thing we did was head to the pool to meet our friends because the sun was out and ALL I wanted to do was lay by the pool!! I had been feeling very pasty white so I was dying to get some color. We had a really great time just hanging out, sunbathing, chatting, swimming, and enjoying a beer or two. We had to eventually drag ourselves away and get ready for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding itself was in Fort Madison but the reception was at a resort in Burlington, about 15 minutes away. The resort had a water park, casino, arcade just like Dave and Busters, restaurants, hotel, and event halls all in one. We stayed across the street from the resort at a hotel but all of our friends stayed at the resort so that's where we spent most of our time.

The rehearsal dinner was at an adorable old-fashioned bakery in quaint historic downtown Fort Madison. They had rented out the entire place for the night and it was lovely. We sat with our friends and enjoyed all the food and a lot of laughs.

Here's my sweet husband steaming my dress - that steamer was a wedding gift and it's great!

At the rehearsal dinner

Caroline, Tom, Steve in the background, and Sara - good times

That night we went back to the resort and spent most of the time in the casino. I actually won $20 on the penny slots!! Woo hoo!! John played some blackjack and also won $20 overall so we had some good luck. The next day we spent all day at the pool again and I did end up getting some good sun. We also checked out the waterpark but didn't go on any slides or anything. It was nice because Kim had invited some of her MUSC classmates and two South Carolinian couples came - it was so nice to see them because we knew them and it made us feel like we were back at home with those accents :) After a day in the sun we got ready for the wedding, which was a Catholic mass, our first ones. It was interesting, very different from what we're used to, and it was an hour and a half long (!), but the music was really nice and it went very smoothly.

Groomsman Tom

Kim and Keith!

The reception was also different than your typical southern wedding because it was a sit down dinner. I really liked it though because we got to experience what you always see in movies with the wedding party at a head table - we have never been to a wedding that had that so it was nice. They also had a variety of cheesecakes instead of a traditional wedding cake which was delicious! We had a great time dancing and goofing around with each other on the dance floor. After the reception ended, most everyone wanted to go back to the casino so we went with them and basically watched everyone else play craps, which was fun to watch once I understood all the rules. Since the reception ended at 12 we didn't end up going to bed until 2am. We really had a blast with everyone and enjoyed the long memorial day weekend vacation.