The leaves all fell off in one week

The backyard as seen from the deck above.

I am going to have to shovel this deck with a snow shovel.

But we can see the Mississippi River from our deck and living room again.

Autumn 2009 Market Days in Leclaire Iowa

Come visit our many fine merchants this weekend, and do some shopping and just hanging out:
http://www.visitleclaire.com/LeEvents.html

Tugfest is coming

Hey, get in the groove….
http://www.tugfest.com/
http://tugfest.org/default.aspx

MetLife blimp arrives for John Deere Classic

The Metlife blimp got here a couple of days early and it was such a beautiful day, the pilots must have said, “I will see enough golf, let’s head for the river.”  I took this shot from our boat late Sunday afternoon.

Check out the John Deere Classic, I bet the blimp will be there.
http://www.johndeereclassic.com/index.php

Millenium Park Chicago

I made a visit to Chicago for work and was high up in the old Prudential Building (used to be the first skyscraper in town), and now just a creaky building.  But I got some good pictures of the park, the skyline, Soldiers Field.  We could even see down to the Indiana shore.

The Adler Planetarium [...]

Dry Stacks (Grace Marine) Le Claire Iowa

We took our first boat ride of the season last night.   Temperature in the 70’s, a bit windy and therefore choppy.  But it calmed down as the evening went on.  This year we are keeping our 18 foot bowrider at Dry Stacks.  They had the boat down off the top rack when we arrived and [...]

Interesting houses on Canal Shore Le Claire

Here is an interesting one.  Through the grapevine I have heard it has been owned by one family for a long time, and the most current owners have rehabbed it.  Based on the outside, they did a really nice job.  I have also heard it was part of the Underground Railroad.

More Mississippi River Backwaters

Some more pictures:

 

 
Note the flood gate which controls the water levels in the different pools.  The muskrat lodge is in this pool, just on the other side of the tree on the left.

Mississippi River Backwaters

Here are some more pictures from the Princeton Iowa wildlife refuge. 

Princeton Wildlife Refuge

This morning we traveled about three miles north and found the unmarked (at least in terms of entrance roads) Princeton Wildlife Refuge.  It is managed by Iowa DNR and consists of Mississippi River backwaters.  There are some powered gates to control water levels.  I will share some pictures with you.

These are muskrat huts or lodges.
Here is [...]