Beauty of the Ocean…in Iowa

I currently live in Iowa on the Mississippi River. When I was a kid, when trying to learn the state locations, the center of the country was always easy because of the man in the middle. For those not familiar with that teaching, I will explain. The foot or boot(purple) of the man is Louisiana, his pants(green) is Arkansas, his shirt(blue) is Missouri, his head(green) is Iowa and his hat(tan) is Minnesota. Now the face of the man is carved by the Mississippi River and where I live, the river comes across sideways forming the nose. I tease my grandchildren saying I live in the nose of the man in the center, so you know what that makes me. The point I am trying to make is the location of this state. Iowa is one state down from Canada, 4 states from the Pacific ocean, 5 states from the Atlantic Ocean and 3 states from the Gulf of Mexico, so basically we are land locked with the river being our main water attraction, several lakes scatter about. We are one state away from Lake Michigan which acts like and ocean but what ocean freezes over hard enough to drive a truck on in the winter. Oh, and just to throw this out there, I am 4 states away from my home state of Georgia which borders on the Atlantic. I do miss the ocean.

But this area seems to be fascinated with the ocean life, I guess because they don’t get to see it unless they go on vacation.(there are even Christmas tree ornaments) I posted some pictures in an earlier blog about the ocean street art on the railroad bridge in the center if the city. If you missed it, it is here. But last week when coming back through a section of town I don’t go in often I found several buildings of street art, one dedicated to ocean life, real and imaginary. So I though I would share those with you today. I find street art very fascinating due to the image painted and the enormous size.

Then you have the whale, porpoises and the mermaids. Architecturally speaking, I find it interesting how the windows are at angles and protected from the weather.

Below are wonderful pictures, thank you internet, that give a glimpse of true ocean life, an area of life on this planet we have only begun to understand. Enjoy.

And as a daily reminder to myself and anyone else, always try to be kind. You would be amazed how it makes you feel as well as those you are kind to. And staying with the ocean theme, I show you that even ocean animals understand the process of being kind.