Our nephew, Ryan, graduated from high school this year (gulp!), and we wanted to celebrate with Dan’s family in Iowa.
The trip centered around celebrating Ryan – Dan’s brother, Mark’s, son – but the trip also gave us a chance to meet Dan’s coworkers from Ruffalo Noel Levitz, and catch up with Dan’s college roommate D.J. and his wife, Deb.
True to Digmann travel, we squeezed in every experience possible.
Our trip to Iowa was filled with good times and plenty of fun, but it never would have happened if we weren’t prepared. To help you plan for your next trip, here are some travel tips that have guided us as we prepped for the countless road trips we’ve made over the past two decades.
Oh, yeah. I also included some of the fun pics from our trip back to the Hawkeye State 🙂
From travel tips to Iowa pics
Great grad. Us with our nephew Ryan (the whole reason we made the trip back to Iowa!).How it started. Less than three hours after we arrived in Iowa, we went out to dinner with some of Dan’s coworkers. His company is based in Iowa, and he works remotely from Michigan. Dan has worked there for six years, and this was the first time he’s ever met four of these five colleagues face-to-face.Nancy and Roger Day. We’re never in Iowa to be able to take Dan’s parents out for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, so we spent one evening treating them to dinner at Tyler & Downing’s Eatery in downtown Anamosa.Great morning, Java Jones. We spent one morning with Dan’s parents and his sister, Dawn, and her family at a coffee shop in his hometown of Monticello. It’s one of two places we HAVE to visit because it has the best coffee and scones.Three Knights at McOtto’s. We spent our last evening in Iowa going out to dinner with Dan’s college roommate D.J. and his wife, Deb. They all attended Wartburg College together, and it’s always great to see them and hear the three of them relive stories of their days as Warburg Knights. And, yes, McOtto’s is the other restaurant we HAVE to visit to get our fill of their Canadian bacon and sauerkraut pizza.Is this heaven? Dan snapped this pic on our last night in the Hawkeye State and summed it up best when he posted it on social media. “Nothing feels more like home than an Iowa sunset.”We are family. During Ryan’s graduation open house, we got this photo with the whole Digmann family.Sister and brothers in arms. I’m not sure who’s happier: Dan when he’s with his older brother, Mark, and younger sister, Dawn Arnold, or me seeing the happiness on their faces.Take that, Multiple Sclerosis! A Couple Takes on MS took on traveling to Iowa.
