Gram, Ryan and Kelsey go to Nebraska City every fall to look at the leaves. Every year, it seems like, we are too busy to go with them. This year, though, Mom, Abi and I finally found the time to go along. We got a hotel room and had fun "girl" time!
Our hotel room
They invited us over to the camper for supper.
Little Miss Major Bedhead :)
The fall foliage wasn't nearly as pretty this year as it has been previous years. Some of the trees were giving their best, though!
We were up bright and early the next day, ready to visit the various apple orchards around NE City.
These are the best donuts, ever!
Since we hadn't been to Morton Mansion for several years, we decided to tour it. I'm so glad we did! Whenever we went there in the past, it was usually with a whole passel of us. When there's so many of you, you just can't get the full effect of everything.
A beautiful stained glass skylight in the solarium.
Dining room
Four floors up, and still one more to the attic!
A "modern" bathroom
An Indian saddle on display down at the stables. No wonder the Indians always rode bareback...
The mansion has a gorgeous circular cobbled drive.
The original driveway
After touring the mansion, we got lunch at Taco Bell, then headed over to the cemetery. We have some relatives buried there, so Gram likes to try to visit their graves.
Kels and Doughy were throwing leaves at Ryan. :)
We tried to get them all to line up for a picture, but some were just not cooperating.
This little cutie was being extremely photogenic!
Then, we tried for family pictures...
The littles had fun exploring the first settlers' cabin (1890) on Morton Mansion grounds.
They were enthralled by this statue on the Mansion grounds.
We tried to show them how the Whispering Bench worked, but they didn't really get it. :)
That afternoon, we went to visit an elderly couple who we were told might know where one of our ancestors lived. They didn't know, but were able to give us a few good pointers on where to look for the property.
We found what we thought was their land, but it turned out to be the son-in-law's. :)
An old wagon was stored in one of the sheds. Our imaginations ran wild...
This tree was enormous! There were boards driven into it. Who knows, maybe a tornado came through at some point, or they were left in a notch in the tree...
This picture doesn't even show how huge it really was!
We did eventually find our ancestor's land. He was the first in that county (I think) to own a windmill. His property still had the windmill on it! Yes, it was a little worse for wear, but it was still there. :) Gram was ecstatic!
We had never had Scooter's coffee, so we decided to try it. Wow. It was simply marvelous! It was way better than Starbucks!
We got home Saturday evening, tired, but happy after our fun weekend. Oh, yes, and the boys were very happy to help us eat those donuts. ;)
