Key Lime Pie! Effigy Mounds! Circus! Beaver Balls! Bald Eagles!

This weekend, it was unseasonably warm here in Iowa so to celebrate we made a key lime pie (thanks Oprah)! With real key limes! Did you know that ripe key limes are yellow, not green? So real key lime pie is yellow, not green? Fakesters put green food coloring in their "key lime pies," which is a technique that real key limers frown deeply upon. Luckily Warren was around to juice all 24 key limes (which yielded approximately 1.25 cups of key lime juice. Totally worth it. Especially if you don't have to do the work).

We Also took a road trip up to the Effigy Mounds (Native American burial mounds in NE Iowa). GoogleMaps proved to be a royal fail and led us down some unmarked dirt roads, through a farmer's field, under some railroad tracks (literally), and to the river (dead end). Nice work. But after some snooping--that may or may not have included harassing an elderly couple we found strolling out of the woods, map in hand, which we snagged--we finally located the "mounds." 

See where I'm standing, on that faintly raised lump of grass? That would be a mound. Supposedly these are shaped as bears and birds, but they basically look like a bunch of small hills in a small field. But it was beautiful and serene and I scored a shot of Warren G. looking pensive (a rare thing indeed:).
And yes, that is a grey argyle sweater draped casually around his shoulders. (By the way, I 100% approve of the beard. What do you think--yay or nay?) We then made our way to an adorable town called McGregor, nestled just across the river from Wisconsin. McGregor, for you Iowa neophytes, is the birthplace of the Ringling Brothers' Circus.

It is also known for being "quaint." See the old timey buildings?

And the "jail"? Totally awesome.

Since we were only four miles away from Wisconsin and a statue garden we decided to check it out. We found the garden, filled with a whopping two statues. Luckily, on the way back into Iowa we saw signs for the Effigy Mounds. Official signs. Written on the National Park Service's signature wood with block lettering and everything. We followed them. The signs kept coming. It was an incredibly well-marked road. When we arrived there was a visitor's center, a parking lot, lights. It was also very closed...but at least we found them. This weekend we also went to the Field of Dreams (dreams really do come true) and Wilton's very own Beaver Den to indulge in the scandalously named "beaver balls"--"World famous beaver balls," at that. We were at the top of our game. Also, we saw our first wild bald eagle. Those things are huge. Just another treasure you can seen in Iowa. Don't you totally want to visit? We will sit on the banks of the Mississippi and tell each other stories.