Old Man River!

It is a chilly night along the dark, beautiful Mississippi.  We are in Dubuque, Iowa for a long weekend.  We are exploring the areas where Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois meet.  It's a very hilly, forested area, and absolutely beautiful.  We should have some good pictures to post when we get back home to our home computer.  We drove up here last night (Friday), after work.  It is about 200 miles from where we live.  So far, it has been a great mini-vacation.  We were hoping to see the fall colors, but we are just a week or two too early.   I can imagine that the colors here will be amazing.  It definitely feels like fall.  This weekend has been cloudy, cold, and drizzly.

This morning, we went to the Port of Dubuque and saw the National Mississippi River Museum.  It was a very cool museum.  Part of it is a river history museum, with lots of good steamboat stuff (I love steamboats).  They also have a lot of live animal displays, with aquariums showing the huge fish that live int he river, and the other animals that live along the banks.  They have a lot of animals, actually, from sharks to otters, The also have a temporary display of lizards right now, although that doesn't have much to do with the river.  There were displays about the modern barge industry, and some of the flood control projects along the river.  Outside, in the harbor, there are some boats to see, including a huge old steam-powered dredging ship.  We went all the way through that, and the highlight for Asher was "driving" it from up in the pilothouse. 

After the museum, we drove to Galena, Illinois.  It is an old lead-mining town from the 1800s, and it was home to Ulysses S. Grant.  His house is there, and the hotel that was his presidential campaign headquarters is still in business.  Galena is a beautiful town, and very touristy, but in a kind of low-key, non-tacky way.  The town is built on very steep hills, with lots of streets replaced by staircases.  There were lots of really tasty-looking places to eat.  For lunch, we had some of the best pizza we have ever had.

In the afternoon, we came back to Dubuque.  Dubuque is a very old town, and has plenty of beautiful old mansions and church steeples.  We rode up an incline railway from downtown to a neighborhood on top of the bluff.  It is pretty much unchanged from when it was built in the 1800s.  It is similar to the inclines in Pittsburgh, but smaller, steeper, and much more rickety.  The view from the top is amazing.

We also went to a high bluff over the river north of town, and watched the river until it got dark.  We saw a paddlewheel sightseeing boat go through a lock and dam, and just took in the sights.  We are having a great trip so far, and can't wait to post some pics.  Tomorrow, we are probably heading north up the river, up the Great River Road on the Iowa side, then down on the Wisconsin side.  On Monday, we are going to play catch at the Field of Dreams.  You know, from the movie!