Boone Scenic Valley Railroad

A few weeks back, my family took a trip on the Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone.  It's been on our to-do list for quite a while, but we've never been able to get our schedules lined up to go.  In fact, my sister and I bought my dad a gift certificate to buy tickets for the train, and it took him two years to actually use them.

But the trip was worth the wait.  My dad used his gift certificate and bought us first-class tickets for the afternoon train.  My niece got to ride for free with her "first-class toddler" ticket.

Again, I was having so much fun catching up with my family, I didn't take very many photos.  I did get this picture of the Des Moines River Valley as we went over the Kate Shelley high bridge.  The train engine let off a puff of steam so we could see a rainbow over the valley.

I thought I'd share just a few tips if you are planning a trip on the Scenic Valley Railroad. (I could tell by all the out-of-town license plates that it's a pretty popular tourist attraction.)

I would recommend spending the extra money for a first-class ticket.  The first-class car is a double-decker, and it was fun to take a seat up above. We also found out the first-class section is air-conditioned, which was nice since it was a little warm that day.

Also, there were four different train rides on the day we visited, so it was hard to find a parking spot.  I ended up parking on the street.

We got there a couple hours early and decided to eat lunch at the concession stand. But the concession stand was tiny and only offered hot dogs and brats for lunch.  When we ordered hot dogs, the volunteer behind the counter took four huge, frozen-solid hot dogs out of the freezer, and then microwaved them as we watched!  We couldn't believe that she had to microwave the hotdogs! And the hot dogs weren't cooked through when she served them.

I don't blame the volunteer; she probably had the worst job of the day, because there were a lot of people at the concession stand and she was working by herself.  But if you do go and want to have lunch, I recommend bringing your own food and eating at the picnic tables in the adjacent park.  Just a suggestion if you plan your own visit.  There is a dinner train at night that serves a meal from Hy-Vee, but we really enjoyed the afternoon ride.

It was a great family trip, and as you can see, my niece seemed to enjoy the day.  She even slept on the train!

Have you ever been on the Scenic Valley Railroad or another passenger train excursion?  What did you think of the trip?

Osage artisan festival

Last weekend, I drove up to my hometown in northern Iowa to visit my mom and stepdad.  My mom suggested that we drive to nearby Osage and check out the town's fall artisan festival.  We didn't know what to expect.  We thought we'd find a few food booths and a couple pumpkins to buy.  But boy, were we surprised by what we saw!  The main street was lined with food and craft vendors. Visitors were walking up and down the street, in and out of stores, wearing their knee-high leather boots and drinking pumpkin lattes. My mom and I had no idea it was such a big event!

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I've been told it's kind of a "no-no" to take photos at a craft fair. The vendors don't want other people stealing their project ideas -- although maybe that's not as big of an issue nowadays with Pinterest and all.

Anyhow, I took a photo of the "Autumn" sign above, because I wanted to buy it but didn't have the cash.  (Again, we had no idea that it was a craft fair, so I didn't budget for it. If I go again next year, I'll save up some spending money!)  I also thought this jack o' latern chair was adorable.

Here's one of the parking lots full of vendors.  There were four of these vendor lots, if I recall correctly.

There was a taco truck that had a huge line of people, and the food looked wonderful.  But my stepdad wanted to stop at one of his favorite Osage restaurants, Teluwat.  The place was packed, but we managed to snag a table by sharing it with a group of really nice women, one of whom told us that she had more than 30 grandkids and four great-grandkids! She was adorable!

My stepdad and I ordered the special of the day: the breaded pork tenderloin.  It was huge, but so good!

Everyone told us that we had to stop at the new Unc's Cheesecake bakery in town.  We were so full after lunch, we didn't sample the cheesecake.  But my mom and I did order a couple of carrot cake balls for the ride home. Actually, I thought they were pumpkin cake balls, but when I ate mine the next day, it turned out to be carrot cake.  Still very good, although I really wanted pumpkin!

Sugar cookies decorated for fall.

Carrot cake balls for the ride home.

Have you been to any fun fall festivals this year?  I'm always looking for a new one to visit.  I just love this time of year!

Arizona trip: April 2013

In February, I traveled to Arizona for a work trip.  My mom, who lives in Arizona in the winter, invited me to come back and visit at the end of April, when the weather starts to warm up again.  So I made another trip a couple weeks ago. When I got off the plane, the temps in Phoenix were 90 degrees. The cactus were also blooming, which was a treat to see.

My mom also told me if I came back to Arizona later in the spring, we could visit northern Arizona when the snow melts there.  After a windy mountain drive, climbing up to 5,000 feet in altitude, we stopped for the night in Flagstaff.  We stayed at the Comfort Inn hotel, and we were greeted by this fireplace in the lobby.

We drove another 2 hours to our next destination: the Grand Canyon!

Obviously, my photos can't really capture the view.  But it was magnificent, and we couldn't have asked for nicer weather -- 60 degrees and sunny.

 

My stepdad got his finger in all the photos he took!

 

 The next day, we drove south to Sedona to see the gorgeous red sandstone rock formations.  My mom's friends recommended we take the trolley tour to really see the sites.

See the finger in the top left corner?

 Sedona really was beautiful.  Very touristy, but worth the trip.

In downtown Sedona, we bought a couple T-shirts, then stopped at an ice cream shop.  I had to try the prickly pear cactus ice cream.  Tasted a lot like strawberries.

More cactus flowers blooming when we got back to Phoenix.

One more photo from the Superstition Mountain Museum in Apache Junction.  See the finger in the photo? I wasn't kidding when I said every photo was like this! Oh well.

This is probably my last trip for a while.  There's nothing better than Iowa weather in the summer.  If only it would warm up already!  I'm waiting for the May snow to melt.

What I've been up to: Arizona trip

And I'm back!  Thanks so much for your patience while I took a little break from blogging.  I finally had a whole weekend free to myself for the first time since mid-January!  And I totally indulged in my freedom this past weekend, giving myself a hot-pink pedicure, going to the gym and buying all the exotic fruits I could get my hands on at the local Hy-Vee store during the Tropical Days sale.

I spent the first week of February traveling with a group of Iowa farmers to Tuscon and Phoenix, Ariz.  My boss was too busy to go on the trip this year, so he asked me to fill in for him.  Our group spent a lot of time on a bus, touring different types of Arizona farms.  It was a really fun group to travel with.  And I ate the most amazing food!

Check out this view from my room at the Loews Resort in Tuscon.  Each room had an outdoor balcony patio.

The first night in Arizona, we were treated to an evening reception. I had to take a picture of the guacamole bar.  They were mixing up the guacamole right in front of us!

Nachos, guacamole and Coronas.

 Bright and early the next morning, we hopped the bus to visit an Arizona pecan farm.  The trees were dormant, so there wasn't much to look at. But we did get a chance to shop at the farm store.  I brought home a couple packages of the most beautiful pecan halves I've ever seen. I'm planning to turn them into a pie!

 

 

Later in the day, we toured a produce warehouse along the Mexican border in Nogales, Ariz. It was a state-of-the-art facility, with technology for tracking each tomato from the field to the grocery store. They were also very stringent with food safety there, thus my fancy head gear.

Cherry tomatoes packed and ready to ship.

 The next day, we had a little more free time to explore the resort.  We spent some time feeding the fish in the hotel pond.

Then we went on a nature walk to learn more about all the different types of cactus in the Tuscon area.

In the afternoon, we hopped another bus to the Sonoran Desert Museum near Tuscon.  It's actually more of a zoo than a museum, but most of the animals were taking their afternoon siestas.  I did have fun watching the prairie dogs.  One of them came right up to the glass to check out my camera.

On Super Bowl night, instead of watching the big game, we enjoyed another amazing dinner.  Check out the tiny macaroon cookies on the tres leches cake!  I've never had a macaroon before, so I was pretty excited to try one for the first time.  And of course, I had to take pictures!

We spent the last few days of the trip at the Wigwam Hotel near Phoenix.  The landscaping at the resort was beyond beautiful!  It was so nice to see blue skies and green grass after leaving Iowa in below zero temperatures!

On the last night, I finally got a chance to see my mom and stepdad, who are Arizona snowbirds.  My mom and I enjoyed a little girl time (otherwise known as shopping), and they took me to a nearby In-N-Out burger for supper. Wonder if we'll ever see an In-N-Out burger in Des Moines?

When we got back to the Wigwam Hotel, all the trees were decorated in lights, and we sat by the gas firepit to warm up before my mom and stepdad left for home. Such a beautiful hotel!

So awesome to chat with my mom and stepdad by the firepit.  It made it hard for me to leave Arizona!

Now as I'm writing this, I'm looking out my kitchen window at the 5 inches of snow we received a few days ago.  The snow is pretty, but I'll be happy when I can get outside and garden and bike again!