Welcome to Dubuque!

My husband and I are now in Dubuque, we have been for about two weeks.  It's been a busy time around here getting moved and unpacked.  Of course my fibro chose now to flare as well so unpacking hasn't been as quick as I would like.

Anyway, we are getting settled gradually.  We have a lot we want to do to the house so that will also slow unpacking as we don't want to unpack some items before the area we are going to put them gets finished.  Pictures of our efforts will be forthcoming as soon as I find where I put the camera cord.  :)  It's in a box somewhere.

Yesterday we had our first of 5 classes for the Distinctively Dubuque program.  It's a program offered by the city of Dubuque to help people new to the area to figure out points of interest in the city, how to get involved in various organizations, how to find various services we might need, and various other things you might want to know about a new city.  It was highly recommended by the HR at my husbands new job and we thought it sounded like fun so we signed up.  I am really glad we did.

There were about 35 in our class.  We had dinner, we were welcomed to the city by the Mayor Pro tem, and had a trolley ride around the downtown area up to the Eagle Point Park area to get a bit of a taste of what is out here.  The trolley ride was quite a bit of fun.  We learned about some interesting things from a local, saw some interesting architecture, almost got hit by a train, got to see the view of the river from Eagle Point Park, and learned about an art show that one of the people in the class was a part of.

Almost got hit by a train?  Did you read that right?  Yes you did!  However, that is an exaggeration, we were never in any real danger.  It was more funny than anything.  We were coming to a train crossing and were probably 10 feet from it when the lights went on.  It was one of those situations where most people would just continue on, but our driver hesitated and stopped.  He stopped with the front wheels on the tracks as the cross arms were coming down so the arm hit the top of the trolley.  He backed up off the tracks, the arm came down, and a bit after that the train came thru.  We gave him a little bit of a teasing and it will probably be a running joke thru the rest of the classes.  Had he not hesitated we would have been across the track way before the cross arms came down.  However he did hesitate so it turned into a funny experience.

After the trolley ride we went back to the meeting room where we first gathered and had a talk by a local architect who is on the historical preservation society.  It was really interesting and cool to see the pictures of some of the old buildings before and after their renovations.  One thing that struck me as very interesting/funny was the story of Cooper Wagon Works.  Legend has it that the owner was approached by both Ford and Studebaker to build cars for them.  He turned them down because he thought automobiles were just a fad.  The business eventually closed because of the auto industry and now in an ironic twist the site of Cooper's home is a parking garage.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.  Next week we are meeting at the ice center at the Mystique Casino.  I hope we don't have to ice skate, if we do though, I will be sure to show you pictures of my bruises.  :)