Cedar Rapids: Day 2

Today was filled with ventures and education!

Started the morning off with a nice apple and some OJ. We decided that we wanted to explore the Czech village first of all.

The mural on a wall of a local business in the village. Just happens to be done in the Mucha style which made me extremely happy :)

We enjoyed the local shops and ended up going to the local museum that discussed not only some of the history behind the Czech village, but also had an exhibit about the huge flood that devastated Cedar Rapids in 2008. Which, unfortunately, I had never heard about. I feel ashamed that something to this scale happened and I had no recognition of it ever occurring.  

Main part of the Czech museum

This was the main picture of the extent of the flood. The block in the lower right corner is the Czech village!

This is their recreation of what the typical home looked like after the water had cleared.

The museum was a great way to learn a bit about the history of not only the Czech village but the recent history that brought such a devastating reminder of the force mother nature can bring. After seeing this and talking to the museum guide for a bit, he sent us across the street to the Red Frog for lunch, which was pretty good.

After this, we found a small trail that we used to walk off our delicious meal we just consumed.

Just a brisk 35 outside!

Look mom! I actually had to put on my gloves!

Walked out over the bridge to see the beautiful scenery of the river . 

We decided to take a drive after this and just happened to jump on the 380, which if my memory serves me correct (since it is 2:38 in the morning, I don't care to fact check), is the freeway that you take to go up to Vinton. So, we decided to drive up to the place that I will be calling home for the next month and will be my home base for the next 10-months.

Just a beautiful house on the way to Vinton

My first view of my new home!

Vinton is adorable. It's like we stepped right into the 1950's. I can't wait to explore it on foot

The campus in which will be our home base

I can't tell you how excited I got to see the Americorp sign :)

As we were driving around, I saw that many of the trees where split and broken, which confused me. When I got back to the hotel, I was researching the history of the town and found that some crazy weather had hit Vinton in July of 2011. Apparently a massive wind storm swept through Vinton and caused a lot of damage to the town, including the Braille School. Information Here <<< this site has an article about the storm. I also found a fellow Americorp member who had a blog while she was a member. If you're interested, her blog is HERE. I was amazed that this occurred just months ago. It's a scary feeling when you realize that you are in another state where these things are possibilities. I mean, we have the potential to have crazy weather in San Diego, but it's so unlikely. We have earthquakes....which shake us around for a few seconds and knock down a glass, MAYBE. I've never experienced more than some heavy rain and some amazing lightening storms in my day. I've never experienced a natural disaster that is life threatening. This is so new to me.

After all this driving around and exploring we decided to go see a movie, but we had to waste some time beforehand so we walked around the local mall.

While we were walking around, Jason found a train that, if you paid 50 cents, it went around on the track...SWEET

We ended the night with a viewing of "The Woman in Black" and a subway salad. Good movie and a decent salad.

Jason was tuckered out from the long day :)

All in all, a pretty good day. Tomorrow we may venture west to Des Moines. We want to see more of Iowa. The only down part is it's been pretty weird being a vegetarian in Cedar Rapids. Of the few places we've gone to, veggie options are EXTREMELY limited. Not even veggie burgers! But that's ok, maybe I'm just spoiled in San Diego haha. :) I really like it here though. Everyone we've met so far has been extremely friendly and helpful.