Flooding and Fun

We escaped Des Moines this weekend to head up to Minneapolis for a trench party. What's trench you ask? Don't worry I'll get there. First though I have to add some of the pictures we took on the way there and the way back of flooding in the state. Now we took I-35 which hasn't seen as much flooding as the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids area. So there are no pictures of building underwater. But there are a ton of pictures of what look like lakes until you see the fence tops or trees sticking out of them. Here are just a couple pictures to give you an idea. 

These were taken from the car, so sorry about the medians. I didn't really want to stop and gawk. This last picture is an image of my office building. This river is normally at least half this size. My building is just shortly after the Chinese pagoda. While leaving the office (in an voluntary evacuation) on Friday, I passed more police and state troopers than I have ever seen in one area, the national guard, and the Red Cross. It is a never a good sign if you have the Red Cross, CNN, and the National Guard in your city at the same time. And again we are still far better off than other places in the state. 

Even with all the flooding we had a fantastic weekend. Some good friends in Minneapolis invite us up every year for a trench party. Trench is a modified Dodgeball where after getting hit once the person goes to the "trench" (an area surrounding the other teams players). They can then hit the opposite teams players from behind or the side. If one of the players catches a ball thrown by the person in the trench they are out for the rest of the game and one of their players who was in the other trench gets to come back in. I know a little confusing but it makes sense once you see it. It also makes for a much more exciting game. We always end the evening with great food and video games and normally don't leave until late. Sorry guys. Here are a couple trench shots I took. 

We also started Saturday with breakfast with a friend and then the zoo. Jeff took some great videos and pictures of the animals that I might post later. My favorite is a video of a wolverine moving a huge tree branch. Some of the animals were active and it gave me a chance to see the outside portion of the zoo. I got burnt, again. But the trip was great, filled with plenty of friends.