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This is a mutli-part blog entry, so it'll be easier to read...
Sunday, Julie offered to drive, since I was still rather fatigued and she knew where she was taking us. I wasn't about to argue! In retrospect, I might have given her the keys to MY car and been a passenger, but I didn't think of that at the time...
Anyway, we decided to go to Dubuque, Iowa - right on the Iowa border. There's the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium - which was cool, and stuff - and this tram that goes up a hill to about midway to the top. The aquarium part was okay - it was mostly fish you can find in the Mississippi, as well as gators and other fauna. They also had otters! They were cool! I took about 15 pictures trying to get a decent one of the otters playing! I otter have tried to get some pics of the critters from the top of the tank, but I found the museum part, which was all outdoors.The museum had buildings and boats used on Ol' Man River from up north of Dubuque all the way to New Orleans. They also had some buildings that were part of Dubuque's history - a machine works and such. They had the engines and a paddle wheel from an old paddleboat, and propellers from more modern cargo ships used on the river. They even had propelers on the beanies in the gifty shoppy!
Anyway, we walked over to the tram - it was little more than two, 10-"man" cars pulled up and lowered down on a track using heavy steel cables. It was also operated by an older couple, and it cost $1.00 up or down. There wasn't a gifty-shoppy or anything - just a map, a rack with some pamphlets and the control booth. I got some cool pics of Dubuque from up there! However, we were only there long enough to click some shots and for a family of 9 to come up, when we had to go back down - with the family! They had 2 small kids which went on laps, and we went right back down. The reason was, there was a severe thunderstorm warning - so severe the warning sirens were going off! So we crammed ourselves in and went back down, then headed for the car, when it began to rain. So we ducked into this mom-and-pop ice cream and candy store, bought some ice cream and a couple of pounds of candy and then it hit - rain... Thunder... Lightning.... It was pretty harsh! We stayed almost an HOUR in that store waiting for the weather to clear up enough to get to the car. And my nephew and I were being goofy enough that I think the owner lady wanted us to blow her joint and find someone ELSE to pester...
After that we went into Wisconsin to a cheese factory. The factory was closed for tours, but the cheese shop was open. (Thoughts of the Monty Python sketch kept popping into my head...) We bought some cheese curds - they were okay. I asked where the "whey" to the curds was - Julie smacked my arm. My nephew just HAD to ask if they would cut the cheese for us... *rolls eyes again*
Next we went to Galena, Illinois. That was a COOL town - built on a hillside, part of the town loomed over us as we went in and out of the shops. We went in and out of the shops because the rain in Dubuque followed us. Literally. That, and there were some COOL shops! We went to a restaurant called Vinnie's, that had an AWESOME lasagna, and pretty good seafood pasta. It was getting to Vinnie's that caused me to rethink the "built on a hillside is cool" idea - we walked up a double flight of stairs to get to it, and THEN two flights to get to our table! :P It was worth it, though! On our way back to Marion, it rained on us again. The same stom we had encountered in Dubuque seemed to have doubled back and followed us almost all the way home. I thought Julie was gonna flip out because she couldn't see. We got back without further issues, though.
Stay tuned for part 4 - same bat-time, same bat-channel!
