Grinnell pizza

coming to town tonite - have been to paglia%26#39;s - are there any others that i should try. thanks.

Girls Weekend

Looking for a cabin to rent for a weekend in the month of Oct. 3-4 Ladies looking foran enjoyable weekend. Prefer to be on the lake for a view.

Winterset Bridge Question

Tossing around the idea of going to the Festival this Oct. Aprox. how far of a drive is it to see some of the bridges? Any more scenic than others?

Winterset Bridge Question

Using Winterset as a base, you can probably see all of the preserved bridges within about 2 hrs. on a typical weekend. You may want to add 30 mins. or so to allow for traffic and crowds on the festival weekend.

One of the bridges is located in a city park on the SE side of Winterset, so you won%26#39;t have to stray far from the festival area to see it. It takes about 20 mins. each from Winterset to get to the Roseman and Imes bridges; one is east of Winterset and the other is west. The other bridges are perhaps 10 mins. from Winterset. Here is a map that may help you:

madisoncounty.com/images/Madison_County_Map.鈥?/a>

Winterset is within a 30 min. drive from much of the Des Moines metro area.

Many people particularly like the Roseman bridge and the Cedar and Cutler-Donahoe bridges are in particularly scenic settings. Each is a little bit different and all are worth seeing.

Enjoy your trip!

Winterset Bridge Question

prariedog, thank you for all the helpful info!! Much appreciated :)

Shopping

What kind of shopping is in Algona , does it have country shops and boutiques

Shopping

There are a number of cute shops in Algona. Unlike some small towns in Iowa, the Main Street is alive and well. There are a few clothing and shoe shops. They have a specialty pet store which is fun to look through. Perhaps most unique (and what you seem to be looking for) is a shop in the old Post Office which I believe is called ';Woods by Us';. It has lost of craft-y kinds of things and decorations. Algona%26#39;s a cute town.

Family wants to tour farm area in October

We have a family from Western Virgina visitng in October and he is interested in driving around the farms during harvest. He raises corn, tobacco and cattle. We would be driving thro Missouri from St Louis area. Traveling on US 61. We will drive up one day return the next.

Family wants to tour farm area in October

When you cross the border into Iowa and continue driving north on Hwy. 218, you%26#39;ll be surrounded by farms and should have a good opportunity to see the typical field work in progress at that stage of the growing/harvesting season.

You may want to continue to Mt. Pleasant, IA to visit the Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Museum. Here is a link to further information: www.oldthreshers.org/index.cfm…

Another interesting option is to drive through the area south and west of Iowa City around Sharon Center, Kalona and Wellman. There are many Amish and Mennonite farmers in that area who farm using traditional methods.

I hope that you and your visitors have an interesting, safe and fun trip!

Family wants to tour farm area in October

Thank you for your help. We may add John Deere in Moline to our adventure.

facbook

Best places to stay/eat

Have a trip to Ames coming up. Wondering where the best places to stay/eat are. Any suggestions?

Best places to stay/eat

Hickory Park is the best (local) place to eat. Large reasonable menu and tons of ice cream selections. We live in Des Moines, about 30 miles, and drive up just to eat

www.hickoryparkames.com

Best places to stay/eat

If you like pizza, I also recommend Great Plains Sauce %26amp; Dough Co. in downtown Ames. The whole wheat crust pies are great!

Just a clarification: Great Plains Sauce %26amp; Dough has pizza pies (vs. dessert pies).

There is a really good Indonesian restaurant called Bali Satay. It is right on Lincoln Way across from the lake. My suggestion is go for lunch and you won%26#39;t have to deal with crazy college kids.

There is also another BBQ place called Battles and it is on Welch.

There is also a hole in the wall Chinese place called Chinese Home Style Cooking. You have to be a little adventurous to try it, but it well worth it.

I%26#39;m going to brave heresy and say that I think Hickory Park is overrated. Sure, it%26#39;s good classic homestyle Iowa food, and probably worth a stop since it%26#39;s part of the local culture, but in my opinion there are better restaurants than HP.

My very favorite is The Cafe which serves locally sourced foods when possible and is dangerously yummy. The menu is seasonal and I think they have very reasonable prices considering the high quality of food and cooking.

www.thecafeames.com

I second the Cafe suggestion. It%26#39;s fabulous! I also really like The Spice on Main Street. It%26#39;s very tasty Thai food. http://www.thespiceames.com/.

As far as where to stay, Gateway is an Ames classic and a pretty nice place. http://www.gatewayames.com/. Their site seems to be down right now...not sure why.

There%26#39;s also a very cool B%26amp;B called The MonteBello that I highly recommend. http://www.montebellobandbinn.com/.

I agree with the Gateway as a good place to stay. Reasonable priced and very nice. For restaurants, my favorite is Cafe Shi which is Asian inspired. Very good and locally owned. It%26#39;s on Grand avenue right north of the North Grand Mall in a shopping area called Northern Lights. If you%26#39;re staying at the Gateway, the West End Pub is good food also. Just get back on Hwy 30 and go to the next exit west (South Dakota Avenue) and it%26#39;s right there at the exit. If you%26#39;re into organic food, we have a great organic coop grocery store called Wheatsfield that is one of my favorite places in Ames. It just opened it%26#39;s new expanded store featuring a deli that is awesome. We love to get deli food and head out to Aida Hayden Park right north of Ames on Hwy 69 for a picnic.

I agree with the other post that Hickory Park is overrated. If you want BBQ, Battles is much better. Hickory Park is one of those very touristy things that people who come to Ames think they have to try. It used to be very good when it was a small ';hole in the wall'; place that could only seat about 20 people at at time. It%26#39;s now mass produced food and not near as good as the orginal.

Bernard , IA

My family will be heading to Bernard for a week in the end of June. Any attractions we should see? Thanks.

Bernard , IA

Bernard is a very small town, so attractions there will be limited. However, it is within a short drive of:

- Dyersville%26#39;s Field of Dreams (from the movie)

- Beautiful country scenery around Anamosa and Stone City, made famous by Grant Wood

- The cave at Maquoketa

- The antique stores, history and pretty views around Galena, IL

- The riverfront attractions in Dubuque

Have a safe and enjoyable trip!

Bernard , IA

I can only assume you must have family in the Bernard area - if not, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would be staying there for a week! Bernard consists of a handful of houses and couple of bars and that is about it. Prairiedog summed up some day trips that may be of interst to you.

I live about 10 miles from Bernard, so if you have more specific questions about something let me know.