What do I love about summer?  I love all of the great things that are going on every single minute of every single day.  It seems that there is always a festival, an event, a concert, a special thing that is occurring and my goal has been to try to cram in as many “things” as I can in between preparing for our move.  That means sometimes it is the spur of the moment and last minute but regardless of that I have found that there is always something going on.

Bloggers Donna, Sara, Joy and myself

This past Thursday I met up with some of the North Iowa Bloggers in Clear Lake for their Thursdays on Main.  I had been there briefly a previous Thursday when we did the Lady of the Lake cruise on Clear Lake but really did not have time to take it all in so I was itching to go. The event run on Thursdays June 11-August 20.

Small towns have the best events going on and Clear Lake is way ahead in that department.  I have written about many things that I love about Clear Lake over the years but it has been the past year that I have discovered just how much there is to love even more. 

Thursday Nights on Main is a great event that features all kinds of fun things like local gymnastic and dance students performing, food trucks and local vendors with all kinds of great products.  Add to that the night I went one of our blogger friends, Jenny who blogs at My Thought’s Imaginings has a very talented daughter who was performing that night with her husband and it was a no brainer to go be a part of this night.

Everyone loved dancing to the music.

There was quite a group of fans that started to gather close to the stage after I took this shot.

The concert was amazing.  You Knew Me When is a very talented husband and wife one band team (my favorite video of theirs is here) and I have been listening to their albums continually since Jenny told me about them.  They are “home” for a few months and I was thrilled to be able to see and hear them in concert.  Thursdays on Main was the perfect venue for them and everyone around me was really enjoying the music.

Of course I had to sample some great Iowa food truck food and found a fabulous Poor Boy Steak Sandwich at The Iowa Grill which is owned and run by the mom of another North Iowa Blogger, Loni, who blogs at Lifestyles of the Pantsless.  It was as good as it looks and then some.

My sandwich which I doctored up with steak sauce before realizing that it really did not need it

Later Sara shared some of the famous onion rings with me that people wait in line for 20 minutes to get and they were amazing as well. Festival food is wonderful.

As Donna and I were leaving she wanted to walk down by the lake to get some sunset shots taken.  Of course it was a hub of activity but we saw something totally unexpected.

 I have heard since then that this is something that everyone knows about and looks forward to seeing in Clear Lake but it kind of surprised us.  What do you think of  “Toyboata”? Check out the short video.

Toybota in Clear Lake , Iowa from Beth Ann Chiles on Vimeo.