We were still pretty tired from the night before, so a coffee stop was deemed necessary on our journey north out of Davenport on Saturday:
The place was called The Vault because it was in an old bank that still had the vault!
We were on our way to Dubuque for a two night stop, but on the way in we took a gander at Maquoketa Caves State Park, an interesting area with landscapes I personally wouldn't have expected to see in Iowa:
The caves were kind of scattered throughout a normal forested trail area, rather than one big entrance into a cave system. So you could just meander in and out on your journey through!
And then at last we completed the journey to Dubuque, checking into the hotel and heading into town for beer n' grub at a brewery called Backpocket to cap off our first full day:
Sleep was wonderfully welcome that night, with all of us turning in early to reset ourselves and prep for the week ahead.
The next morning, we headed to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, a neat twist on your standard aquarium, as it pertained specifically to Mississippi River ecology and geology.
They had a couple neat exhibits, like this water table that demonstrated the Mississippi flooding its banks, and a video wall that shows a flyover (time lapse) of the entire length of the river:
Outside, there was a continuation of the aquarium into the museum - because technically, this was the Museum and Aquarium - i.e., two different things, joined together by an outdoor promenade.
This included a side visit to A Boat:
And then the Museum proper:
Next on the agenda was heading into town for lunch, which ended up being at a place called 1st and Main
The next stop is kind of an odd one. There is this cable car in the middle of town:
And you can ride up for like two bucks, taking you to a lovely overlook of the town:
Now. Why is there a cable car in Dubuque? Well.
The place is called Fenelon Place Elevator Company. In my mind, this must have been an old elevator manufacturer that, as a gimmick, created a cable car up to the factory to drum up business. It would be the talk of the town, and everyone would want to buy their elevators from Fenelon Place. Sort of an early 20th Century version of "going viral".
But it turns out it's almost the exact opposite. The cable car is the company in its entirety - it was built by a banker in the 1800s who got fed up with, essentially, his commute down into town from his home up on the hill, and put these cable cars in to get up & down quicker. Some time later, the cable cars were rolled into a business to make some money off of 'em, and Fenelon was born.
So it was a very amusing way to get up into the hilly part of town and see the view. Upon returning down to the land of mere mortals, we took a stroll over to another Dubuque landmark, their town clock:
And then, a return to the river to see the art along the riverwalk and take a short break off our feet:
There were a couple other places marked on our list, but we were once again getting tired - that first night did not set us up for success, I'd reckon - so while we did stop in at the Dubuque Arboretum, it was mainly to take an ice cream break, followed by just a quick look around:
And that was just fine. The pace of this trip ended up being a little slower than the previous two, and that was okay. It's likely obvious, but the point of these trips was never seeing every sight these states had to offer. It was to just do something together.
Dinner followed at another brewery, this one called 7 Hills, with dishes that looked mighty similar to the ones the night before:
And ya know, that's okay too.
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