will blog for snacks 2015: Cassville Catch UP Monster edition: Monday July 21st - Cassville: Dickeyville Grotto, Dubuque visit, + more kayaking.

Aunt Jenny is a master beader. She's been working on her craft for 14 years. Awhile back, she had asked me to send my wrist size for a new bracelet. I arrived and there it was, pictured in her hands. She needed to add a few rows more, so I got to see the amount of detail that goes into each one. What a labor of love. I didn't bring any jewelry, but now have this, plus another with porcelain roses, and some earrings too. Rory got a custom bracelet that will be shown later...

We had to go to the Cassville Post Office, and Uncle Jon happened to be visiting too on his Vespa scooter from the Coal Plant. He had a registered letter to drop off and we had postcards to send.

Sponge Bob was there too.

I love seeing my tall Uncle on this little scooter. What fun. Jon once road his bike from Seattle to Madison. He could suit up like a Tour rider, but why, when you can travel in this style?

Here I am trying to take a picture of Cassville's many trains. This one is filled with "Warren Buffet's Oil", as Uncle Jon puts it.

Fuel time, we see Bucky on the boat:

After hitting the Post Office and gassing up, we packed the car up and headed to Iowa. Along the way, there's a natural spring that you can fill your bottles with. I'm a super fan of these, so we braked hard and drank up. Yum. Local free water, cold from the rock bluff. Delish.

Jenny took this shot of Rory and I wrastling for a pose at the Spring. Love it.

Here's the view from the Spring to the Mighty Miss.

The next stop along the way to Dubuque was the Dickeyville Grotto. The Grotto, as it's called by locals, was built by one man, Father Matthias Wernerus, from 1925-1930 (pre-Rushmore for those of you that have been reading). His handbuilt mosaics use stones, gems, porcelain, fossils, corals, moss, and more in a memorial to God and Country. It's a must see, along with the Church Garage Sale which is open during the day (great 25 cent bargains) and the Shrine Gift Shop, where you can stock up on your religious icon-ery.

Rory gives it a thumbs up, in his second visit here.

Here are some of the statues:

Tree of Life Shrine, above.

Shrine of the Blessed Virgin, ceiling detail.

Holy Ghost Church with Grotto at rear. I love this vernacular style of architecture and did go a bit overboard with the photos. I hope you're still here...

Here's the bridge to Iowa!

Mansion owned by the "Porta Potty King" of Wisconsin, which sits overlooking Dubuque and the Mississippi.

We're here - another state to the list!

Railcar tracks and bike lanes in this Dubuque district, which houses the Dubuque Food Co-op, where I stocked up on Kombucha (we're hurting for probiotics) and on-sale spicy local cheese curds. This lane was closed at the Co-op...

I am in LOVE, LOVE, LOVE with the architecture of Dubuque, always have been. This has been my first real slow look around - Thank you Jenny!!! Here come the images:

Ahh, River Money.

Anyone want to buy this fixer-upper with me?

We treated Auntie Jenny to pizza lunch at Burnt Toast. Just look at that cheese.

Across from lunch, sat Hotel Julien. Built in 1854 to host the River's elegant visitors, named after Julien Dubuque, it later got notoriety as Al Capone's hideout (and fave hotel). Auntie Kacey & Uncle Tony (you'll meet them in a future post) hosted their wedding reception here when Rory was just a handful of months old. Dad was in Wisco for Thanksgiving and Mom drove up with new Uncle Nathaniel from Topeka, so that he could meet lil' Rory for the first time. We have lots of pictures with Rory in a front pack from Hotel Julien. I suppose it was Rory's first hotel. So, we were going to try to spoof a 10-year old in a front pack image for you, but I was too full after lunch. We took these instead:

Love the grand staircase.

Love the view from the second floor down to lobby.

There's an amazingly tall mirror that you can barely see on the first floor at left that sits at the entrance. It was added in 1962, from the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC, renowned as the place where every performer took a last glance before going onstage. It is massive and I'm sad to not have taken a photo. You'll just have to step in to see it yourself.

Dubuque's second Town Clock circa 1873.

Remember this similar electrical alley set-up from Mitchell SD (Corn Palace) ?

Yes, this is a pool of blue caramel corn from...

Rory, whose main food groups now contain both colorant and sweetener, shows off his half-eaten bag below. We met owner Carol and her son, busy working on popcorn that day at Freddie's. Flavored popcorn is very pop-ular in the Midwest.

While Rory and Jenn were busy shopping the corn, I was busy perusing the amazing collection of new books and things at River Lights, right next door to Freddie's. Don't miss it, with their local books section, fab cooking, local book club selections (there are over a dozen reader clubs here!), CSA recommendations and more. They even publish, will deliver by bike, and I think I saw, walk your dog while you shop! Move over Powell's City of Books.

Check it out here.

Aunt Jenny smartly picked up a deck of cards to teach Rory the local card game of Euchre, which according to Jenny was stolen by Iowa from Wisconsin (see Madison's local club here). Wisonsonites are fiercely proud of their own.

Below see Dubuque's County Courthouse, built in 1891 in the Beaux-Arts style by Fridolin Heer & Son.

That's it! We're outta here.

Back to Wisconsin. One more shot of the "Porta-Potty King" Mansion.

Bridge image:

Sweet return to the Motherland.

See that horse is a cutout...

AND after all of that fun, Jon came home, Jenny took a lie down (smart girl), and Rory, Jon and I went for an evening kayak!!

Waterfall route is back.

Oh! And I forgot to update you. Remember all of those tin cans that we collected on this route yesterday? Well, Jon emailed the proprietor of Grant River Tubin' Co. to show him our trash loot. It was so convincing that he purchased mesh sacks for each party to collect cans in. Nothing like some grassroots activism for real change. We found 4 cans and a two pairs of flip flops on this round.