As I keyed in the title to this day's blog, I suddenly realized that we visited/stayed in Illinois and although it wasn't on the list as a needed state for a geocache, it means we actually visited NINE states in ten days! We ate a wonderful breakfast at Grandpa John's (you order your eggs and French toast or pancakes and then select from a plentiful breakfast buffet of fruits, meats, juices, yogurt, breads, cereals, etc.) Then we went to take some photos of the Nauvoo temple in the daylight.
Front view.
Joseph and Hyrum...the Mississippi River is in the background.
At the Women's Statue Garden at the Visitor's Center.
Another statue.
At the Cultural Hall...this is only building we were able to visit on our tight schdule. We got to say goodbye to Elder Strasser here.
Last shot of Nauvoo...goodbye ponies.
Next, we drove across the bridge into Iowa and on to the American Gothic Musuem in Eldon. It is built right next to the original house in the backgound of the famous painting (now in Chicago) by Grant Wood.
Here's the house.
The museum told the history of the artist and had lots of different artwork inspired by the painting.
They provided costumes and took our photo, for free. I think I'm scowling because the sun is so bright. There were lots of photos in the Museum of famous people who have had their pictures taken this way or had their heads imposed on the painting. Fun. We ate lunch at a diner (oh, no, Autumn) in the very small town...fabulous cheeseburgers. There were about 2 choices of eating establishments and no fast food.
Then it was on to another very small Iowa town called Gladbrook, to the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center. Master woodworker, Patrick Acton has lived there for 30 years and turns ordinary wooden matchsticks into works of art. He began building large models in 1977 and it is still his hobby...he has a job as a vocational counselor at a college in a nearby town. At first he had to cut the tops off the matches (which once caused a fire in his wife's vacuum) until he found he could order just the sticks from the company. This is a postcard of Hogwarts...which is now in Spain. At least 10 of his models have been purchased by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museums and are located around the world. We had a great time looking at his models and watching a video about the process. Developing the technique to give curved lines was interesting. We were impressed by the stats for each model indicating the number of sticks, the pounds of glue (Elmer's wood glue) and the amount of time to create.
View of the museum.
Dinosaur
Covered Wagon
Battleship
Detail on battleship
The Capitol in DC
Rotunda on the Capitol
detail on the Capitol
Minas Tirith Castle from The Lord of the Rings
Space Shuttle
Governor's Mansion...my favorite.
We ended the day in the Amana Colonies...7 quaint and closely united little villages (named Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, etc.) settled in the 1850s along the Iowa River by members of religious sect mostly from Germany. The people lived communally until 1932 in large homes without kitchens or dining areas. They ate in central kitchen houses. Amana Refrigeration Appliances started here. There are still many fun shops and factories and of course they welcome tourist shopping. (See more on tomorrow's blog.) We stayed here at Zuber's Homestead. It was a classic Bed and Breakfast (berry muffins to die for).
We stayed in The Trumpeter Swan Room. This quilt is made with those little circles of cloth gathered to make poofs. There were 20 swans in the room!
Here's our bathroom with a jetted tub.
We ate dinner here...great German food of course. We had wiener schnizel, saurkraut, spaetzle, cottage cheese, coleslaw, skillet fried potatoes with gravy, and homemade berry pie with vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed!
There are a number of wineries in the area. Here is a barrel/keg? out in front of one of them.
As I keyed in the title to this day's blog, I suddenly realized that we visited/stayed in Illinois and although it wasn't on the list as a needed state for a geocache, it means we actually visited NINE states in ten days! We ate a wonderful breakfast at Grandpa John's (you order your eggs and French toast or pancakes and then select from a plentiful breakfast buffet of fruits, meats, juices, yogurt, breads, cereals, etc.) Then we went to take some photos of the Nauvoo temple in the daylight.
Front view.
Joseph and Hyrum...the Mississippi River is in the background.
At the Women's Statue Garden at the Visitor's Center.
Another statue.
At the Cultural Hall...this is only building we were able to visit on our tight schdule. We got to say goodbye to Elder Strasser here.
Last shot of Nauvoo...goodbye ponies.
Next, we drove across the bridge into Iowa and on to the American Gothic Musuem in Eldon. It is built right next to the original house in the backgound of the famous painting (now in Chicago) by Grant Wood.
Here's the house.
The museum told the history of the artist and had lots of different artwork inspired by the painting.
They provided costumes and took our photo, for free. I think I'm scowling because the sun is so bright. There were lots of photos in the Museum of famous people who have had their pictures taken this way or had their heads imposed on the painting. Fun. We ate lunch at a diner (oh, no, Autumn) in the very small town...fabulous cheeseburgers. There were about 2 choices of eating establishments and no fast food.
Then it was on to another very small Iowa town called Gladbrook, to the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center. Master woodworker, Patrick Acton has lived there for 30 years and turns ordinary wooden matchsticks into works of art. He began building large models in 1977 and it is still his hobby...he has a job as a vocational counselor at a college in a nearby town. At first he had to cut the tops off the matches (which once caused a fire in his wife's vacuum) until he found he could order just the sticks from the company. This is a postcard of Hogwarts...which is now in Spain. At least 10 of his models have been purchased by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museums and are located around the world. We had a great time looking at his models and watching a video about the process. Developing the technique to give curved lines was interesting. We were impressed by the stats for each model indicating the number of sticks, the pounds of glue (Elmer's wood glue) and the amount of time to create.
View of the museum.
Dinosaur
Covered Wagon
Battleship
Detail on battleship
The Capitol in DC
Rotunda on the Capitol
detail on the Capitol
Minas Tirith Castle from The Lord of the Rings
Space Shuttle
Governor's Mansion...my favorite.
We ended the day in the Amana Colonies...7 quaint and closely united little villages (named Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, etc.) settled in the 1850s along the Iowa River by members of religious sect mostly from Germany. The people lived communally until 1932 in large homes without kitchens or dining areas. They ate in central kitchen houses. Amana Refrigeration Appliances started here. There are still many fun shops and factories and of course they welcome tourist shopping. (See more on tomorrow's blog.) We stayed here at Zuber's Homestead. It was a classic Bed and Breakfast (berry muffins to die for).
We stayed in The Trumpeter Swan Room. This quilt is made with those little circles of cloth gathered to make poofs. There were 20 swans in the room!
Here's our bathroom with a jetted tub.
We ate dinner here...great German food of course. We had wiener schnizel, saurkraut, spaetzle, cottage cheese, coleslaw, skillet fried potatoes with gravy, and homemade berry pie with vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed!
There are a number of wineries in the area. Here is a barrel/keg? out in front of one of them.
4 comments:
The quilt is pretty.
I think that type of technique is used in yo-yo quilts.
Yes, Yo-Yo! Thanks for reminding me of the name.
Nice cranky farmer pic. And those matchsticks are AMAZING!!!!!!
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