“We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover”

Iowa City, Iowa May 13 – May 19 2021

We left Springfield and headed to Iowa City. Iowa City was another surprise. The city was a combination town and university. We happened upon the city during college graduation and the city was full of graduates and their families.

The Downtown was close to the college and in fact overlapped. The downtown contained many old buildings with shops and restaurants on the first floor and apartments above. Pursuant to the recommendation of a local (one we talked to at a local outdoor store) we had lunch at Pullman Bar and Diner. The meal was pretty good and packed with locals.

The Herbert Hoover presidential museum was at the top of our “to do” list for Iowa City. Unfortunately the museum was still closed for COVID, but we were able to tour the visitor’s center that contained a time line of Hoover’s life, the Quaker village where he grew up before being orphaned at age 10, and his grave site.

We also spent one morning at the Amana Colonies. Amana is a communal colony founded by Germans who broke from the Lutheran church. The colony was totally self sufficient from 1856 until disbanded in 1932. Now it is a national historic site with shops and German restaurants.

A local recommended that we try Big Grove Brewery (yes – the same local from the outdoor store). The place was packed over the weekend so we visited on a Tuesday. The beer was pretty good. On the day that we were thwarted from the brewery we went to 30Hop. This was a local restaurant with – you guessed it – 30 beers on tap. The beer was good, the food was great and they made a delicious Old Fashion.

On our way in and out of town we passed the world’s largest truck stop. Who knew that was even a thing?

On to Chicago.

“We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover” from Annie. I do not know why Steve loves this song and sings it whenever he talks about Annie or Herbert Hoover.