Help! planning a trip somewhere between milwaukee & Omaha

I am planning a family trip for this summer, I want to pick a place that is between Milwaukee and Omaha NE. We will have 5 kids and 5 adults. kids ages are 6,8,10 %26amp; 11. I was thinking some place near the water for swimming, maybe a cabin or condo. Please make a suggestion. I am from labama and have no idea what is a nice area in the middle. Some family live in Omaha %26amp; others in Milwaukee. Something fun for the family. What area should I choose

Help! planning a trip somewhere between milwaukee %26amp; Omaha

In Iowa, I have several suggestions:

- If you%26#39;re willing to get off the interstate, the Field of Dreams (where they filmed the movie) near Dyersville, Iowa, is not far off of Hwy. 20 in northeastern Iowa (west of Dubuque). There%26#39;s also a farm toy museum in Dyersville that some kids seem to enjoy.

- Along I 80 in Central Iowa (closer to Omaha), the Des Moines area offers some options. If you happen to be here in mid August, the Iowa State Fair is a fantastic, fun family event. Otherwise, Living History Farms in Urbandale (a western Des Moines suburb) is both educational and fun. There are two really nice, reasonably priced hotels with good swimming pools right next to the farm grounds. Des Moines also has a decent science center downtown.

- In Eastern Iowa, the Iowa City area has a lot to offer. It has free concerts in the downtown pedestrian mall every Fri. night in the summer. The ped mall has a lot of fun shops and a small playground area. It%26#39;s also near the Univ. of Iowa campus, which has a natural history museum that the kids in our family enjoy. About 10 miles east of Iowa City is a town called West Branch which has the Herbert Hoover Presidential Libraray and his birthplace. History has not been very kind to Hoover, but you%26#39;ll learn that he was a great humanitarian and the historical exhibits are interesting, too. All of this is either free or low cost. Iowa City has plenty of hotels.

I%26#39;m less familiar with what you might find in Illinois or Wisconsin, but Galena, IL and Chicago come to mind as options.

Have a great trip, regardless of where you go!

Help! planning a trip somewhere between milwaukee %26amp; Omaha

Hi! I am going to make this suggestion (again), especially since you have kids. The Boone Scenic Railroad: http://www.scenic-valleyrr.com/ This is a fun train ride for adults and kids, and the scenery is outstanding. I grew up in this area, and still love to go there when I come home.

If you like to camp, The Ledges State Park is very pretty:

iowadnr.com/parks/state_park_list/ledges.html

Or Brushy Creek, if you like horses. iowadnr.com/parks/鈥rushy_creek.html

I believe this site has more camping/cabin information for the area in which you will be travelling: iowadnr.com/parks/鈥ine_lake.html

Going from Madison to Iowa is boring if you take 151, however there are several wineries and also The House on the Rock.

http://www.thehouseontherock.com/

If you take hwy 11 across the bottom of the state, you can hit Monroe, WI for some cheese, and even dip into Illinois (Galena, I believe), which is very pretty along the river.

From Milwaukee to Madison is a little more tricky. If you drop down south from the interstate to hwy 12, there is a drive in movie theater near Jefferson, which is one of two in the state, I believe.

What else can I tell you?? I have made the trip from Milwaukee to Webster City, IA too many times, so if you have any questions, please reply to this and I would love to help you out. Have a great trip!

Just a quick correction to the above post. The drive-in movie theater outside of Jefferson is on Highway 18, not Highway 12.

I can%26#39;t believe nobody has mentioned the National Mississippi River Museum %26amp; Aquarium in Dubuque. My family hasn%26#39;t gone, but friends of ours have and they just rave about it.

Nearby is The Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark hotel. They have an indoor waterpark. You can find out more at: http://www.americasriver.com/

also in Boone is Seven Oaks Recreation that offers canoe/kayak and river tube floats on the Des Moines River.

www.sevenoaksrec.com

I%26#39;d be all over the mighty Mississippi. Rent yourselves a erbigass houseboat that can accommadate everyone for a week or so. Can%26#39;t get any cheap.

Backbone state park near Strawberry point is a nice weekend get away.

The Hoover museum is unique but I was really disappointed with the Hotel ';Presidential Inn'; close by. I suppose the hotel is OK if you bring your own toilet paper or don%26#39;t use any, don%26#39;t mind just one sheet on the bed, and are the first to get to the included breakfast so someone else does not eat it first. I rented two rooms. One had about a thirty-second of an inch of toilet paper the other thankfully had over three times as much and two pieces of kleenex. Also, each room had a bath towel even the room with two beds. You might not need the towel though as dirty tub in one of our rooms made it most uninviting.

There is a lookout tower on highway 20 west of Galena providing a scenic rest stop on your way to Dubuque or Davenport. There are boat rides and caves at Dubuque and other river cities. From Prairie ducheyne to Clinton there is a scenic river road with tourist spots in McGregor Ia. The area looks more like Tennesse then Iowa. Ten miles from the river, the landscape start changing back to flatness.

Here is an idea. There is a waterpark in Waterloo, Iowa called The Lost Island. http://www.thelostisland.com/

I have never been there nor stayed there but a waterpark would be great for the kids. But check out their web site and they have good pictures. Its not hard to get to either. I could see just a glimpse of it off the main highway going through town. I think it is a fairly new waterpark and they keep adding new things too.

As for hotels, I have stayed in the Country Inn %26amp; Suites, 2910 S Main Street in Cedar Falls. This is about a 15 minute drive from the waterpark, on a main highway. But this hotel is very clean and they go out of their way to accommodate you. This hotel has actually gotten many awards for their over and above services. The business I work for always makes reservations here because the hotel, as a whole, is extremely nice. And many people at a convention I was at, made comments about how many awards their hotel had received. So the word is out about this hotel. Can%26#39;t go wrong with this one. So if you don%26#39;t mind a 15 minute drive on a main highway, you could get a nice hotel and a great waterpark!

There%26#39;s a really nice State Park in Anita, Iowa. Half way between Des Moines and Omaha. There is camping available. Huge State Park-Free to get into the Park and camping is very inexpensive. Nice beach for the kids to go swimming. You can fish by shore or boat. Bike paths are throughout the park. Shower facilities also. A lot of wildlife. It%26#39;s about 4 miles south of Interstate 80.

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