I did not go anywhere special this past weekend like I had planned, but I did get to try kayaking for the first time.  My friends came down to a local church camp and I got to paddle around the lake for a while long enough to get a blister!  I loved it so now I meed to figure out how to load one all by myself onto my car and then also figure out how I will get the money to buy one.  My mom was visiting so she took the picture for me.  After kayaking, we decided to stop by our favorite little shop outside of Gladbrook, IA, but it ended up being closed.

It is the cutest store filled with things to decorate your house with for whatever season is coming up and also food items such as soup mixes.  It is located out in the country just west of Gladbrook, Iowa, on Highway 96.  In the picture below it’s a bit hard to tell it’s just a small shop next to a house where I assume the owners live and is surrounded by farms.

My last random adventure this week was the Tama/Toledo recreation trail.  I took a few pictures last night while I got in a bike ride as the sun was setting. I was trying to go during a cooler time since Iowa is experiencing 90 degree weather again. I’m not sure I would recommend it because of all the bugs I was constantly having to swat at.  However, it was fun watching the sun set on the way home.

The powers that be have finally finished connecting the trail after they destroyed it while building the Highway 30 bypass around Tama/Toledo.  The really nice thing is I can begin on the trail by Toledo Heights Park and end up at Cherry Lake in Tama.

As you can see it’s mostly a limestone path with brief areas that are paved.  At the Toledo (IA) start it follows the  creek for a ways.

and then goes under the new Highway 30 over to Tama (IA).

The trail then takes you past the high school and goes alongside the golf course into downtown Tama, IA.  I stopped before I got to the lake but am sure I will get some shots of that on another slow day.  I’ll leave you with some wildflowers I enjoyed on my way.

I changed the formatting of my blog so would welcome comments on whether you like this better.  So far I’m liking it, especially the white background.