Fall Getaway – Part IV

Last post on our weekend – I swear!  How can someone stretch out 3 days to 4 posts anyway??? 

After leaving The Landing in Guttenberg, we headed south down The Great River Road to little Balltown, Iowa for breakfast at Breitbach’s. 

 Breitbach’s is the oldest bar in Iowa.  It was still in it’s original building until three years ago when they had a Christmas Eve fire.  They rebuilt opening 6 months later to a new and improved restaurant and bar.  However, 9 months after the first fire, the restaurant burned again.  They have prevailed and are now back up and running full speed ahead.

Just down the street from the restaurant is an overlook with an incredible view of three states, Iowa, Wisconsin & Illinois.

Across the street from the overlook there was an even more incredible view in my opinion.  There was an art quilt shop.   Woot!   The shop owner, Susan, has a nice little shop in her garage called Balltown Ridge Quilts and was kind enough to let me take photos of her designs.  She said she started out making bed quilts and soon realized she wanted to use her quilting talents in a little different way.  She does a beautiful job!  What an inspiration!

From Balltown, we wound our way around to Park Ridge Winery west of Dubuque, Iowa.  Park Ridge is a relatively new facility and while we were there, they were preparing for an evening wedding to be held next to the winery.   

What a beautiful spot for a wedding with views like this!

We tried to take a short cut through Dubuque and ended up at the Julien Dubuque monument which also had a river overlook.  I guess our family has a history at stopping at river overlooks.  Joe related how he remembered as a kid doing that A LOT!  So what are you saying Joe??  huh??  got a problem with that??

This overlook had a telescope.  Nope no topless sunbathers on that boat! :)

Joe got the bright idea for us to stand down below and then take pictures through the telescope.  They turned out kinda cool.  Who woulda thought?

One more winery stop.  Brush Creek Winery outside of Bellevue, Iowa was our favorite out of the two we stopped at.  Country friendly and very laid back. 

From there we wound our way home through the Midwestern farm land.  I love old barns so it’s hard to resist taking pictures as we pass by .

       There you have it, our fall mini-vacation.   I don’t think the doctor knows it, but this little trip was just what he ordered!