Who says you can't have fun in Iowa?

We also took a quick day trip down to Platteville, WI and Dubuque.

 While we were in Platteville, we went to the Mining Museum where there were $1 train rides around their lot with an old mining train pulling us.

 Then we also got to gear up and head down into the old mine to see what it looked like 120 years ago. This was everyone's favorite part- Emi liked wallking up and down the stairs of course and Peter was quiet when he was down there, but really liked seeing it all down below. There also was a small section of track up in the top of a building that they used to dump the waste rock out of the tall mine building which I think was his favorite part. He made a comment about how loud the dumps would be!

 Next, we headed to Dubuque where I lived for 10 days about 8 years ago when I worked for the Audubon Society on the Lilly Belle at the Mississippi River Museum.

 We first took a quick ride on the Fenelon Place Elevator which a banker built a long time ago becuase it was taking him too long to get home for lunch.

 And then we went to the Mississippi River Museum where we found a really nice kid's splash area, spent time outside climbing on a huge dredging barge, feeding a pond of carp, and then went back inside to see the fish, turtles, birds and other creatures.