Iowa - Hawkeye State
Coming to Iowa was special because my mother was born and raised in Waterloo. I had only been there once before, back in 1966 just before Andy and I went to Europe. This time, we started in Des Moines where we visited the capitol. We usually visit capitol buildings, so we were able to compare Iowa’s with several we had seen before. We were very impressed with the beauty of the Iowa Statehouse, as it is known, and it is the only five-domed capitol in the country. The central-towering dome is covered in tissue-paper thin sheets of pure gold. Twenty-nine types of domestic and imported marble grace the interior, as well as several different types of wood. The overall effect is of strength, dignity and beauty. On the other hand, the cafeteria, which is located on the ground floor, was open to the rest of the building and the odor of French fries was everywhere. I like French fries, but for me, the smell detracted from the otherwise dignified appearance of the capitol. Oh well.
From there we drove to Cedar Falls (not Cedar Rapids, but Cedar Falls) where my cousin Larry and his wife Cheryl live. As a child, Larry lived for a while in southern California with my Aunt Dru and Uncle Ken and my maternal grandparents. My grandfather died in Los Angeles and eventually, the rest of the family, including Larry, moved back to Iowa. We stayed with them for two nights and met one of Larry and Cheryl’s three sons, Chris, and his adorable three daughters. Being with Larry again was so comfortable; it was as if we had been apart only a couple of weeks rather than 50 years! They drove us to Waterloo and showed us the high school my mom had attended and the cemetery where my aunt, uncle and grandparents were buried. It was October and I have photos of Halloween decorations throughout the countryside and in residential areas. It was good family time, and I felt a little sad when we said goodbye, not knowing when I might see them again.
Our next stop was Amana – yes, the Amana appliance company was founded here and named after this compilation of seven Amana villages. The villages were built and settled by German Pietists, a movement within Lutheranism, who were persecuted in their homeland and came to settle eventually in Iowa. They lived a communal life until 1932 during which they were almost completely self-sufficient economically. The Seven Villages of Amana are now a tourist attraction featuring many craft shops and restaurants. It was so interesting to learn the history of this sect, completely unknown to us before our visit.
We couldn’t leave Iowa without visiting some of the bridges of Madison County. This took us through some beautiful countryside and rural areas which offered many good photo opportunities as we made our way to the northeast corner of Iowa. We had read about Effigy Mounds National Monument and were eager to see them. Effigy Moundbuilders, as they are known, constructed mounds of earth in the shapes birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, turtle, panther and other animals. The Indian tribes who fashioned these conical mounds lived hundreds of years ago. The 200 plus mounds are in one of the most picturesque sections of the upper Mississippi River Valley. It was fascinating to see these mysterious mounds and to try to imagine the people who had built them so long ago.
We stayed two nights at a B&B in tiny Marquette, IA, the nights before and after seeing the mounds. When we checked into our room, there was no place to unpack anything as every surface and drawer was filled and the closet was jammed with (I presume) the owners’ clothes. There was barely room to open our suitcases. We went to a restaurant called The Twisted Chicken in neighboring McGregor, upon the recommendation of our hosts, and had a delicious gourmet dinner. The owners and chefs were a lesbian couple from San Francisco, CA! The food was very sophisticated, and we wondered how they ended up here, alongside the Mississippi River in Iowa. It was so good that we came back for dinner the following night.
In the middle of the night, as we were sound asleep, there was a loud roar which made us jump out of bed in terror. We hadn’t realized it, because it was dark when we checked in, but the B&B was right next door to train tracks. The next morning at breakfast, we were informed that, oh, yes, that train comes through about midnight every night! Somehow that information was not in the ad about this place which I had found in a B&B promotional book. It woke us up, of course, the following night but didn’t scare us like it had the night before. The next morning, we crossed the Mississippi River and left Iowa, headed back to Chicago and then home.