Czech on an 8-Track

When you are a local from South Dakota, you call it SoDak. Justin and I spent the weekend in the rockin town of Yankton, South Dakota. We flew into Omaha airport; it was my first time there, and I was overwhelmed with how HUGE that airport was! I think it took about four minutes to walk from our terminal to baggage claim. We even stopped first in the souvenir shop. Then we drove with Justin's two brothers to Yankton. In case you don't know where that is, it's in the SE corner of South Dakota, almost in Nebraska, and almost in Iowa, but not quite. They just built a new bridge, and let me tell you, it is the talk of the town. We drove over it twice, once at night and once during the day, to get the full effect. Justin's parents threw a very lovely wedding party for us and I FINALLY met Justin's extended family. They are hilarious, I love being in this family. I also met the doctor who delivered Justin, he was Justin's neighbor. One of the highlights for sure was visiting Justin's grandpa Podzimek (most of Justin's relatives have crazy last names. Hochstein is relatively calm.) His grandpa is 93 and his mind is as sharp as a whip. I'd bet he knows the capitol of Djibouti. He told us stories of growing up speaking Czech (his grandparents were immigrants), and my favorite story took place in a department store in the early 40s. There was a monkey in a cage in the store who was making faces at him. Grandpa didn't like that so much, so he walked up to the monkey and spit in his eye. He then got out of that store as quickly as possible. I like Justin's grandpa. We rocked out to Czech music on an 8-track player. All in all, Yankton was beautiful, the weather was great, and being with Justin's family was priceless.