I normally don't note the hotels we stay at because they're all standard, nice and accommodating. But... the hotel we stayed at in Iowa City (The Hartland Inn in Coralville) was kind of awful. 👎 First off, it was OLD and the owners seemed to show no interest in renovating it. Our room's window a/c unit was from the previous century and it could not regulate the temperature at all ... it was either freezing cold or 90 degrees with no in between. The bed was very used and the shower sucked. The only good part was that management put a nice welcome sign on the marquee for Audrey's wedding. You can't really see in the picture but it reads, Welcome Strike/Brady Wedding.
Before heading out, I asked Audrey for restaurant suggestions. She suggested Big Grove Brewery for dinner and I am so glad we went. 🍺 Besides her wedding, Big Grove Brewery was the best part of Iowa... seriously, it's the highlight of the entire state. LOL It is a large taproom and restaurant. It was crowded the night we went but since it was so large, we could still get a table away from the crowds and hear ourselves talk. The music was loud but not too loud. It felt intimate even though it was very busy. Extremely good atmosphere!
The brewery is famous for their Easy Eddy IPA. It won a "Best IPA in Iowa" award. They were also releasing a new beer, the Royal Eddy. It is similar to the Easy Eddy but with more citrus and a much higher alcohol content. We both sampled some and surprisingly, Wes liked it more than I did (he normally hates IPAs). I also got a pumpkin stout --very good, my favorite of the night. Wes got an oatmeal coffee stout.
I got a banh mi for my meal and Wes got a pretzel. He said the pretzel and mustard was good but the cheese sauce was oddly runny. After a few more meals in Iowa, we discovered that most of their dipping sauces are runny. My banh mi was served open faced, which was unusual but it was still very tasty. My favorite part was the pâté. They used a fried slice (think upscale SPAM) instead of the spread.
For breakfast the next morning, we went to The Dandy Lion. This was Wes's favorite breakfast place throughout our entire trip. The Dandy Lion is a popular and local spot downtown. There was a wait since we went on a Sunday morning. No worries, I thought, we're downtown... there will be something to do while we wait. There was not. Since it was a Sunday morning, everything was closed 😖 not like there was much to do anyway, just a few shops and boutiques. I soon discovered that there is pretty much nothing touristy to do in Iowa. Regardless, breakfast was well worth the wait because it was delicious. I got the salmon toast and Wes got the standard two egg breakfast. The menu described the salmon toast as being topped with two "cuddly poached" eggs. That along with the chai tea latte did make me feel warm and cuddly. 😊
Long before our trip, I randomly told my hairdresser that we'd be driving to Iowa for a wedding in the autumn. She asked if I liked Star Trek and then suggested that we go see the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. I am not a Star Trek fan but my mom's husband, Mike, is. I filed it away as something to do if we had extra time. Since Iowa boasts of absolutely ZERO tourist attractions, we had plenty of time to drive to Riverside to see the Star Trek attraction.
The future birthplace is the tiny town of Riverside's claim to fame. The mayor decided to designate his town as the birthplace after he noticed that the show stated Iowa as Captain Kirk's hometown. No one questioned it and now it is all over Riverside. You can see signs highlighting and pointing travelers to the birthplace as soon as you pull in to the town.
The tombstone (birthstone??) is tucked away on a residential street by the post office, a dance studio and barber shop. The area it is in is nicely landscaped and it was a fun stop to make, even if I haven't seen a single episode of the show. LOL I hope you're reading this, Mike, because these pictures are for you!
The next thing we did was celebrate Audrey & Ryan's wedding. I'll do a separate post on that since I took a million pictures. The next day, we had breakfast at the Blue Bird Diner, another of Audrey's suggestions. It was good but not as good as the breakfast we had at The Dandy Lion. Wes go the standard two egg breakfast (again) and he said the pecan smoked bacon stood out to him. I got a jambalaya inspired omelet that had the best herbed whipped cream cheese. The hashbrowns were also really good.
After breakfast, we drove to The House on the Rock, which will have to be another blog post because I took literally over 100 pictures. That evening for dinner, we had dinner in Dubuque, Iowa. Marco's Italian & American Foods is a tiny local establishment that has been in Dubuque since the beginning of time (or so it seemed). I'm not sure if it was because we hadn't eaten anything since our early breakfast or if the food at Marco's really is that good but that meal was the best Italian food I've had in a long time, if ever. Wes passed on his salad since he saw from another table that it looked like grocery store salad out of a bag, but he missed out because the house Cesar dressing was so good! We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals.
I had a hard time finding a good breakfast place in Dubque for the following morning. I settled on Dottie's Cafè but at the last minute, I discovered Habits Donuts & Coffee -- a trendy hipster donut shop with a "build your own donut" option. 🍩 I was so excited and craving donuts as we drove. When we got there, there was a sign on the door stating they were temporarily closed for the week. SAD FACE!!! I still wanted donuts so we went to the second best donut shop, per Google's reviews, Donut Boy. It was barf. 😩🤮 Since we were still hungry, we went to Dottie's after all. It was also suboptimal. I got the loose meat sandwich. It was their lunch special for the day and I wanted to try a loose meat sandwich while in the Midwest (one of the signature dishes). It was a bland and dry sloppy joe. Not good. Oh, I almost forgot... there was one good thing at Dottie's - her potato and ham soup (and it wasn't just me being a picky eater, Wes hated his meal, too).
After that disappointing meal, we left Iowa and headed to our next destination. We needed to stop for gas, snacks and drinks, and our halfway point was Peoria, IL. Boba always cheers me up so I looked for a boba café. Dang Banh Mi was the only place in town so we went. I got a strawberry milk tea with their house boba pearls. They're made with caramelized brown sugar and are softer & chewier than regular boba. I did not like them. Tuesday November 2, 2021 will be recorded as the worst travel day for food. But, our next stop is St. Louis and we had plenty of delicious food there!!
