Iowa Vacation Highlights

It’s hard to believe that almost a month has gone by since we returned from Iowa. We had so much fun visiting with family and seeing the kid friendly sights. The Quad Cities may not be on the list of hot vacation destinations, but it really does have a lot of fun places for little ones to play and explore.

We started out at the John Deere Pavilion, where Tiny and Buba had tons of fun climbing up on the big tractors and farm equipment. They enjoyed taking turns sitting in the various driver’s seats, and Tiny had great fun buckling and unbuckling the seat belts of all these big machines.

Before leaving, Buba and Tiny each got to choose a small die-cast tractor and trailer from the gift shop as a memento of the time we spent exploring the big farm machines.

From there, we headed down to a spray park and let Buba and Tiny splash around in the water for a while. It was a particularly warm day, and although the free spray park was busy, it definitely wasn’t over crowded. Tiny and Buba had a blast!

We spent the next day at Grandad’s (my step-dad’s) house. It was another very hot day, but the little pool in the back yard kept Tiny and Buba cool and entertained for most of the morning.

They also enjoyed playing fetch with Grandad’s dog, Riglee.

Trying to beat the heat, we spent a full morning (from opening until just before lunch time) at nearby Niabi Zoo. Our Stone Zoo passes got us into the zoo for free, so we paid just $10 for tickets to feed the lorikeets and giraffes. For a small zoo, this zoo is pretty amazing. It was clean, well organized (by continent, if I’m remembering correctly), and had smoothly paved paths for walking from exhibit to exhibit.

Just past the entrance of the zoo is a little train that can take visitors on a quick tour of the zoo. I knew, from experience, that we’d be better off starting with the train ride, rather than saving it for later. (No fun listening to “Can I ride the train?” repeatedly while trying to enjoy the exhibits.) So, that’s exactly what we did.

First up, after our train ride, was the elephant exhibit. Niabi Zoo is the zoo that I went to numerous times while growing up, and I always looked forward to seeing the magnificent elephant, Kathy Sh-Boom. Sadly, she passed in 2002, but I showed  Buba and Tiny the large rock memorial placed at the elephant exhibit in her honor.

Next, for $0.50, Buba and Tiny got to fee the Koi.

And then they rode the ponies.

But the coolest part of all was feeding the lorikeets. For $2.00, we got two small plastic cups full of  some sort of sweet liquid that the birds just love. With the cups in our hands, T and I held our our arms, and the birds landed right on us to drink up their tasty treat. Buba and Tiny were a little hesitant about having the birds land on them, but they happily took the cups and held them up to the birds sitting on the rope fence.

Feeding the giraffes was pretty cool too, but $8 only bought us 4 pieces of lettuce, which the giraffes ate so quickly, I barely had time to snap a photo of it all.

We saw many more animals during our Niabi Zoo visit, including monkeys, zebras, bears, and lions. But, by late morning, it was already in the mid-90s and quite humid, so we decided we’d seen enough. It may be a couple more years before we get back to the Quad Cities, but whenever we do, we’ll definitely be going back to this zoo.

The other really big highlight of our trip was our visit to the Family Museum, a museum full of hands-on exhibits perfect for preschoolers and elementary school kids. Tiny especially enjoyed brushing the teeth with the giant tooth brush.

She also had fun filling up her plate while learning about food groups and portions.

Buba spent most of his time in the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit. He especially enjoyed delivering the mail, but also enjoyed the big shape sorter on the roof of Clifford’s doghouse.

Buba and Tiny could have spent all day inside the museum, but they eventually noticed the door to the water play area. So, we headed out there to let them fill up buckets and explore all the tubs and tunnel tracks.

We probably spent a good two hours at the Family Museum, and we easily could have spent two more.

Needless to say, we all had a wonderful time visiting the Quad Cities and spending time with my family. Tiny and Buba still involve traveling to Iowa in their pretend play adventures several times a week and can’t wait to go again. Hopefully, the memories we created during this trip will last us through the months ahead until we can travel back again.