Dubuque

If anyone jokes about Iowa, they probably joke about Dubuque, too. Doesn’t the name put pictures of pigs in your head? I don’t know why. I have never seen a pig in Dubuque.

In the maximum heat of the summer of 2007, my husband and I spent a day in Dubuque. It wasn’t long enough. My son came over from Platteville for the day and showed us around a bit. We toured the Mines of Spain – a strange name, coz I don’t remember any mines and the only thing Spanish about it was maybe that the heat felt like we were in Mexico. I guess there were lead mines in the area as early as 1800 and somehow or other at that time Spain owned the land around what would become the city of Dubuque, even though it was a Frenchman by the name of Julien Dubuque who settled the area along the Mississippi.

Ah, the Mississippi River. That doesn’t remind us of the French or the Spanish. That makes us think of Mark Twain, so we toured the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. Toured a riverboat, saw lots of fish, watched the otters play.

We finished our day by taking the Fenlon Place Tram to the top of the bluff overlooking town. Then we went to Olive Garden for dinner.

the cats

Don't know what happened to Wednesday's and Friday's blogs this week. I put them out and now they are gone. I am getting ready to leave for the weekend, again, and just don't have the energy to post them again. I'll be back at it with bells on come Monday! In the meantime - pictures.

Betty and Fred - Fred is looking way too friendly, and Betty usually is not that aloof.

Alice and Ches - Ches is waaay bigger than this now, and Alice hasn't grown at all.

The Iowa Countryside

Who really ever goes to Iowa on vacation? Don’t knock Iowa. There really is a lot to see. Of course, if you have been following my travels, you know it doesn’t take much to thrill me.

The summer of 2007 my husband and I took a short trip north and a month later took another short trip south. Himey has a brother who lives in the Quad Cities so we spent one night with him. Good thing, because the car started acting up on the way down and John was able to take it to his mechanic for us the next day. While he was doing that, we borrowed his mini-van and drove to Nauvoo, Illinois.

I couldn’t believe Himey was willing to go back there after the miserable time he had driving through Illinois a few years before. He is either a sucker or a really good sport.

Nauvoo is very neat. If you like Williamsburg, Virginia, you would like Nauvoo. The buildings, the history, the stories. You feel like you stepped right out of the buggy into the 1800’s.

On the way there, we found a cool covered bridge over Henderson Creek. On the way back, we found something even cooler. Ok, maybe not cool. How about bizarre?

Fort Madison is home to Iowa’s maximum security prison. It is this huge ancient fortress, the oldest prison west of the Mississippi. Just looking at it from the outside causes chills to run up a person’s spine. But here’s the crazy part. Someone built a mini-golf course/ice cream parlor not 50 feet from the north west corner.

So do parents in Fort Madison say, “Come on kids, let’s get a hot dog for supper over next to the prison. Maybe we can watch an escape.” Actually, the walls of the quaint food stop were covered in newspaper articles of prison escapes. Very nice décor.

Lost

Here is Nick, age one and a half, the summer he spent at my parents'. My mom took a picture of him, dressed just like this, walking through the woods with my dad and his dog. We all just loved that picture. And it seems to have disappeared off of the face of the earth.

1987 was way before digital photography, so you wouldn't think those things could possibly happen anymore. Not in my world. Right.

As I have been sharing all of my travels with you these last months, I have scanned into the computer the pictures of these travels. At long last, in 2006, I got a digital camera. Ah-ha, no more scanning. Don't I wish. It appears that a great deal of the pictures I took between 2006 and 2009, once I had them printed the old-fashioned way, I deleted them from all digital media. What is wrong with me?

Just now, as I was allowing myself to distress about the situation, I read this blog posted by a friend of mine. Wow, just the thing I needed to read right now.

It just never fails to amaze me that God is paying attention to measly useless me. I sure have no right to complain about a few lost pictures.

Scenic Buildings

Every city has their own “favorite son”, someone who has made a name for himself, become famous, someone who has done his town proud. For Superior, Wisconsin, that man was Richard I. Bong. Thus, when my husband and I spent a few days in Superior in 2007, we had to visit the Bong Museum.

The actual name of the facility is the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center. It is a tribute to the men and women who fought so valiantly in World War II. There are exhibits of the Korean War and the Vietnam War as well. It was an interesting place, and would probably be even more fascinating to the military buff. I just don’t like dwelling on things like war very much.

The only other building we toured that summer in that city was Fairlawn Mansion. Now, I now I told you all about this place once already, so I am not going to go back over it. I am going to remind you though, that, there is still a story brewing in my head. Someday I promise to write about those orphans.

Scenic Waterfalls

Gooseberry Falls State Park in Minnesoa. The next stop on our short vacation of 2007. And another hot day. I suppose I can’t blame all the many other people who were visiting Gooseberry that day for wanting to play in the water, but gee whiz, for the second day in a row I had to muster lots of patience to get any pictures sans tourists.

By the next day we had figured it. We bounced out of bed at some ridiculous hour – ridiculous for vacation anyway – and went to the next waterfalls before eating, or showering, and before anybody else was up and about.

Nature the way it was meant to be – just me and my camera in the woods all alone, seeking out a new waterfall.

At 165 feet tall, Manitou Falls is the highest in Wisconsin. Located in Pattison State Park, it is a short walk to view from either side of the river. The problem is that the view is not that great. I really don’t want to sound like I am complaining, because I much rather have the natural trees in the ravine and a poor angle than have some colossal eyesore of a structure jutting into the gorge allowing me the perfect photo op.

Scenic Superior

I already told you all about my major travel with Val in 2006. So suddenly, I am up to 2007. It is July 29, a Sunday morning, and Himey and I are heading to Superior. I have this three day trip planned, like usual, down to dollars and hours, and Himey doesn’t have a clue.

First thing to surprise him is the big sign coming into Superior advertising the Bong Musuem. I told him I planned on going there the next day. He thought I was pulling his leg. But, just like Himey, you will have to wait a day to hear about it.

We stopped at Amnicon Falls State Park just outside of Superior. A pretty place, but way too many people on a Sunday afternoon. Rather hard to take a decent picture of the Falls when kids and their parents are playing in it.

We got to our hotel in time to check in and headed right back out for supper. We found a little family restaurant, Julie’s, the food was pretty good and our waitress was super. The only problem was it was warm in there, but hey, it was hot outside, so really what do you expect.

The next morning, at the usual crack of dawn, we rolled out of bed and downstairs for the free continental breakfast. If you have stayed at many Day’s Inns, you know it truly a hit or a miss. Some are simply dumps and some are pretty decent. This one – well, it was ok, a little old and musty, and if I remember correctly one wall was a solid mirror, but at least it was clean and we didn’t plan on spending much time there.

We were on the road by 8:45 am, heading to Split Rock Lighthouse. My husband had never been there, and from his reaction, he hadn’t seen pictures either. Split Rock Lighthouse, to me, is the epitome of the perfect lighthouse. Set high on a rocky bluff above Lake Superior, it is the classic cylindrical shape, several stories tall and made of brick. The look of it says romance, history, a thousand stories, some happy, some sad. And my sad story is that with my digital camera just a year old, I managed to delete all the best pictures.