Iowa Earth Day Trip

Today we took a little road trip to Iowa to celebrate Earth Day and Nick's early birthday. Taking a road trip isn't the most "green" thing to do BUT our intentions were good. We wanted to explore nature somewhere new and we're suckers for caves/caverns and waterfalls.

Our goal destination was Maquoketa Caves State Park in Maquoketa, Iowa, about 2.5 hours from our house. The drive from Sugar Grove was pretty easy. We saw beautiful rolling hills once we crossed the Mississippi into Iowa. The Illinois part of the drive is pretty boring- empty corn field after corn field. 

The pictures don't do this place justice. It's a GREAT place to hike but you've gotta bring hiking boots (preferably waterproof ones) to do it right. The pictures aren't as great because today is also the first day that I decided to play with the SLR camera in manual mode. My goal this year is to learn how to take good pictures in manual mode and I've gotta start somewhere. I wish I was better at taking pictures already because the backdrops today were amazing.  If you ever find yourself in the east side of Iowa, I highly recommend this state park. 

 Even the entrance to the park is on a farm. All we saw in Iowa were farm land.

 The park was hosting an Earth Day celebration and had some animals and exhibits displayed along with a pancake breakfast (that we did not participate in- see pictures below to see why)

 I was shocked that a state park celebrating Earth Day would host a pancake breakfast on site with STYROFOAM plates and cups. I get that reusable plates/cups are not an option since they have nowhere to clean them but at least a recyclable option would've set a better example.

This is an example of me not knowing how to use the camera yet. It was so sunny and I couldn't balance the white right.

 The Rock exhibit was cool: galenas, geodes, limestones, etc.

 The natural rock bridge

 You see the stepping stones at the bottom? That's the entrance to the underground caves. We had to duck to get in until it opened up to where we could stand. The boys just could not wait. Nick and I got pretty upset at them because they were so excited they were not listening to our instructions and it's just nerve wracking when you have no idea what lies ahead and they're just flying by.

The mud on these people should've been a sign but we couldn't see this well when we were inside. It was dark.

These folks were drinking the water coming down the rocks at this seam. 

Very narrow MUDDY path where shoes got stuck if you didn't walk fast

 The mud got worse and I couldn't take pictures because I was trying to not lose my shoes and keep my balance. I wish I'd had hiking boots like the boys so I could've enjoyed it more rather than worrying so much about slipping/falling.

 This is the other side of the cave where we came out of. They call it the Danceroom Hall cave. There's a road right over these caves and parking!

 We went back to explore the other side of the cave and this side was much more easier to navigate.

 It even had this large hard-packed mud area where the kids could run around.

 This picture is so washed out BUT I like that it shows the three different poses for the kids. 3 completely different personalities.

 This one is more accurate on the personalities: G is cool, L is grumpy and E is worried about damage to her hands from climbing on the rocks.

Birthday boy. :) 

The Guittar boys:

 Ellie found an "E" stick....yes, it came home with us. There was no way she was going to leave it behind.

 Balanced rock. This rock is balancing on the other rock, right on the edge where we had walked. :/

After the caves hike, we drove to Davenport, Iowa and ate at a wonderful restaurant called Zeke's. The food was awesome. I googled how close we were to the Antique Archaeology store featured in the show, "American Pickers" and we were only 20 minutes away so we headed there after lunch for a "touristy stop." The store is behind a gas station right on the Mississippi River. It was super cute. Everything was stylized so well and the staff was super friendly. The kids had a hard time understanding why everything was old, rusty, but very expensive. Liam found a toy he wanted. It was an old drive-in toy, a $200 toy! He kinda looked at me weird when I told him the price.

Photo credit: Gavin

I will admit that I got excited when I saw the van.....like maybe Mike and Frank are HERE, but they were not. Danielle wasn't either. We didn't ask. We didn't want to geek out that much. Nick thought he saw some stuff at the store that he'd seen on the show so he felt complete. :)

Overall, this was a great trip for us. We pushed our luck with this "day" trip. It was a 2.5 hour drive each way but we wanted to save money by not staying in a hotel. The kids were tired and annoyed each other on the way back more than usual. We got a glimpse of what the IL-FL road trip might be like and will be making adjustments to our plan accordingly.

Maquoketa, Iowa is between Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa. If you're ever on that side of Iowa, I highly recommend a stop at Maquoketa Caves State Park. Though you must bring your own water, food, and trash bags/can because there's none of those at the park itself.