Travel Midwest Part II

Last month I talked about the Fly In To Fly Over Country initiative in my first Travel Midwest blog post about my "Girl's Weekend" in Dubuque.  Today, I'm going to share about an Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer day trip that My Farmer and I took to Marquette and McGregor, Iowa last weekend.

Our friends Mike and Kaylee with me and My Farmer along the Mississippi River

Last Saturday around 50 Young Farmers from Northeast Iowa (and a few from North Central Iowa!) traveled to the Mississippi River for a day in Marquette and McGregor, Iowa.  These towns are both along the river and are a couple miles from each other.

The day started by going on a tour and eating at Old Man River Brewery in McGregor.  This was a great place to meet up and visit with everyone, as well as try some beer!  My favorite beer was their Gold Coin Helles.  There top selling beer is their Slingshot Dunkel.  They are selling so much beer that they are brewing daily!

After the brewery, we all went on a two-hour river boat cruise where we learned about agriculture and shipping on the Mississippi River.  It was a lot of fun to be on the river and to see barge traffic in action.

The last tour of the day was at Eagles Landing Winery in Marquette.  It was a lot of fun to get a tour of the winery from one of the owners.  You could really sense his love and passion for agriculture, viticulture, his winery and Iowa.  My favorite wine probably was their Campfire Hootch, which also happens to be their top seller.  The neat thing about this wine is that they created it by chance by combining the bottom of their wine tanks.  No two batches of this wine will ever be the same.

My Farmer and I had a great time during our trip to the Mississippi River.  Remember to join the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page.  Also, check out the groups's Pinterest page too.  This campaign was started in May when National Geographic's Aric Queen announced he would be traveling the United States on a "Classic American Roadtrip."  The only downfall of this roadtrip was that it started on the East Coast, went down South and then over to Los Angeles - completing bi-passing the Midwest!

What are some agri-tourism trips you have went on?

Travel Midwest

I promised in my "Purple, Girls, Healthy and More" post last week that I'd explain about Girls and Healthy at a later time, well today I'm going to explain Girls, as well as talk about the Fly In To Fly Over Country initiative going on right now.

At the beginning of the month I had my annual "Girl's Weekend" with my Mom and sisters.  We do it every year as my Mom's Mother's Day gift.  The criteria for the Girl's Weekend is that it must include massages, lots of good food and drinks, be an overnight, involve at least a little shopping and be a lot of fun!  We have traveled several places in Iowa for our girl's weekend and this year was no different, we celebrated our Girl's Weekend in Dubuque!

My Mom, Sisters and I at Stone Cliff Winery in Dubuque

We started out our Girl's Weekend by slowly traveling over to Dubuque.  You see my sister Amanda and I live about 100 miles away from each other and my Mom and sister Rachel live in between, so in order to get everyone in one car it takes a little time and usually means we don't take a direct path to where we are going.  So I figured on our way east to Dubuque we should visit my county's town seat, Hampton.  We started our Girl's Weekend by doing plenty of shopping in Hampton.  This town offers a wide variety of specialty shops.  Great shops to check out in Hampton include (but are not limited to) Freckled Dandelion (baby and kids clothing, books and toys boutique), Orange Possum (teen and young female adult clothing and accessories), Wood Cellar (home decor and gifts), Cornerstone Cottage (home decor, books, gifts, bath & body shop) and Cornerstone Cottage Kids (kids books, games and room decor).

After our shopping in Hampton we traveled the rest of the way to Dubuque and got settled in at the historic Hotel Julien.  After checking-in to the hotel we checked out the downtown area including Cable Car Square, went out to eat at Crust, and then drank wine and listened to live music at Stone Cliff Winery and Star Brewery.

Star Brewery and Stone Cliff Winery, Dubuque

My favorite wines at Stone Cliff were their Riesling and Red Fox.  I recommend going to Stone Cliff Winery because besides being a fun atmosphere and good wine, it is right along the Mississippi River and the River Walk.

Mississippi River Walk, Dubuque

On the second day of our Girl's Weekend the big thing we did was get massages at Potosa Spa.  The massages were great and we all loved to spa amenities and atmosphere.

My Mom, Sisters and I love traveling Iowa, and I love exploring Iowa with my family too!  And that is why I encourage all of you to join the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page.  This campaign was started last month when National Geographic's Aric Queen announced he would be traveling the United States on a "Classic American Roadtrip."  The only downfall of this roadtrip was that it started on the East Coast, went down South and then over to Los Angeles - completing bi-passing the Midwest!  As a child many of my favorite family vacations were in the Midwest including the Badlands, Deadwood and the Corn Palace in South Dakota, Hannibal, St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri, and Springfield in Illinois.

If the Fly In To Fly Over Country: Travel Midwest facebook page gets 300 likes by next week National Geographic has agreed to talk with Deb Brown from Iowa about traveling to the Midwest.  So please help this effort to showcase why the Midwest is so great by joining the facebook page and spreading the word to your friends.  Also, check out the groups's Pinterest page too.

What do you think makes the Midwest special?  Where have been some of your favorite Midwest vacation spots?