Dubuque

Sunday afternoon, we loaded up the car and headed out of town just in time for the kids to fall asleep. We arrived in Dubuque a couple of hours later and checked into the beautiful Hotel Julien. A live band was playing upstairs so the kids and I enjoyed some dancing while Dan unloaded the car. The weather was beautiful so we picked up dinner and headed to Eagle Point Park. Unfortunately, we were unable to drive into the park and didn't want to hike uphill a mile before eating. So, we found a picnic table and ate dinner by the Mathias Ham House. If you look closely, you can see Sylvia on the porch of this old home.
She is currently into making faces for the camera so these are our "grumpy" faces.
Sylvia is also into collecting all kinds of things. She found these pine cones and had a hard time picking which one to keep.
After dinner, we hopped in the car and made a second attempt at getting into the park. This time we found a road that took us to the back entrance where you could walk in. There are usually fountains and large ponds filled fish but it must be a little too early in the season. Here's my big boy scaling one of the stone walls.
Eagle Point Park overlooks the Mississippi River and lock and dam #11.
The park is full of beautiful prairie style buildings and shelters.
Monday morning we relaxed in the hotel. Sylvia enjoyed eating breakfast in bed while watching cartoons.
We had the pool to ourselves. Sylvia is becoming quite the little swimmer and likes to swim all by herself with the noodle. We're currently taking family swimming lessons and Sylvia now has her own goggles. Although it pained me to do so, I went back and forth from the "hot pool" to the "cold pool" with Sylvia a couple of times.
Sylvia was very excited to get the luggage loaded up and ride the "rider thing" down to our car. I ended up taking her down to the lobby for a photo shoot while Eric napped in order to distract her.
We took turns with the camera.

Eric eventually woke up and joined us for some pictures.
After checking out of the hotel, we headed to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. There was a small shark in this tank that Sylvia kept looking for.
Eric liked the giant catfish more than Sylvia. We couldn't even get her close enough for a picture. Her favorite thing was pushing the buttons to cause flooding in the little models.

Part of the museum included a water area where Sylvia got to put her own boat together and send it down the river.
Taking a look at some of the old river boats.
Before heading in to watch, Turtle Vision, a 4D movie, we walked out to the river. The weather was beautiful and I trouble getting Sylvia and Dan to look at the camera because they both wanted to keep their eye on the river. We opted to do just one 4D movie which turned out to be a smart idea because Sylvia was scared. She asked why the turtles were right in front of us and kept asking to move back in the theater. I had her take her glasses off so she could see that it was just on the screen but I couldn't get her to put them back on after that. The snuggling was nice so I won't complain.

We finished our day by touring an old Army Corp of Engineers dredge boat. Sylvia kept informing us that the chains mean you can't go there. If you click on the pictures you can get a closer look. The second one is funny because Eric and Sylvia have the exact same look on their faces.