Paradise Cafe

Backbone State Park

We spent the weekend at Backbone State Park, hiking, exploring caves, and swimming. We forgot the pump for the air mattresses – d'oh! – so we had to make a quick trip to Strawberry Point to grab a DC pump that can run off of the car's power. Luckily, it worked better than our old one. The weather was perfect; warm during the day, but almost cold at night. Rose caught lots of fireflies in a bottle, although apparently their lights don't blink as much in captivity.

Lookout, Emily!

The girls were excited to have their own tent.

Got a couple phone pics of rays of sun shining through the campfire smoke.

Backbone Trail:

Some fierce weather was on its way, so we took off before it caught up to us. Posting the pictures soon...

Carmageddon

Good small town fun. I haven't been to a demolition derby since... before Emily was born, I think. Anyway, it was some good wholesome car-crashing entertainment!

Heartland Acres

Our visit to Heartland Acres...

Emily is using an old timey corn sheller. This thing was fun to use and I think we could've just shelled corn the whole time. It's tempting to throw other things into it to see what would happen...

Yup, that is a creepy mannequin:

Iowa in the early days. There were some towns on the map that no longer exist. Ivanhoe?

Music for everyone! A nifty old jukebox that still works surprisingly well. I like the hum and soft crackle of the tubes when it warms up.

Last stop was the one-room schoolhouse. There was a petting zoo, too, but a storm was moving in quickly, so we didn't spend much time there.

Goodbye, Old House

We'll miss you and all the memories we had there over the past 10 years...

Somewhere Over Buffalo