"The Amana Colonies......"

Tuesday, the morning of our last full day in Iowa City, instead of eating at The Brown Street Inn, our bed and breakfast, we went to the famous Hamburg Inn. I say famous, because it is so well known by Iowans, and has been here for years. This is the 2nd Hamburg Inn.....the other one was torn down in an urban renewal section of downtown. We have actually eaten here before when we've driven through Iowa City on our way to Des Moines to visit Don's relatives. It is a little out of the way, but a side trip down memory lane for Don is a fun thing to do, for both of us.

Tuesday was our day for exploring the area around Iowa City by car. Not far from Iowa City, are a number of small villages that are called collectively, "The Amana Colonies". Don told me that they were originally settled by Amish but if that is the case, they have long gone and only the quaintness of the villages remains. It is a pure "tourist" area.

I received this from Don later today:

"The busiest of Iowa's seven Amana Colonies is both a living historic monument and a shopping heaven.

It's obvious from one look at the shop-lined streets of Amana, the largest of the seven Amana Colonies, that modern commerce is in full flower there. Even so, the first question asked about the villages is: Are the Amana people Amish?

And no wonder — the people of the Amanas spoke German, lived simply and adhered faithfully to Scripture. Many still do. But no, they never were Amish."

This is the inside of the working woolen mill. The multiple racks with spools of warp on them will be understood more easily in the next photo.

The warp is wound from the spools onto huge spools, which in turn are used at looms.......

This enclosed area is where the woolen fabrics are woven. As I mentioned earlier, this is a working mill. We happened to be there when it was lunch time so we missed the employees at work on the machines.

The same size spools also hold woven fabric as well.

Another loom that is weaving one of their plaid fabrics.

Not only was the woolen mill a place to buy woven articles for ones household, it had small clothing departments, too. We found some very interesting pieces of "outer wear". Notice the "resigned" look on Don's face after I asked him to pose with this "stag" on his head?

Oh how easy it is to look ridiculous! Foxy....... ;)

A smellier version of the old Daniel Boone Coonskin cap.......

By now, I was "just horsing around"........(Oh no! Stop me!!!!)

How more American can one get than with this Bison?

A too small version of a Russian fur hat.

One would think we'd visited our next stop before trying on the hats, but we did indeed do all of that hat modeling after drinking only coffee and milk for breakfast. ;)

Tomorrow, the Millstream Brewing Company........