Quad Cities Week One

It's been a great first week in the Quad Cities!  We had a really fun weekend checking out the area, and this week it's been pretty much business as usual with work for both of us.  Though it's not Durham by any stretch of the imagination, we have found some fun things to do!

On Saturday afternoon, we visited a place that we spotted on Day 1, Lagomarcino's.  This place had me at hello.  Lagomarcino's is an old time ice cream parlor and soda shop.  Their tag-line is "travel back in time at Lagomarcino's", and I have to agree!  It was SO COOL!  It's been family owned and run since 1908, and they carry all kinds of old-school lunch counter food, sodas, sundaes, shakes, and homemade candy.  It was a fabulous weekend treat.

The adorable street view

Lunch counter & soda fountain

The tile floors, tin ceiling, mahogany booths, glass candy cases, and Tiffany lamps are all original!

We tried the famous hot fudge sundaes.

I mean, how cute is this place?

That night for dinner, we tried a Thai place we had our eye on called Lemongrass.  It was SO CUTE and modern inside!  I do not understand why there was a 1.5 hour wait at Chili's and Texas Roadhouse, but this place had only 10 customers and no wait on a Saturday night.  Oh well... more for us.

Brent had the old standby - Pad Thai, and I had Gra Pow - ground chicken in a spicy garlic sauce with green beans, green peppers, carrots, and onions and topped with a fried egg.  It was truly delicious!

After dinner, the weather was beautiful, so we went and walked along the river.

On Sunday, we tried out a church we found driving around:  Harvest Bible Chapel.  We actually loved it!  We put on the visitor card that we're new here and don't know anyone, and a pastor personally called me this week to introduce himself and welcome us.  Very nice.  I've also received calls this week from my sweet friends and my sister, all of which made my day!  Life is good!

Things the Lord is teaching me this week:

• To enjoy my friendship with my husband and not take it for granted.  I'm so, so glad I get to be here with him and see him every morning and every evening.  I love going to new places with him, and he's truly my best friend.  I love all the little things we do like drinking coffee, taking walks, watching TV, playing Words With Friends, and going to bed at the same time, so I'm trying to enjoy and savor them.
• To live in the moment.  When I first got here, I cried a lot, and the time here seemed to stretch forward infinitely.  I've always been one to look forward to the "next thing", but I feel God telling me to just rest in the here and now.  He has relieved my mind from thinking too much about the past or future, and let me focus on now.  Yesterday I was even like, "oh yeah!  We have a great house back in Durham!"  I hadn't even thought about it for a while :-)