<p>I can't believe I am packing up my college sophomore to go back to Iowa City tomorrow! I remember last year at this time, we had a flurry of posts going on discussing taking our new freshmen to school. Everybody ready? We are. </p>
<p>Any suggestions for the best place to buy a mattress in Iowa City? Decided it would be a lot easier to buy one there.</p>
<p>Izzie - we must be getting jaded in our old age :). We too are getting ready to take our D back to Iowa City for the fall semester. A little less excitment this time around but much more work. We actually moved her into her new apartment along with her roommates a couple of weeks ago and then came back home. We’re going back to Iowa City this Wednesday to drop her off for good.</p>
<p>Anyway, we purchased her new mattress/box spring here in MN at a local Slumberland store and then, by the miracle of electronic commerce, had the Iowa City Slumberland deliver the bed to her apartment. Worked great. Even better, they delivered the bed within 15 minutes of the time they told us they would. We were impressed.</p>
<p>Hope all is well with your student and the students of all the other parent posters on this blog. Best of luck to everyone. Here’s hoping all grades are “A’s”.</p>
<p>B10P</p>
<p>We also were recalling last year’s frenzy and uncertainty, and what a nice change it is this year (to be taking sophomore son down). Even paying the U-bill is a piece of cake (ugh).</p>
<p>And, happy to say, son is more self-reliant. Packed his own stuff, ordered his textbooks - wow, they may actually arrive on time? - and is ready to go. No $300 trips to Ikea or Target. We head down today, Monday. Apparently he wants to be with his friends and to head to Des Moines for the Iowa State Fair. Not the sort of thing I was doing when I was his age but thankfully his interests are more wholesome than mine!</p>
<p>We are optimistic for a great year. All grades A’s? Hoping half are A’s! </p>
<p>All the best to everyone heading to IC, new and returning.</p>
<p>You guys sound so much more organized than we do. We’ve been on vacation and got back Saturday and he wants to go today so I’ll be spending the night and we’ll do more shopping there in his college town instead of our college town. We went to our Target yesterday and it was wall to wall college kids so I imagine Iowa City will be the same.</p>
<p>Here’s to a great year for all our kids!</p>
<p>We moved DD into her apartment on Friday. The apartment building is brand new and the units are beautiful. </p>
<p>This year we all had a great time. No stress because she didn’t have any fear of the unknown, she knows her way around campus, loves her roommate, and is ready to hit the books. She also found out that she got a research job in a lab for the year and is so excited to begin. </p>
<p>We stayed the entire weekend (I had to make sure that her apartment was decorated before I left). 
Hopefully her roommate will enjoy all of the extra touches I added to their nest!</p>
<p>There is an AMAZING Southern BBQ place that just opened on Burlington around the corner from Gilbert. I met the owner when we were moving our daughter in and he’s from Mississippi and his entire family works there. The nicest people you’ll ever meet. The pulled pork is outstanding and the fried catfish is incredible. The restaurant is cute so stay for lunch or dinner and relax after a long move-in day. </p>
<p>Best of luck for the new school year!</p>
<p>Great to read all these posts – will need to check out the new BBQ place! </p>
<p>I am here in IC helping our kiddo move into a house – lots of trips to Walmart, etc. since we are from the West Coast. </p>
<p>Izzie - We got a mattress from Lebeda, over in Coralville – had ordered over the phone so it was waiting here. It looks pretty good. I do not think they stock much locally – I think they pull nightly from a warehouse somewhere. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone and to your Happy Hawkeyes for a great school year! Go Hawks! (and Illini too!)</p>
<p>Got back late last night from Iowa City. We probably passed each other at the Walmart, rwe! We were making the rounds of Walmart, Target, Office Depot, Staples, Scheels, etc. Got him all moved in to his apartment which is a great location but I wasn’t digging the concrete floors and the $780 parking spot. He’s happy though. We also got his mattress at Lebeda. Picked it out and loaded it in the back of the van and brought it home - just pulled up to the Pods out back where they store them. Slumberland only had the high-priced mattresses in stock.</p>
<p>I saw the barbecue place, lmk2, but we didn’t go there. We will have to try it another time. My boys wanted pizza so we went to the Airliner.</p>
<p>We had one bit of drama when I realized right before we were leaving home that both the cars we were taking had expired license plate stickers (since the end of June) and of course the license place is closed on Monday so we couldn’t renew before we left. Ended up sending my older son, who came with us to help move, back to Moline to renew them on Tuesday morning because we couldn’t register for the parking spot without a valid registration. So all is well.</p>
<p>Izzie, </p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your license plate sticker glitch. Thankfully it worked out!</p>
<p>Moving DD in was fairly easy, we moved her in before the rush and parked the U-Haul truck in the alley next to the door. However, Apartments Downtown wouldn’t allow the tenants to use the elevator to move in so we had to carry all of the boxes, mattress, and furniture up many flights of stairs. Thank goodness we are all in good physical condition or it would have been a nightmare! </p>
<p>We will be dining at the BBQ place when we visit over Family Weekend. I’m not a meat eater but I will make an exception when there is real Southern pulled pork, and this restaurant is truly Southern. :)</p>
<p>Here’s to another great year.</p>
<p>Go Hawkeyes!!!</p>
<p>Thanks, lmk2, it was my own fault, I just spaced on renewing them. We have too many cars (I know, whitewhine.com) and I renewed the one in May and forgot about June.</p>
<p>Anyway, my son also rents from Apartments Downtown and it sounds like they are universally hated as landlords but pretty much have a lock on all the property close to campus. I have heard to not really plan on getting your deposit back. Oh well, I consider it money already spent anyway. I can’t believe you couldn’t use the elevator. My son’s building doesn’t have one but he thankfully just lives on the second floor.</p>
<p>The new BBQ joint is in a location with bad juju, I think. Over the course of the past 6 years or so, it has been a Greek restaurant, breakfast place, then tornado damage, mexican restaurant, bar, now southern BBQ. I hope they can make it.</p>
<p>Izzie,</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I’ve heard the same about AD. My DD and her roommate plan on living there until they graduate so we don’t plan on getting their deposit back. That’s why we didn’t worry about hanging their flat screen and hanging pictures. It would cost as much to hire a painter to repair the nail holes and paint. </p>
<p>I try to keep a glass half full attitude so even though we had to climb many flights of stairs with heavy furniture, we did gain a lot of muscle and worked off all of the calories from the BBQ and wine that hubby and I drank in our hotel room! :)</p>
<p>Haystack,</p>
<p>Let’s hope that the new restaurant breaks the bad juju spell!!</p>
<p>I’m hoping my son stays there for the next 3 years because nobody wants to move his sofa ever again. It might have to go out over the balcony. :)</p>