Amana Colonies

The weekend before law school orientation we headed out to the Amana colonies. (Please click on the link to learn more.) They're about 30 minutes away from us, and a great place to spend a beautiful afternoon. There are 6 "Amanas". but one main Amana with most of the tourist stops that include many stores and restaurants. Visualize Nauvoo, with no religion, and lots of items for sale. There were leather shops, antique shops, wineries (with yummy cheese!!!), woodworking shops, home decor shops, you name it. And just walking past the restaurants makes me want to go back and eat there sometime...it smelled sooooooo good!!! We were there for 3 hours and saw probably a third of what there was to see. They also have festivals and special events throughout the year. Such a nice little jewel in the middle of Iowa.

While there JB learned to pull down his sun shade on the stroller. Now he never leaves it up.


Right outside of Amana there was a big pond/small lake completely covered in water lilies. It was beautiful!!!