Iowa

Pros: It is home.
Cons: It is, perhaps, a long way from home for most of my readers.

.. My home-state of Iowa is land of many contrasts. It is very agricultural yet also very technological. It is 'big city' but it is also 'small town'. Its weather can be as cold as a Minnesota ice-fishing hut or as hot as a California desert. Iowa, ...

Pros: Great feeling, almost as magical as the players walking in and out of the corn.
Cons: Out of the way, but not too far.

I have been cross country from NY to the west a couple of times. The first time we made a mad dash across the Mississippi and kept going till we got to the Badlands and Mt Rushmore. The second time we decided to catch a bit of what the midwest ...

Pros: Wonderful look at prairie life in the 1800s
Cons: Most people don't pick Iowa for their top vacation spot

Do you remember that line from "My Favorite Things" in the movie The Sound of Music? Having sung all the lines about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, have you ever wondered what schnitzel with noodles really is? Take a trip to...

Pros: It's all about baseball
Cons: Can't play baseball in the winter

It’s 1911 and Shoeless Joe Jackson steps up to the plate. He’s a rookie playing for Cleveland and he knows how to please a crowd: hit the ball. At the age of 23 he set the record for highest batting average by a rookie.

Just two years...

Pros: Always entertaining-available everywhere
Cons: You can lose your shirt

It seems impossible for Iowa to have changed so much in the past 20 years. Back then you could not get liquor by the drink, people being arrested if your church held Bingo games and everything was clean and pure. LOL! Well not today Iowa has caught up...

Pros: Tons of shopping-good food-friendly people
Cons: Need money

Anyone driving on Interstate #80 passing through Iowa should take a rest stop for a day or two and visit the Amana Colonies. These colonies are a historical landmark of German villages in the hills of eastern Iowa. You will be intrigued with the seven...

Pros: lots of great shopping and food
Cons: can be crowded during summer

In eastern Iowa, just north of Interstate 80, is one of Iowa's best kept secrets...The Amana Colonies. I first visited the Amanas when I was coming back from a college visit (I won't mention the year...<grin>). Since then I've been back several...

Pros: A fun place to visit
Cons: Thunder to loud

I would like to tell you about a trip I took this Year to FtDodge Iowa.
I went to go see my foster uncle but I did get to see some places I would like to tell you about. I honestly did not know that Ft Dodge Iowa is the state for corn. Every time...

Pros: Areas of interest in Western Iowa
Cons: Only if you look for negatives

M_Lee_Williams suggested I write some travel reviews of Iowa. It made me stop and think what would people want to know about Iowa. Having lived in Iowa for over 40 years, I will try to bring, as many as I think will be of interest. So get prepared,...

Pros: Fun for all ages
Cons: Traffic heavy in summer

For the past 100 years, these Lakes have provided Iowa and surrounding areas a family vacation worth remembering. These lakes are glacier carved, located in northwest Iowa near the Minnesota border. These lakes include the largest lake in Iowa, called...

Pros: The town is a tribute to Donna Reed and Donna Reed's life and work is a tribute to the town.
Cons: It's way off the beaten path

In western Iowa there is a small town that celebrates its connection to Bedford Falls, that fictitious town in the movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The small Iowa town -- population 6,500, give or take a couple hundred--is Denison and it is the birthplace...

Pros: The music didn't die
Cons: The weather can be as treacherous on February 3 as it was in 1959

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas. He died in Clear Lake, Iowa. More has been done in Clear Lake to celebrate the life of Holly than has been dreamed of in Lubbock.

The last place on earth that Buddy Holly sang his songs was in Clear...

Pros: A beautiful, friendly place to relax and have fun with people you love.
Cons: It's definitely cold in the winter!

I grew up in Minnesota, went to college in Wheaton, Illinois, spent a summer in Bar Harbor, Maine, followed by three years in Augsburg, Germany, and sixteen in Colorado Springs, Colorado -- some of the loveliest spots on earth -- before moving back to ...

Pros: Gorgeous landscape/scenery in some areas, inexpensive, easy to relax and forget your worries
Cons: Not many things to do, few large cities.

I know my way around in Iowa, and you would too if you have been living there for the better part of eight years! I'll write this review with the vacationer in mind.

First of all, if you want to visit lots of theme parks and visit very large...

Pros: Two words: Pizza Daddy
Cons: Two words: it's in Iowa

Inter-Midwest travel campaigns depress me. Instead of offering excitement, old world charm, red light districts, or corporate amusement parks, they're full of words like "comfort" and "friends." Every state seems to have an unnecessarily well-organized...