Cedar Falls

This afternoon, Linda and I went for a trip to one of the 100 Places in Iowa to Visit before You Die: the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Until recently, Linda was a resident in this community so it was a nice opportunity to show off some of her old territory to someone who'd never been there.

Before actually going to the dome, we drove through the updated downtown area and stopped at Pablo's for burritos. My distant recollection from high school Spanish class is that putting -ito or -ita on the end of another word often means a smaller version; this time, I have to question whether that's appropriate! These were some large examples of South-of-the-Border eats... and with an interesting twist: pumpkin seed salsa! It was tasty!

Hunger no longer a concern, Linda took a tiny side trip on our way to the dome. This time to see a tree on Tremont street. Lore is that a science teacher planted four trees along the sidewalk leading to the front door. Once tall enought, the trees across the sidewalk from one another were grafted into one trunk each forming two living arches. Once these two trees were tall enought, they were grafted to one another and produced one trunk. Pretty amazing, eh?

The house is currently for sale so we wondered whether the unique botanical would add or detract from the marketability of the property.

Side trips completed, we proceeded on to the UNI-Dome, home field of the University of Northern Iowa Panthers football team. This afternoon, we were going to see the 5-2 Panthers host the 4-4 Western Illinois University Leathernecks. Having seen the Panthers soundly defeat the Drake Bulldogs, we knew they were a quality team; WIU was a mystery. By the half, we'd learned that the Leathernecks were ready for a game as they lead 17-13 on very solid play on both sides of the ball.

In an unexpected move, the Western Illinois Marching Band took the field to open the halftime show. Surpassing that surprise, their musical selections were based on two classic video games: Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda. While the music wasn't familiar, the performance was entertaining.

The UNI marching band then took the field and did an excellent job with their pieces. Similar to Drake's Sometimes Marching Band, the Panthers moved in curves, forward and back, while playing some pretty jazzy numbers. I've had to adjust my expectations and criteria for evaluation the quality of the show. They are interesting and entertaining, I just have to recognize that things have changed since I, with a few dozen musically inclined friends, donned a uniform and "funny" hat to march around a gridiron.

In the end, Western Illinois scored another touchdown and won 24-13 ... but we weren't there for the final act. We'd already moved on to our next activity!