Surprisingly good sleep last night for the first night out. Woke up to some storms at some point but feel right back to sleep. Had a light breakfast - yogurt and a banana, Kurt had some Kwik Trip donuts of course - and we headed out for the Niagara Cave. Was a pretty hour drive through SouthEast Minnesota countryside.
We had a group of 7 on the first tour of the day. Our tourguide Parker (?) was young but excellent. This is one of my favorite cave tours I have been on. Was just a super cool place. It was a very wet cave and we got 'cave kisses' (dripped on) in quite a few places. There was even a waterfall at one spot. On the way back you just backtrack. So our tour guide followed us to make sure everyone made it out and let us make our way. I liked letting the people in front of me get ahead a little and the people behind were a bit back so it almost like you were in the cave alone. If ever in the area I HIGHLY recommend - if you don't mind the 550 stairs.
Here are just a couple shots - I could post pages of pictures.
In this picture you can see the mud line from the floods of 2008. They were at least 10 feet up the wall. He said it took about 24 hours for the water to drain back out and they were left with a big muddy mess. They left this line to show how high the water had gotten.
After our cave tour we headed for Decorah, about a half hour and into Iowa. We were getting a bit hungry so we to Mabe's for pizza. After we walked around downtown Decorah just a little. Time for some wondering! We headed for Dunnings Springs Park. First we walked about a half mile up the road to the Ice Cave. This is a small cave that goes back maybe 100 feet. It is supposed to have ice into August but we saw no ice. Was a neat little place and nice and cool after our HOT walk. The one bad thing about the ice cave is it felt 10 times hotter when you came back out!
After the ice cave we headed to Dunnings Springs Falls. Very pretty set of falls. They had a set up stairs you could take to a platform about the falls. Was neat as the water just comes out of the rocks.
By this time we were both hot and quite sweaty so stopped at Pulpit Rock Brewery to cool off. The air conditioning and cold beer were great!
Left Pulpit Rock and headed to Phelps Park for some more wandering. Was a nice drive through town to get there with some neat old houses. Did a bit of wandering around the park. They had a neat path along the river. Although you couldn't see the river for all the trees they did have neat rock work and wooden bridges. We just took the path for a little ways as it had started raining. I would have done the full loop if not for the heat and the rain.
At this point we were hot and sweaty again so time to go relax for a while at the hotel. Checked in (with free candy bar and bottle of water for being Gold Elite and went to the room to cool off and shower. Staying at the Quality Inn in Decorah tonight. Once again, nice room.
After a little of a rest we headed to Toppling Goliath for some libations and a little bite to eat. This brewery was not what expected, almost more of a restaurant then a bar. They were out of the beer I wanted which was maybe a good thing as I had it before and was forced to try something new. A couple drinks, some chicken strips, and very good pretzel.
As usual when we talk about going out we like to think we are young but after a couple drinks we are usually ready to go. Kurt had the genius idea to get ice cream. I was all in!!!! We went to the Sugar Bowl. It was the cutest little ice cream shop and they had ice cream flights! I have heard of these but never seen one in real life!!! The ice cream was so good, I don't remember what flavors I had but they were all amazing. Kurt had a waffle cone with 'This &*$# Just Got Real'. He said his was awesome too!As we were eating I asked if this means we are getting old - leaving the bar to get ice cream. He said yes, but he's good with it.
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