Small Towns Iowa

Decorah, Fall 2010

2010-10-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

I love the way Decorah is nestled into a bluff. I still think we will end up moving up here someday.

We decided to make our visit a little longer this year, so we headed up to north eastern Iowa a day early, leaving at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning. We arrived well before our partners in crime, the Reids, so we had time to explore the town a little and do a couple things I had had on my list since I was a little girl. One of those, and call me a geek if you must, was to visit the Vesterheim Museum. Yes, I am Norwegian. I love genealogy, and knowing more about the family God as created me through, and seeing these blips about my history was fascinating. I plan on going back again, most likely leaving the kids and husband at the rental house or camper (whatever we happen to be in that trip) so I can take my time and read as much as possible, and check out some of the genealogical resources I know they have but we didn't have the kid/husband patience to see. What we did see was neat, though.

A street shot across from the museum with some beautiful colors of fall

More beautiful fall color


May I just say, thank heavens my forefathers came over on these things and not me, because had it been left up to me and my dislike of boats and water, we'd still be in Norway.

She may be trying out the bunk bed mock ups from one of the boats, but with the way this kid flails in her sleep, there is no way she'd be able to sleep in one of these

This boy has a serious love of miniature houses and villages. He was stuck on them at the fair, as well.

There was a neat quilt display on the top floor, featuring both modern work of those of Norwegian descent and antique quilts. I took several pictures (mostly for my mom's sake) but this one was gorgeous. That is a quilt-piece by pain-staking piece

Spring Grove soda, from Spring Grove, Minnesota. This was the lemon sour, and it was rather good.

This is where we had lunch Friday-the Magpie. The food was very good, made with a focus on local ingredients. I was disappointed-they were supposed to show up to the soup contest at Seed Saver's the next day, but were not there. I would definitely eat here again, and highly recommend the house made chai.

After lunch we drove through Twin Springs park, campground right on the edge of town. You have to go through it to get to where we had dinner Saturday night, and it has a creek running through it, so we thought we'd check it out. In the middle of the park is this house. It looks like a giant gnome house. So whimsical, especially the roof. In the back are a bunch of massive solar panels and the front has a sign that lists that they get their power from sun, wind and ground sources.

The Carolan Guest House is where we stayed for the weekend. Way cheaper than hotel rooms, warmer than camping and far more family friendly, as you rent the whole house, rather than rooms where you can disturb others. I think it was about the perfect size for our two families. Goofy me, I got a picture of the sign but not the house. It wasn't anything fancy, much like grandma's house, but was cozy and definitely a far more fun stay than trying to find rooms in hotels like we did last year.

The kids loved the typewriter-I think all the adults would have been happier had it not been there. It was the cause of several tiffs amongst the young'uns.

So, we took notice of the fact that there were some odd objects hanging in the kitchen for decoration. Like this scythe, which, if zombies attacked, I would be thankful was there, or if I needed to harvest some wheat. Otherwise, um, it was an interesting decorating choice. We especially liked the seasonal foliage that adorned it.

Saturday breakfast-muffins, bacon, apples and oj.

Blue Heron Knittery-definitely one of my favorites yarn stores, and for many reasons. I spent far more than I needed to this year, but I am hoping that it means I have lots of socks made for myself over the course of this winter.

Mmmm, mocha.

We think this was the owner's car, but either way, this town has a serious obsession with that pizza place. Seriously.

And we made it to Seed Saver's right on time.

I love the live bluegrass. Love, love, love it. I hope they keep that feature.

The soup contest. There were supposed to be five contenders, and for a five dollar per person donation you got to taste them all and vote on who you liked the best. This year's secret ingredient was a red kidney style bean. I think it kind of stumped most of hte contenders, as none of the soups were terribly outsanding. It was more like they made a soup, and added beans. The first and last weren't too bad, but I think they all could have been a lot more creative. The husbands weren't thrilled with the secret ingredient as neither is a huge fan of beans in general. A red kidney is not one of my first choices in beans, and I like beans.

Bread from a local bakery-they had it with the soup last year, as well. It is always a nice thing to have on hand when eating soup.

Shots of the gardens at Seed Saver's. I hope to work more of mine into pretty raised beds with paths like these over the years. I have no high expectations of getting it done in one, but it just makes a more enjoyable experience.

At Mabe's. I must admit, since last year, it has grown on me, and I ate quite a bit and actually looked forward to this year, and am now looking forward to our next visit, which may be as soon as December's Winter Festival at Seed Saver's.

The two sit down restaurants we ate at we ended up just getting pitchers of iced tea. Because we're awesome like that.

Tell me that doesn't look good and make you hungry right now.

See all ten of those. Yes, all of those went home in the Reid's car. All of them.

Hanging out at South Bear Creek the Sunday we headed home. We didn't catch anything here, though we saw a lot of fish in the water. They just weren't biting here.

We did end up coming home with 5 nice rainbow trout we caught at Canoe Creek, which was just north of Seed Saver's. It was an easy walk-in creek, and one we may have to take the Reid's along with us to next time, as not all trout streams are as easy to fish as that one was. As usual, I cleaned the trout we caught (four were mine, one was Andrew's), then we finally hit the road for home around 6 p.m.

Bondurant

2010-10-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Bondurant is somewhere we (the Glanns) have been many a time, but wanted to take the Reids there for a visit to one of our favorite pizza places (as there isn't a whole lot else to do there, besides hit up the hazardous household waste recycling center for free paint and stain), Polito's Pizza house. Love their pizza, and at this visit found a new favorite in an attempt to mimic one of Randy's favorite pizzas from his favorite joint, Mabe's in Decorah. That new fave is a pepperoni and Italian sausage (must point out Mabe's is regular pork sausage, not Italian) with extra sauce. It was so good. We also enjoyed another fave of mine, the homemade potato chips, though I was informed we should have tried the chips with toppings, a new item on their menu since our last visit. Just means we'll have to go back :)
Bondurant is situated close enough to Des Moines and Altoona that we can visit regularly, and is a must see for you La Pizza House fans, as this is the Polito family that founded that Des Moines legend.
After the dinner at Polito's we headed out to Yellow Banks Park to see Andrew's parents while they were camping and have dessert-s'mores!


Asher showing the world more than it needed to see


The Reids (well, most of them)

The famous orange onion rings-yum.

The pepperoni and Italian sausage with extra sauce. Good grief, I am getting hungry just posting this.

Genna adding a little punch to her slice. She actually added anything in a shaker to her pizza, and did, much to the astonishment of most of us, go on to eat it.

Asher using his "nocklars"

Decorah, Iowa. October 2010. Reids.

2010-10-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Another year, another Harvest Festival at Seed Savers Exchange.

We headed up on Friday, and made our first stop at Mabe's Pizza before heading to the house that we had rented for the weekend. Mabe's was, of course, Mabe's. We had a regular with extra sauce. As always. Sorry, you Luther people, but Mabe's is JUST PIZZA. It's not bad, but it's not handed down directly from the gods, either.

While at Mabe's, we had the opportunity to watch the Decorah HS Homecoming Parade, which went right down Water Street outside Mabe's front window. My high school (Ankeny) never did anything like this for Homecoming, so it was kind of fun to watch another high school's parade.

Our two families rented an old farmhouse for the weekend. Carolan Guest House is just a few minutes north of Decorah. The owners built themselves a new house on their property, and rent out the old house to travelers. It's definitely an old house, and did have that My Great Grandma Lives Here scent and decorating sense.

It has three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Nothing fancy, but reasonably priced and awesome for two families who have small kids - nobody next door, upstairs, or downstairs to worry about. The house had lots of toys, as well, but the antique typewriter was, I think, the biggest hit with the kids.

Andrew was happy because there was a creek for fishing right on the property!

After a fun-filled trip to Walmart for some groceries, we ate dinner at the house and then hung out with our extremely wound up children. I also discovered the deliciousness that is Hard Cider.

Hey, it's what the Founders drank.

Saturday, we had muffins, apples, and bacon for breakfast before heading into town for a stop at Blue Heron Knittery for the girls, and a secondhand DVD and CD store for the boys. I finally found the yarn for my Lord of the Rings socks, and maybe the right yarn for a pair of socks I'm making for pay. Genna helped me shop.

We met up at Magpie Coffeehouse for some coffee and snacks before heading to Seed Savers.

Then off to Seed Savers. We enjoyed the soup samples (they have a contest among local restaurants every year, this year's featured ingredient was beans), the other food samples, the pumpkin carving and rolling, and strolling the grounds.

However, this year's event was definitely a major let-down after last year's. Last year, they had more activities for the kids - beanbag tossing, storytelling, etc. They had someone manning the pumpkin roll activity. They had more local vendors, such as wineries. This year, they had only one local vendor, the co-op.

And it was pretty cold!!

We did still have a good time, and the kids enjoyed themselves. And we got to take more pictures of their apple press, which is just like ours, but macked out.

In the late afternoon, Abby and Andrew went fishing and we hung out with all the kids. And though the wives voted for eating in, the husbands voted for eating out, and they won. We went to Dolce Vita. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. I mean, it was all edible. Just nothing special.

Andrew's New Orleans PoBoy, Genna's Grilled Cheese, Poppers for appetizer (HOT!)

My Gyro, Randy's Ribeye Special (fatty!!), Abby's Lemon Chicken PoBoy

Kids had Spaghetti, Asher slept, and Andrew had Cheesecake for dessert.

The kids were much calmer Saturday evening, and we enjoyed some TV, reading, knitting, and, eventually sleeping.

Unfortunately, three of us (Wally, Randy, Andrew) were up a few hours later, sick.

Sunday, we got up and loaded up, then headed in to Mabe's for more pizza. Randy took home 10 half-bakes for himself and family.

Greenfield

2010-09-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we ventured out to camp near Greenfield. The town is probably a few thousand in size. A very nice little place, it has a Fareway and several eateries, as well as a Pamida. We ended up eating at the local Nodaway Diner a few times. The menu is a little pricey for basic, down-home diner food, and it wasn't anything fabulous, but it was good enough to keep us fed. They were hesitant to help us out when we noticed there wasn't a whole lot on the menu for my vegetarian mother-in-law. We asked if we could have a grilled cheese sandwich (which wasn't on the menu, and I found that odd, I guess), and they made a bit of a huff but relented after I made a few arguments. Apparently we should have just ordered a cheeseburger without the meat. It also took forever for them to get our food out at that visit, which was during the lunch rush hour, but the order was easy (burgers, fries) and most tables, nearly 7, that got there after us, were served their meals before us, no matter what size party was at them. Apparently grilled cheese is a terribly difficult thing to make.
One of the other places we stopped was the Tiger Inn. It was mostly an ice cream joint, but with your standard fried food available, as well. We didn't eat a meal there, but got ice cream there a couple times. The ice cream was good, though they didn't have any mint concoctions (Asher's favorites).
The other place we grabbed a meal was at the Old Restaurant and Hotel. It wasn't too bad. The menu was rather large, and the food seemed pretty good, though Asher was being a handful, so we spent half the meal in the car.
I definitely think we'll be back, if for no other reason than the swap meet that drew us there is the first place. The garage sales were plentiful and well priced, for the most part, so I did well in entertaining myself. There was a Subway in town, as well, which we may use next time. A fresher meal would have been nice. Diner food can get heavy.

January's Small Towns

2010-02-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't take any pictures on this trip, and I'm not sure why. A combination of managing Genna and forgetting the thing in the car, I imagine.

Attica was a booming town. Population approx. 75. Featured on a website about Ghost Towns. Kin Folks was good, but not as good as I was expecting after reading several reviews about its awesomeness. I did like how the ordering counter was set up - just basically a smorgasboard of meat for you to pick from. The sides were a bit disappointing, though, and the meats were good, but not outstanding.

Columbia's McCorkle Hardware was an interesting place. Lots of dust. Lots of stuff. Just kind of crammed all in on vaguely organized shelves. They seemed to carry a lot of varied stuff, some at really good prices, and some not so much. I got the coveralls that I had been looking for - a kids size XL, and only about $35. Yay!

The meat locker in Melcher-Dallas (pop 1237) was a total bust, but the grocery store gave me the opportunity to pick up the dish soap I'd forgotten to get the day before, so it wasn't all a loss.

We hung out at Smokey Row in Pleasantville for a while. They had two root beers that Randy and I hadn't tried before -

Also, Wally had a cookie as big as his head:

And Genna drank my coffee (decaf).

The day took significantly less time than we had anticipated! We headed back to the Glann's house for some hanging out and pizza for dinner! (Actually, the pizza was really quite good!)

January 2010 Small Town: Attica, Melcher-Dallas, Columbia and Pleasantville

2010-02-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

There was not a whole lot to do in any of these. We ate at Kinfolks (apparently the original) in Attica, which was not bad, but not the greatest barbecue/smokehouse ever. The smoked catfish and potato salad were pretty good, and the ice cream was homemade, as were the cobblers, which were also very good. We ordered the six eat plates which were more than enough, with a couple extra sides and rolls. The tea is also brewed-a requirement. Then we headed to Columbia to do some shopping at one of the best farm apparel places in the area, McCorkle's Hardware. Sarah ended up with some coveralls and I got a new winter coat. That took only about 35 minutes, then we headed to Melcher-Dallas. I had seen a meat locker there, but Northcote meats ended up being more of a retailer than an actual processing locker. I was hoping to try what they had on hand for jerky or bacon. The grocery store in that town, though, was really pretty nice for a small town. It had a little cafe, and suprisingly good selection of items on hand, including natural dish liquid. Following that we stopped in Pleasantville at the original Smokey Row. I have been to all of them, the Reids still have the Pella one left. We had some sweets, coffee and root beer, and then went to our place. Randy napped, Andrew surfed the net, Sarah and I plotted future towns to torture and the kids played the wii. Pretty uneventful. We did order in Checkerboard from Pleasantville for dinner. I have to say their food was probably better than I've had from there in a long time (Italian Sausage Pizza, pepperoni pizza, chicken strips, rings and their awesome house ranch). Definitely not one of our more exciting days, it is always nice to have days out with friends!

At Kinfolks:

McCorkle's in Columbia

Melcher-Dallas

Smokey Row in Pleasantville

Back at our place

Altoona and Pleasant Hill

2009-11-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

OK, so Altoona and Pleasant Hill might not really qualify for these excursions, but we were squeezed for time in November. We were going to at least try out a new restaurant, but the place we wanted to go (Now and Later) was closed... so we headed to Bianchi Boys Pizza in Altoona.

It was not new to the Glann Family, but it was new to us Reids. The pizza was good, I thought. Thin, crispy crust. We had the whole back room to ourselves, always a bonus with our crew. Wally got his own cheese-less pizza, and we also had a Hawaiian and a Gumba.

After pizza, we headed into Pleasant Hill for some bowling at Premier Bowling. We had a great time, along with the trials and tribulations of bowling with two 5 year olds, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. I bowled a few frames with her on my back, and some while nursing. The Glanns kicked our butts in terms of scores.

Decorah-Abby's view

2009-11-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Like Sarah said, how we decided on what we did, I don't remember, but I was excited for sometime leading up to it, and was a little disappointed we weren't able to camp. More so when the only place we could get two rooms, and not even next to each other, or on the same floor was at the Super 8 in West Union. Not a great place to stay, but it worked. There was a small pool in the basement, so there was a little retreat for the kids in the evening.
We started our weekend driving up through Ames. We walked around the olde town area, going to the hobby shop, definitely an aged place, but Andrew found a model of a Nova he had wanted for ages and had never been able to find; an antique store where I scored some way cute vintage fabric, and at 40% off; Andrew took the kids through Reiman music, and I walked through a furniture store with gorgeous hooked rugs that were insanely priced (note to self: learn how to hook gorgeous rugs).

Following that we headed to lunch at The Cafe. I cannot say enough how great the food was here. The idea behind the place is that the food always be the freshest possible, and thus the menu changes regularly, something I adore, but Andrew is not particularly fond of, though he was impressed with the food nevertheless. There is also a little coffeeshop side, as well as pastries and a bar. I have returned a number of times since, including on our way home from Decorah, as well as when I had to return to Ames after the trip to retrieve my wallet I left on the top of the car, and then ended up losing while driving down the road.
After lunch we hit the road, which was quite the dreary drive, with construction, rain and snow the whole way up. We arrived not long after the Reids. We agreed with Sarah on the food front as far as Tap't Out. Not impressive. I think we would have all been happier with the Subway across the street from the hotel-even Liv said as much. Greasy, slow, heavy and no real flavor. Blah.

That first night we checked out the pool for awhile-certainly not anything fancy, but the kids enjoyed it.

We started out bright and early Saturday morning with the hotel continental breakfast, and ended up at Java John's in Decorah for some much needed (at least on my part) coffee. The coffee was good, as well as the ambience, thought the place was crowded as a ll get out. And we were all curious how someone could think they needed a whole booth to themselves while there are perfectly good single seating areas. A little frustrating, but we made it, nevertheless. The yarn store had a nice selection, which actually was difficult to decide what I wanted from, and was nice to find books available for the kids to read while we shopped. The lady working, who I think was the owner, was very helpful. I had quite a few questions and she did her best to help us.

The afternoon at Seed Saver's Exchange Farm was wonderful, and actually definitely something I would like to do each year. The kids had fun, as did the adults.

The antique apple tasting was great, as there were varieties I was curious about.

The soup was all incredible, and I was stoked that one of my favorites had the recipe available to take home.

The local fire department came out and let the kids try on the uniforms and climb on the truck.

Several pumpkins were carved ( Asher smiled his way into carving two...) and rolled down a hill.

There were little games all over, as well as scenic trails

and a hay rack ride which helped Asher lose one of my earrings (by flinging it overboard).

The cider press demo was both entertaining for the kids and inspirational for the adults (we're so getting one of those!).

The farm store was full of things I would love to own, but I held back and only purchased some garlic to plant (Czech Red).

After a fun filled day on the farm, we took a little drive around Burr Oak, the home of Plum Creek of Laura Ingalls Wilder fame. The town was not much to see-much like Swan, small and mostly trailers now. The bar looked to be the place to be on that Saturday. So, we headed on. We drove around Decorah and Luther college for awhile. We then made it to Randy's ultimate pizza joint, Mabe's. Apparently the place is a tradition for Lutherians. The pizza wasn't too bad, but I have to say I am a solid Polito's Pizza fan (that will get some lip service this summer when we camp near Bondurant).
We headed to the DQ in West Union for dessert, then back to the hotel where we swam a bit.

Sunday we used the continental breakfast again and hit the road for home. We decided to eat at the Cafe for brunch, which was awesome again, then headed south.
The great excitement of our trip didn't come until the Tuesday following, though, as I figured out I had lost my wallet somewhere in Ames. I got a call to say it had been found on the side of the road. Apparently I left it on top of the Jeep after eating, and it blew off. So, I got to go rescue it and cancel a load of cards that were destroyed or missing. The trip was totally fun, though, and our family is way thrilled to keep the tour up!

Decorah, Iowa - Sarah's View

2009-10-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

I don't even remember how we decided to go to Seed Savers Exchange's Autumn Festival. I think it started with wanting to do some fall camping, and also wanting to go to an event at Seed Savers. As it turns out, the weekend was far too cold (and, well, snowy) for camping, so we all ended up at a hotel in West Union.

Friday night, we had dinner at Tap't Out Stein and Dine on the square in West Union. Um. Hm. We all got fed, and nobody left hungry. Except Wally, I guess. The kids spaghetti was a really small serving. But I don't think anybody was particularly impressed with their food, which took an overlong time to come out.

In the morning, after a stop at a Coffee shop on Water Street whose name completely escapes me (good coffee, and apparently quite a popular spot on Saturday mornings), we made the obligatory stop at the local yarn store, the Blue Heron Knittery. They had a small selection of local yarns (alpaca - I bought some), as well as some yarns that I've never seen in person before. I was excited to find yarn suitable for my upcoming Chronicles of Narnia socks.

Then, of course, the whole reason for the trip - Seed Savers. It was a lot of fun. They had all sorts of activities for kids - Pumpkin carving, storytelling, a fire truck, beanbag toss, and a few other things. There was an apple press demonstration, which wasn't necessarily FOR the kids, but they sure liked it.

And of course, activites for the adults. Apple tasting, soup tasting (and contest), hay rack rides, apple press demonstrations, classes, a band, and of course just wandering around the farm. There was also a woman there carving a giant pumpkin, which was pretty impressive.

mmmm.... soup. The soup contest entries were all from local restaurants, and they were YUMMY. My personal favorite came from the Oneota Co-op - it was a creamy squash soup with bacon in it. I think it was the bacon that won me out.

We had dinner at Mabe's Pizza, of course. Randy went to college at Luther, and apparently, they brainwash you into believing that Mabe's Pizza is pizza handed down from the very hand of God. It's good pizza, but Randy has a serious love affair with it. He ate it for breakfast, too.

How it all started (Abby's take...): Prairie City, Albia, Oskaloosa

2009-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

After talking awhile about wanting to start doing some camping together, we (the Reids and the Glanns) found a seminar on angora rabbits (yes, rabbits) in Albia. This started our trek. We started the day off meeting in Prairie City, at Goldie's.

They were recently awarded with the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa, and we had to try them out. The consensus was the sandwich was all around pretty good-though the place was small, and apparently the place to be on a Saturday afternoon, as it was paaaaacked when we went to leave. Had we been there any later, we wouldn't have a place to sit. They had a pretty decent sounding menu. Abby had a hot sausage sandwich, which was good, more like a guinea grinder, than your standard hot sausage, and the bun was just a hot dog bun-not nearly enough for that sort of sandwich. They touted some local meat ingredients, like meats from the Mingo Locker. The tea was fresh brewed-not out of a machine; always a plus. I definitely think it will be a place we visit again.

From there we hit the road, and headed south down Highway 14, then 92 to 5, to Albia. The seminar was at The Hollywood Hills Boutique, located on the square. They had quite the selection of yarn, which was actually a yarn local to Park City, Utah, where the Reids had vacationed the summer before. We were hoping to find some local stuff while there, and we did, just not much. It is a theme we've found with a lot of the shops we visit. Anyway, the seminar proved helpful, both in information, and in the fact she had bunnies for sale, at half their usual price. Abby jumped on the opportunity, and went home with a grey female angora, which was later named Princess Pie.

After a few yarn purchases, we decided to head for Oskaloosa in search of a farm store, as we didn't see one in Albia. We met at what we thought was a good place to start, the Purina Feed Store, but were sorely disappointed in finding it was really only pet food for the most part, and not worth visit at all.

We headed to the Smokey Row coffeeshop in town to take a break and check out a phone book. Of all the Smokey Rows, I must say this is one of my favorites. It has an old stage and marquis sign inside, and is rather spacious. It also attached to one of my favorite book stores. The coffee at Smokey Row, and fountain drinks are always appreciated. The food is not bad, but nothing fancy.

I think from their menu they like to think it is, but there is something lacking in pretty much everything they serve, and I am always kind of turned off by seeing a pile of plain ol' Lay's potato chips come out with my meal. But, at that point, coffee=good.

After our snack and phone book research we headed on over to The Vault bookstore. I love this store. First of all, it is an indy book store, which means it carries more of what I want to read than the big box stores do. They have Nourishing Traditions on the shelf. They had (I bought the copy that day...) Handmade Home by Amanda Soule, among gads of other intriguing titles that I always find difficult to leave behind.

The really draw here, though, is the beauty of the place. It is situated in an old bank,and the marble and vaults are still there throughout creating wonderful little nooks for hte books to live until someone comes along to grab them. I haven't attended any, but they also host authors and book clubs regularly, and have a small kitchen accessories area in the back, as well as a discount club. I try to stop everytime I am through Oksy.

Following that visit, we headed out to try to find the Orschelin's in town. After a little wandering, we came upon it, right where we thought it should be, but all of us had pretty much forgotten how to get to that point. I managed to come away with rabbit food and some birthday items for Asher, and the Reid's found the much needed black hoodie for Wally's bat costume.

It was a small store, but well stocked, and the prices seemed very reasonable. We parted ways after this, much excited for the next foray into Iowa small town goodness!

2009-10-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

After deciding to spend a *whole* lot more time together, our families, the Reids and the Glanns, have also decided to document our travels to small towns (well, big ones, too) around Iowa. We have a special love for new food experiences, but will talk about what else we enjoyed/didn't on our journeys. Welcome, and check back, as we will try to get out and spend some time in different places around our home state at least once a month.