Maquoketa

Today Jeff and I spent the day with his Mom and Dad. We went to Maquoketa for a big yardsale at the fairgrounds. Starting the day at the fairgrounds, we each found a few small treasures. Nothing huge and between us we probably spent less then $20.00 total, but it was a lot of fun.

After that we did a quick geocache at a local dam. The water wasn't frozen anymore, though there was still a lot of ice and snow at the rivers edges. We walked around looking for what turned out to be a very small cache. Doug was the one who actually found it, which was fun since it was his first time doing a cache. "A round peg in a square hole" was the name of the cache and it certainly fit.

Next we had lunch at Bluff Lake a very out of the way place Doug and Lee had heard about. We had the all you could eat chicken and shrimp. They brought to our table big baskets of fries and shrimp a platter of chicken and the meal also included homemade coleslaw and bread, it was excellent. I don't think i've ever eaten so much shrimp at one meal. We all left very full.

The very first picture of Jeff and I and the windmill were taken outside the restaurant.

Next we went to the Maquoketa Caves. What an awesome place! We began climbing down a flight of snow and ice covered stairs. I was a bit nervous after that, but then the view and just being outdoors on such a beautiful crisp winter day just really made any nervousness disapear. We walked across the frozen river, taking plenty of pictures as we made our way. Here Doug is looking at a large crack in the ice where you can see the river flowing beneath. We even saw a couple of groundhogs which Jeff was able to take some great pictures of.


We took some excellent pictures throughout the day including some of little one room school house and just some wonderful scenes of the park. Here in this last picture is the four of us posing for a timed shot. I think I hit my head in that cave twice before I remembered to duck.

While I'd seen the park many years ago, being with Jeff and his parents today was like experiencing it all again for the first time. It was a totally different place and experience today and again I was reminded of how much my life has changed and how blessed I am.

If you've never had the chance the park is beautiful this time of year, you are able to view a much different perspective then when the grass is green and the leaves fill the trees and block the view of the clear blue sky.