Mary Ann and Dick Azinger of DeWitt, Iowa, became travel consultants of a sort when they learned that Jaycie Jo, 11, and Patrick Dennison, 13, were coming for a visit from their home in Canyon Lake, Calif.

Jaycie was nearly 4 and her brother 5 when they moved to California from DeWitt.

Because they had been Mary Ann’s first two day-care charges (both were 6 weeks old when she got them), the families kept in touch. “Patrick was just starting kindergarten, and it broke my heart when they moved,” Mary Ann says. “They were like grandkids to us, and we’ve seen them every year since they left, most recently in California in June.”

During that June visit, the Azingers invited the brother and sister to come to DeWitt since their aunt would be able to drive them to Iowa after a family reunion in Colorado. The 2 1/2-week vacation in DeWitt would be a grand way to celebrate Patrick’s 13th birthday, they all decided.

The children’s father, Steve, was the longtime track and cross country coach at Calamus-Wheatland High School, and mother Pam taught at Horace Mann School in Bettendorf.

Right away, Dick Azinger, a former teacher, and his wife decided that the two young people should prepare a daily journal of their visit to the Midwest.

Both he and his wife began thinking of places to take them while they were here. “Patrick received a new digital camera for his birthday, so he took pictures of all the activities we shared,” Mary Ann says. “Dick also took photo after photo, and then he made a separate photo scrapbook for each child, incorporating their daily journal entries.”

How do you plan a schedule of perfect attractions for a couple of young visitors? “We wanted to take them to places that were typically Midwestern,” Mary Ann says.

Dick’s scrapbook poem was titled “The Visit,” and he signed it “Papa” because that is what the kids called him.

Here are some rhyming excerpts from “The Visit”:

“Maa-a-a-ay Ann and Papa had been waiting forever it seems for a visit from two young friends who were often in their dreams.

“Patrick and Jaycie were coming from far, far away for what we hoped would be a memorable stay.

“Nearly three weeks filled with tastes and sights of times past: ‘Pete Joe’ and the ‘Wild Child’ were coming back to DeWitt at last.

“Almost couldn’t believe our eyes when their Aunt Jane’s car pulled into the drive. We whooped and hollered ‘cause we’d doubted those two would ever arrive.

“Certainly didn’t take long for them to find their old favorite places: The pool, the basement and the school yard’s wide-open spaces.

“Mary Ann had been wracking her brain to come up with unique things to do. Putting her mind to work, it wasn’t long before she’d decided on quite a few.

“Riding up four stories high in a ladder truck’s’ bucket proved a treat that even Papa, who’ll soon turn 71, thought was pretty neat.

“One of our first adventures that met with high acclaim was our visit to the Maquoketa Caves — a place of some fame.”

The poem goes on to explain that they picnicked at the caves and rode the Blue Heron boat on the Mississippi River at Folletts, Iowa, to look for bald eagles, cormorants and roosting turkey vultures. They watched the dancing waters in the fountain at Vander Veer Botanical Park in Davenport, went to Dubuque for the Fenelon Place hillside elevator and to the River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, taking their tips from Quad-City Times columnist Bill Wundram’s article about Dubuque.

“We really liked watching the Backwater Gamblers on the Mississippi — a troop on water skis,” Dick wrote, following in rhyme with “Their tricks on those pieces of wood, so daring and precise, could not help but please.

“Whether forming pyramids or doing a back flip, we were in awe as they performed with hardly a slip.”

The poem tells of watching the Summer Olympics on TV together, going to the Iowa State Fair and what they saw there: The eight-horse Budweiser beer Clydesdale hitch and a fire-breathing robot.

He wrote of a golden anniversary party at the Fairyland Ballroom in DeWitt and of Mary Ann and Papa’s 46th anniversary. The poem concludes with lines about their trip to O’Hare International Airport and wound up with:

“As much as we’d enjoyed our visit to Iowa and the town of our past…

“It would be great to see Mom and Dad again. Our flight couldn’t go too fast.”

Shirley Davis can be contacted at (563) 282-2281 or sdavis@qctimes.com.