A Mini Vacation

Yesterday, we took Eli for his first overnight hotel stay at the Grand Harbor in Dubuque.  We wanted to take him to the water park there and the Mississippi River Museum, which we did today.  When we first arrived at the hotel, I pointed out that there was a window washer on the very top floor rappelling down the side of the building.  I had only seen it done this way on an episode of Dirty Jobs, so I thought that was neat to see it in person (I don't get out much...).  When I mentioned to Ian that I wondered if we would see him clean the windows for our room when we got in, he said he sure hoped we weren't up that high.  Sure enough, when we checked in, we were on the very top, the 7th floor. 

The guy working at the front desk also mentioned that it looked like our room was upgraded, so I was really excited about that.  Since we were on the top floor and our room ended up being at the very end of the hallway, I was really expecting this fabulous suite, but we were a bit disappointed when we walked in since it didn't look any different from what I was expecting.  When I asked about it, they said the king bed was upgraded to a "junior king," which is 30% bigger...wow. 

 

Nonetheless, Eli loved exploring and checking out the view from the window.  I didn't even bring any of his toys or books along since I knew we would be busy.  The first thing he discovered was the phone book, which kept him entertained.  

The view from our room

 

 

He loved the water park!

 

Remember the window washer I mentioned earlier?  While we were taking a break from the water park and eating supper, Ian first noticed the cables that appeared outside our window with the guy soon following behind.  

 The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast at Tony Roma's next door.  The drink/dessert menu kept Eli occupied while we waited for our food.

Then, it was time for the museum.  Eli's favorite part was the huge aquarium.  He also liked the interactive exhibits with buttons to push and puzzle pieces to move around.  There was a really neat Amazon exhibit featured when we were there.    

Even though we didn't travel very far, 

it was a nice little getaway for a couple of days.