Boone Scenic Valley Railroad

A few weeks back, my family took a trip on the Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone.  It's been on our to-do list for quite a while, but we've never been able to get our schedules lined up to go.  In fact, my sister and I bought my dad a gift certificate to buy tickets for the train, and it took him two years to actually use them.

But the trip was worth the wait.  My dad used his gift certificate and bought us first-class tickets for the afternoon train.  My niece got to ride for free with her "first-class toddler" ticket.

Again, I was having so much fun catching up with my family, I didn't take very many photos.  I did get this picture of the Des Moines River Valley as we went over the Kate Shelley high bridge.  The train engine let off a puff of steam so we could see a rainbow over the valley.

I thought I'd share just a few tips if you are planning a trip on the Scenic Valley Railroad. (I could tell by all the out-of-town license plates that it's a pretty popular tourist attraction.)

I would recommend spending the extra money for a first-class ticket.  The first-class car is a double-decker, and it was fun to take a seat up above. We also found out the first-class section is air-conditioned, which was nice since it was a little warm that day.

Also, there were four different train rides on the day we visited, so it was hard to find a parking spot.  I ended up parking on the street.

We got there a couple hours early and decided to eat lunch at the concession stand. But the concession stand was tiny and only offered hot dogs and brats for lunch.  When we ordered hot dogs, the volunteer behind the counter took four huge, frozen-solid hot dogs out of the freezer, and then microwaved them as we watched!  We couldn't believe that she had to microwave the hotdogs! And the hot dogs weren't cooked through when she served them.

I don't blame the volunteer; she probably had the worst job of the day, because there were a lot of people at the concession stand and she was working by herself.  But if you do go and want to have lunch, I recommend bringing your own food and eating at the picnic tables in the adjacent park.  Just a suggestion if you plan your own visit.  There is a dinner train at night that serves a meal from Hy-Vee, but we really enjoyed the afternoon ride.

It was a great family trip, and as you can see, my niece seemed to enjoy the day.  She even slept on the train!

Have you ever been on the Scenic Valley Railroad or another passenger train excursion?  What did you think of the trip?

Osage artisan festival

Last weekend, I drove up to my hometown in northern Iowa to visit my mom and stepdad.  My mom suggested that we drive to nearby Osage and check out the town's fall artisan festival.  We didn't know what to expect.  We thought we'd find a few food booths and a couple pumpkins to buy.  But boy, were we surprised by what we saw!  The main street was lined with food and craft vendors. Visitors were walking up and down the street, in and out of stores, wearing their knee-high leather boots and drinking pumpkin lattes. My mom and I had no idea it was such a big event!

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I've been told it's kind of a "no-no" to take photos at a craft fair. The vendors don't want other people stealing their project ideas -- although maybe that's not as big of an issue nowadays with Pinterest and all.

Anyhow, I took a photo of the "Autumn" sign above, because I wanted to buy it but didn't have the cash.  (Again, we had no idea that it was a craft fair, so I didn't budget for it. If I go again next year, I'll save up some spending money!)  I also thought this jack o' latern chair was adorable.

Here's one of the parking lots full of vendors.  There were four of these vendor lots, if I recall correctly.

There was a taco truck that had a huge line of people, and the food looked wonderful.  But my stepdad wanted to stop at one of his favorite Osage restaurants, Teluwat.  The place was packed, but we managed to snag a table by sharing it with a group of really nice women, one of whom told us that she had more than 30 grandkids and four great-grandkids! She was adorable!

My stepdad and I ordered the special of the day: the breaded pork tenderloin.  It was huge, but so good!

Everyone told us that we had to stop at the new Unc's Cheesecake bakery in town.  We were so full after lunch, we didn't sample the cheesecake.  But my mom and I did order a couple of carrot cake balls for the ride home. Actually, I thought they were pumpkin cake balls, but when I ate mine the next day, it turned out to be carrot cake.  Still very good, although I really wanted pumpkin!

Sugar cookies decorated for fall.

Carrot cake balls for the ride home.

Have you been to any fun fall festivals this year?  I'm always looking for a new one to visit.  I just love this time of year!

Bike Iowa: Trout Run Trail, Decorah

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to stay overnight in Decorah for work.  I woke up early the next day so I could check out the new Trout Run Trail, an 11-mile bike trail that circles Decorah.  I took the photo above at the unofficial entrance to the trail.  This gorgeous work of public art is one of many along the trail route.

I read this terrific review of the Trout Run Trail on the Bike Iowa website a few days after I visited there.  It does a great job of summing up what it's like to ride the trail.  Like the reviewer, I was surprised by how scenic, and hilly, the trail is.  (And I can say that the hills aren't any better going clockwise!)  I usually do pretty good going up steep hills, but I had to get off my bike and walk a couple of them, because I didn't know they were coming and didn't have enough "steam" to get up them.  But don't let the hills discourage you.  I met a group of kids, who looked like they were part of a summer camp group, along the trail. So it's very family-friendly.

There are several scenic outlooks and trout fishing spots along the trail.  Check out these gorgeous views!
 

Along the trail, you'll also pass by the DNR's fish hatchery and the former home of the Decorah eagles, which gained worldwide fame a couple years ago when their nest was filmed by web cam.

It was also neat to see that the trail cut through farmland.  At one point, the trail bumped right up next to a dairy farm.  I just had to take photos of the cows!

Another highlight of the trail is the $2 million bridge that spans over Highway 9.  The bridge is lit up in colorful LED lights at night.

 Once I crossed the bridge, I rode past the Decorah bluffs. Such a beautiful part of the state.

I'm already making plans to come back to Decorah again in the fall -- for fun, not for work!  This trail is worth the four-hour drive to northeast Iowa.

Pella bakery

I traveled to Pella recently for work. I'd never been to downtown Pella before, so I swung by downtown to check out the Dutch bakeries.  I stopped at Jaarsma Bakery, and I couldn't believe the wide variety of treats inside.  I thought the bakery just sold Dutch letters, but they had that and much more. Breads, cookies, cakes, pastries, chocolates -- it was hard to pick just one!

I was a little overwhelmed, so I ended up buying a few cookies and Dutch letters to take home.

After I bought the sweets, I stopped in the clothing shop next door, and the salesperson told me I had to go back to the bakery and find the chocolate almond horns in the refrigerated case.  The almond horns are baked with almond paste in the dough, so they are extra chewy, almost like a caramel candy bar, although not caramel in flavor.  My husband ended up loving these, even more so than the Dutch letters (although he ended up polishing off the Dutch letters, too!)

Before I left town, I also visited the Pella meat shop and came home with the famous Pella bologna.  We enjoyed this for supper when I got home.

I'm already trying to talk my husband into taking another road trip to Pella, just so I can show him the amazing bakeries!

ISU's mobile maple syrup sugar shack

March is maple syrup season here in Iowa.  We don't have a lot of maple groves in central Iowa, but there are a few maple syrup farms in north-east and eastern Iowa. A few weeks ago, Iowa State University forestry students brought the mobile maple syrup sugar shack to the Iowa Arboretum near Madrid. It's a trailer that's been outfitted with a wood-fired maple syrup evaporator, donated to the university by a fellow Iowan.

Here's an exterior photo to show that the sugar shack is indeed on wheels and mobile.

And here's the inside of the sugar shack, with the wood-fired evaporator.  It was a cold day, with temperatures below freezing, so there wasn't any maple sap flowing from the trees yet.  The maple sap starts flowing when the daytime temps reach above freezing, while the nighttime temps dip below freezing. For the demonstration, they filled the evaporator with tap water to show how it works to "evaporate" the sap down into a thick syrup.

Logs to fuel the evaporator.

 The mobile sugar shack is lined with fire-proof material for safety, and there's a chimney to vent the smoke.

Also during the event, the ISU forestry students served up a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup.  I can't pass up a good pancake feed!

The ISU maple sugar shack tours the state in the spring. You can also find it on the ISU campus. (I was told that it's located near the greenhouses by Agronomy Hall, but I'm not exactly sure if I'm remembering that right.)

Do you have a favorite maple syrup recipe?  I've been looking for a fun maple recipe to try out at home.

Snowshoe hike

Last month, I bought my first pair of snowshoes the day before the biggest blizzard of the winter (so far).  I've mostly been trying them out by walking in circles around my yard -- and I don't have a very big yard!  So I went on the Internet to see if I could find good places to snowshoe in central Iowa.  I discovered that the Boone County Conservation board was hosting a snowshoe hike nearby at Don Williams Lake north of Ogden.  So on a whim, I decided to check it out.

I was nervous about going, because I was afraid I'd be the only adult who showed up for the hike.  But I was very pleasantly surprised to find that more than 30 people were in attendance, and I was actually one of the younger people at the event.  I discovered it's a great exercise for all ages.

 The conservation board had snowshoes for those who didn't have their own.  Almost everyone used a pair of trekking poles as well, but I decided to go pole-less, which turned out to be a good decision because it left my hands free to take photos.

Here's the conservation specialist giving some advice on how to wear the snowshoes.  Not sure if you can tell in this photo, but her baby daughter was strapped to her chest.  She led the snowshoe hike while carrying her daughter! How cool is that?!

When we started the hike, we had to walk down a couple steep hills. That was probably the hardest part, because you're walking like a duck with the large snowshoes strapped to your feet.  The secret is to dig your toes into the snow, because the snowshoes have "grippers" at the toes for walking on ice, etc.

After a little downhill hiking, we walked out on the ice-covered lake.  I wasn't expecting to go "ice-shoeing," and I was little nervous about walking out on the ice.  But it was so much fun!  And the conservation specialist told us not to worry; the ice was plenty thick after nearly two weeks of below freezing temperatures.   (The ice isn't safe right now, however, after the warm spell we've had. So I don't recommend trying this now.)

We walked right down the center of the lake.  We could see tracks in the snow from the other critters that have been walking on the lake.

Every once and awhile, we'd see a bare patch of ice on the lake.  You could see that the ice was very clear and thick.

We ended up hiking for about an hour.  We spent a lot of time snowshoeing through the woods as well as walking on the lake.  At the end, we could help ourselves to hot chocolate at the lodge.

It was an amazing day, and I'm so happy that I decided to go on this snowshoe hike before the snow melted.

Backyard bird feeders

One my husband's new hobbies (and I'm not kidding when I say he finds a new hobby every week) is feeding our backyard birds.  He bought a couple bird feeders at the local Orscheln farm store, which we discovered had quite a large selection of bird feeders and seed mixes.

My husband also built his own bird feeder, one that would also be accessible to squirrels, because he enjoys watching the squirrels just as much as the birds! He placed his wooden feeder on top of our burn barrel, which is currently sitting under our big evergreen trees.

It took a couple days before the birds got the courage to come to the feeders.  But once they found it, we've seen all kinds of birds.  The cardinals were the first to arrive.  We've also seen chickadees and woodpeckers. And the squirrels have been at the feeders, too.  We call it squirrel TV, because watching the squirrels is more fun than watching TV!

A fuzzy picture of the cardinal that lives in our backyard.

My husband says the birds really seem to like the black sunflower seeds.  I heard a DNR wildlife specialist on the radio a couple weeks ago who also recommended black sunflower seeds, because the birds really like the fat in their winter diets.  It's really fun to see all the birds in our backyard, especially now when the snow is on the ground.

Do you feed birds in the winter?  What types of birds have you seen in your yard?

Blizzard December 2012 & Snow-shoeing

We got our first real blizzard last week after nearly a year without much snow.  The weather folks say we got more than 10 inches in my neighborhood.  It was an extremely odd storm. On the first night, the blizzard delivered "thunder snow," with lightning and thunder.  My husband loves thunderstorms, so he kept taking photos of the heavy snow from our porches.  At midnight, we noticed that one of our trees had lost quite a few large branches, so my husband had to move his truck from the driveway.

We spent the next day shoveling all the snow from our driveway, porches and sidewalks.  My husband did most to the work, because we only have one shovel that works at lifting heavy snow.  And it was heavy!

Our neighbors' cat Levi, trying to take a nap in the cold.

Two days later, the road to work was still blocked by a stranded vehicle, so I took the day off and tried out my new snow-shoes on the nearby trail.  It looked like the snowmobiles had got there first, even though they aren't supposed to drive on the trail.

Breaking in my snow-shoes.  I got them for a 50 percent discount from Active Endeavors in West Des Moines.

I wish my legs were this long. Ha!

Very unflattering photo, but wanted to show off my rainbow colored balaclava.

I snow-shoed for about a mile. I wanted to go farther, though, because the snow was so beautiful. 

Did you get hit by the blizzard last week?  What did you do to keep you and your family entertained while you were snowed in?