Just back from northeast Iowa where my daughter, a friend and her teen-age son, rented a small cabin and two canoes at Chimney Rock Campgrounds near Cresco and Bluffton, Ia.  We requested a two-hour canoe ride but it was a lot less – largely I think because the river was so full and the current fast. We barely had to paddle – just steer every once in a while to keep from banging into a low-hanging tree along the shore. We stopped at a sandbar/rock-bar and body-surfed a patch of the river, allowing ourselves to get caught up and swept by the current which was fun albeit a tad scary since we had to land and stand against the same said current but no problems – two of us were/are lifeguards (I’m a little rusty but my friends 17-year-old son is a newbie.) The water was refreshing, not too cold. Paddling past the high stone bluffs rimmed with lush green trees was lovely.

Decorah is definitely in the running for Iowa’s pretty small-town college town – full of Queen Anne homes and interesting shops and restaurants along Water Street (the main street – not “Main Street” one street to the west). It was quiet on a Sunday night – except inside Mabe’s Pizza where half the town seemed to be eating – big families, little families, young kids, older folks. Nothing fancy but decent pizza with an interesting thin crust that bordered on a cracker in parts (and the 17-year-old teen in our group ate a cheeseburger served with a dollop of peanut butter. Sounds disgusting but he said it wasn’t bad. My daughter and I had the minipizzas and two drinks – $14 for dinner. not bad.