While we were visiting my parents in Iowa, we got to take Sydney and the kids to some of my favorite parks and nature preserves in the area. One of them, Hickory Hills, I remember as the place where some friends and I dunked a canoe full of guys who had tipped our canoe during a high-school field trip, and I also remember it from a much earlier time, when Adam and found a snake and salamander for our elementary school’s show-and-tell. Now Nathaniel and Katherine are forming their own opinions. Thus far: they like the many flowers along the path, and they wondered why Dada disappeared into the woods for so long (he was following birds).
Erin
Alan Schmierer
Those guys definitely deserved to have their canoe tipped.
My mom used to take my brother and me on picnic lunches to Hickory Hills all the time in the summer. They used to have 2-3 American Bison there, so Kristian always called it “Buffalo Park”. When I take the back roads home, I always think of it fondly, before turning in front of your little old house from childhood, which also brings back fond memories.
They still have the bison! Katherine and Nathaniel were a bit nonplussed by them (a deer? a cow? what is that thing?), but we eventually got them sorted out.
Our visit to Hickory Hills was on a perfect day! No pests! No ticks, no fleas, no chiggers, and no mosquitoes!