10 Reasons You Need to Plan a Stay at Thistle’s Summit in Mount Vernon, Iowa

This year more than ever I’ve realized how quickly the holiday season can slip away—case in point, it’s already December 3rd. So in an effort to take a deep breath every once in awhile and remember to enjoy this time of year, I’ve compiled a holiday to do list, complete with some of my favorite winter activities…

One of my favorite ways to experience a new community is through its food. And that’s just as true when I’m at home.

As a kid, I loved going to the botanic gardens in Chicago. Wandering the different gardens and learning about all the exotic plant varieties was always a favorite activity. So a few weeks ago when we made plans to visit Reiman Gardens in Ames, I knew I would be in for a treat.

Driving the back roads out of Dyersville, the field is almost entirely obscured by cornstalks until you round a corner and it suddenly flies into view. Stepping out of my car on a hot summer afternoon with the corn towering high overhead, it’s easy to see how people have been inspired by the magic of these fields for more than 25 years…

Earlier this week, I shared some of Olio in Iowa readers’ favorite posts from the past year. But when I sat down to look back on my year in travel, I realized there were so…

Together with neighboring Kimballton—home of the Little Mermaid—Elk Horn, Iowa is the largest rural Danish settlement in the United States. So it’s no surprise that the small town is also home to the country’s only working Danish windmill…

A few weekends ago, during some sort of wonderful fluke, we had a rare 60 degree, early November Saturday in central Iowa. So Kristen and I took advantage of the sunshine and headed to Winterset, a tiny town just west and south of Des Moines, home to a surprising amount of roadside attractions and a whole lot of charm…

If you head south of Fairfield, through Keosaqua and along rustic Route J40, you’ll find yourself in the heart of Bonaparte, Iowa. I’d be lying if I said I was expecting to be charmed by this tiny, riverfront town.

But at this point, charmed may be an understatement…

As a general rule, I wouldn’t say I’m the type of person who typically enjoys small, dark spaces, but a few weeks ago when we were in the area, a friend and I decided to make a trip to Crystal Lake Cave in Dubuque, Iowa…

Since I’m not an Iowa native, I didn’t grow up visiting the State of Iowa Historical Building or the Iowa Capitol on countless school trips, and for one reason or another, I’d never gotten around to going. That is, until recently.

Before the haze of hectic holiday plans hit, I took the afternoon to explore the Historical Building and visit its temporary Hollywood in the Heartland exhibit…

Disclosure: I attended Harvestville Farm‘s farm-to-table dinner on a freelance assignment for Travel Iowa‘s Made in Iowa series. Travel Iowa covered my expenses and I was compensated for my writing. However, all opinions are my own. Earlier this…

Rural Iowa may not immediately come to mind when conjuring images of communities that embrace the arts. But Mason City, Iowa is out to prove that assumption wrong.

As the snow melts and the trees begin to bloom, there’s a certain energy that returns to the air, especially in a place with harsh winters like Iowa. But no more so than in the early days of summer. As a kid, that meant never wearing shoes, devouring endless books for summer reading, picking raspberries in the backyard, and escaping to the lake for a long weekend.

Even though I no longer have summers off, I try to approach summer with the same sense of excitement. And while I’m not a big fan of the oppressive humidity or buzzing mosquitos that accompany the season, there are a lot of things I absolutely adore about Des Moines in the summer.

Prior to moving to Iowa, I had never been to a state fair before. This year was my second Iowa State Fair experience and I have to say, it was even better than the first.

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly and his band played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa as part of their Winter Dance Party tour across the Midwest. Frustrated with uncomfortable travel conditions on the tour bus, Holly chartered a small plane to the band’s next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota.