Is This Heaven? No, It's Iowa.

If you don't recognize that post title, it's a line from Field of Dreams!

It is a cold, windy, damp night here in Central Iowa.  We are back to normal life after our little mini-vacation to the Dubuque area.  We had a great time!  We did a lot of exploring around the area.  I mentioned in the last post what we did on Saturday.  Here are some of the pictures:

                        Asher and I with the huge paddlewheel in front of the National Mississippi River Museum

Mark Twain!

Asher "driving" the huge steam dredge

 Sarah and the mystery baby aboard the old steamboat

 Here's a view of Galena, Illinois from Ulysses S. Grant's House

 Galena Main Street

Sunset at Eagle Point Park in Dubuque

 Here is the some views from the top of the quirky, old-fashioned Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque (very, very rickety, but amazing)

On Sunday, we drove up the Great River Road in Wisconsin, which curves up and down through the bluffs.  The trees were starting to change, and it was absolutely beautiful.  We drove up to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, then crossed back into Iowa.  From there, we went to Pikes Peak, which was the original "peak" Zebulon Pike named after himself, before he found the much bigger one in Colorado.  This one is actually a bluff, but one that rises hundreds of feet straight up from the river.  The view is great from there.

We went for a little hike on Pike's Peak, checking out the woods, a few more river viewpoints, and one of the only waterfalls in Iowa.  The drive back down to Dubuque was beautiful, with lots of winding roads, big hills, and thick woods.  Someday, I would love to ride it on a motorcycle.

On Monday, we headed back to Des Moines, so I could go to class, but not before stopping at the Field of Dreams, the site where one of our favorite movies was filmed.  Amazingly, it was exactly, exactly like it looked in the movie.  The owners have done an amazing job of maintaining it, and keeping it free for people to just show up and throw a ball around.  Other than a little souvenir shop, they haven't tried to commercialize it.  You almost expect players to start appearing out of the tall corn.