Tag Archive | Iowa

2014 Adventures – Happy New Year!

We come to the end of another year of fun and travel and we have made a list of the places we visited and blogged about. We have been to many places.

We hope you have enjoyed traveling with us. We also hope that if you have not officially been following our blog (email notification, Facebook, etc), that you join us officially today. We get the feeling many of you are reading and not following, I see the evidence in the stats of the posts being read 🙂 Some days we get hundreds of readers. We won’t bite 🙂 Thanks!

My husband Al and myself wish you a Happy New Year and that you join us here for our 2015 adventures.

We Stop for Octagon Houses and Barns!

If there is any building structure we have found interesting and unique in our travels the octagon design has topped our interest list. It was a popular design in the 1800’s and some of these buildings have become tourist attractions. here are the ones we have seen in our travels.

The Milton House

Watertown Octagon House

An Octagon barn near Hillsboro, a common sight there.

Another barn was seen on a trip out to Argyle.

Sometimes the octagon shape was only visible from the inside and just a portion outside. The Larson House in McFarland is an example. It had a room in that shape, three sides visible from the outside. It was the upstairs Master bedroom.

Lastly, we even saw the Langworthy Octagon House during our trip to Dubuque, IA

There are many more to see in and around Wisconsin and our neighboring states. We’ll add them here as we see them!

Port of Dubuque Marina – Ice Harbor Fun!

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The Port of Dubuque Marina has something for everyone and there is a lot to see. We began our explorations at Paddlewheel Plaza. On display is a large paddlewheel from the steamship William M. Black. It is now permanently docked in Ice harbor and is a Bed and Breakfast from April-November.

Paddlewheel Plaza is at the back-end of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, both kids and adults will learn a lot about the river and creatures that inhabit it.

Back behind the museum is Ice Harbor, where you can enjoy watching all the activity in the marina. You can take a cruise on the Spirit of Dubuque from May to October. On our way out of town, I saw the ship out on the river.

The Coast Guard ship USCGC Wyaconda keeps the waters safe in Dubuque.

Also in this location is the Ice Harbor Restaurant, right on the water.

And now we reach the end of this part of Ice Harbor, and the beginning of Art on the River on a walking path. Each year the art pieces change.

Along the walk we arrive at the Grand River Center, the convention center of Dubuque.

We are reaching the end of the riverwalk, and we see the historic Star Brewery building, now Stone Cliff Winery. It is now is a restaurant and museum and now produce wine instead of beer. To the right is the historic Shot Tower, one of the last ones standing. It was constructed in 1856 and lead shot was manufactured here.

This concludes our tour of Dubuque. We really enjoyed the sightseeing and hope to return and take a cruise on the Spirit of Dubuque. This city’s rich history made an impression on us and the residents are very proud of living here and welcome visitors warmly.

Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens – Come Grow With Us!

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We discovered most big cities to the small towns we have visited have at least one public garden for the public to enjoy. Dubuque is no exception. The Dubuque Museum and Botanical Gardens is quite beautiful in mid-summer and was well worth the visit.

Be sure to stop in the Visitor Center for a map of the huge grounds. You could easily spend the day here. They also have apparel and souveniers.

There are gardens of different themes…

Japanese Garden

English Garden

Rose Garden

Even waterfalls are here.

Just some of the beautiful flowers here at the garden.

We had a wonderful visit here. Could not see it all this time but perhaps on a return visit we can see the rest.

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