We have been in Estherville since Monday and every single day since then it has been cold and raining. We have kept inside for the most part, just unpacking and painting and making several trips to the neighboring town - to Wal Mart.
It was finally sunny yesterday so I set out on foot to photograph the neighborhood! I just walked a couple of blocks in each direction and came upon all of this:
This is our house! We are renting the first floor. The second floor is vacant.


Walking a block back behind our house brings us to this crazy awesome looking building. The 6th Street Emporium! It is "for sale" and not open. How amazing is that whole building??



Walking a block over takes us to a group of 6 sets of train tracks! Also - the amazing view of Fort Defiance State Park. The Iowa DNR website says this about the park:
"Fort Defiance State Park's 191 acres of rugged woodland provide a beautiful contrast to the gently rolling surrounding farmlands. The park's trails, picnic areas and scenic overlooks provide a great place to relax. Its lush cover of vegetation includes hawthorn, plum, locust and many species of the state tree - the oak. In the spring, the slopes are speckled with trillium, bloodroot, hepatica and violets. A small prairie with native grasses and flowers, including the endangered prairie bush clover, thrives on a secluded knoll."

Even abandoned things are beautiful here. There are a lot of abandoned things here.

This is exactly the kind of place I'd dreamed it would be.



Our local coffee shop - Cool Beans!

The old Gardston Hotel. It now holds city offices. We went in here to put the electricity in our name and get our recycling bin.

We went here last night and were given free Bazooka Joe shots. Red Bull, Bacardi Limon and Grenadine. It really did taste like the gum!

This town is artistic, even if it is on accident!

The whole reason we are here... Iowa Lakes College! Although, this isn't the actual school building - this is just one of their Administrative buildings.

Glorious!

Our landlords own quite a few properties in town. They own a furniture store, homes that they rent out, and also this building! It is currently a thrift shop but the shop is moving out due to a leaky ceiling. Our landlord gave us a tour of the building, including the whole upstairs area. It was crazy up there!! Maybe I will be able to take some pictures and share them later. The building comes with a lot of stories of it's history as well!

For such a small town, they have an amazing looking Library! I can't wait to go in. I'll probably go today!

This kind of building reminds me of my hometown.

Evan and I drove up and down the road, looking for the Post Office. We kept driving right past the building because it is this building. We didn't expect it to be so amazing looking. We thought maybe this was the court house.

When you look up Estherville in Google Images, this orange building is one of the only photos that you get!

I'm even impressed by their trash cans. It's a very clean little town.

This is our landlords furniture store. Everyone seems to know them when we talk to other people in town!

Going behind buildings uncovers more interesting details.

Junk! What a contrast to the beautiful forrest.





Evan said "You're wearing that??" to me when we were heading out to the bar in the evening. Black jersey dress, floral leggings and silver Toms. What's wrong with that?
Someone there asked me if I was a ballerina.
I feel very happy and welcomed in this town and am excited to call this my home for the next to years! EVERY single person we have met so far has been incredibly friendly and warm to us. Literally, every person. That is just awesome.

See the full set of my images here on Flickr!