Decorah, Fall 2010

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.

Decorah, Iowa. October 2010. Reids.

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.