Visit to Decorah, IA
I am so happy to say that we had absolutely no plans this year for 4th of July weekend. Which is not like us at all! We are usually hanging out with friends or family and trying to pack as many activities into the long weekend as possible. This year was different, but in such a good way. We had planned to go to Decorah, IA (about 35 minutes from our home) and spend a little time exploring the city on Saturday, but that’s really the only plans we had. Other plans included golfing, hiking with a friend, walks with the dog, wedding planning, and total relaxation time. The weather was mostly good with the exception of a rainy day on Saturday, but that didn’t stop us from getting over to Decorah in the morning and checking it out!
Here is a quick rundown of our visit to Decorah.
We started the day off at the local Farmer’s Market where we saw several great vegetable stands, baked goods, jams, soaps, and more! The Farmer’s Market is held near downtown with plenty of parking around the area. This week there were about 20 vendors there including a local food truck. One of the stands that was selling all kinds of baked goods (breads, scones, cookies, etc.) had something that caught our eye. It was a corn meal cookie! For $2 we simply had to try it. I should have taken a picture (I know I need to get better at this I’m working on it) because it was actually really good! Like cornbread with a chewy cookie texture. Although we were hoping the Farmer’s Market would be a little bigger (maybe because of the holiday weekend), it was still one of the best that we have been to around our area. We picked up a few additional things there and then headed up a block to main street.
Additional information about the Decorah Farmer’s Market can be found here.
Our next multiple stops were in and out of several local shops in the downtown area. There were a few clothing stores we stepped into, a pet shop (they had pets in the back it was so fun), a book store (really loved this one), and a few other shops that had anything from art to kitchen items to handbags.
I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of shops Decorah has downtown. It was so fun seeing all of the variety that was there. The book store called The Silver Birch was really fun. Jake and I both love to read so we enjoy going into book stores to check out what they have. Before we left, the lady working at the desk told us to pick up a map. It was a map of all of the independent bookstores in the Midwest! Literally from Illinois to Kansas to North Dakota. There is a contest described on the back of the map where you can post a picture of yourself at one of these bookstores, use a special hashtag and tag the store, and be entered to win $50 each month AND $500 next April! I thought that was such a neat thing. For additional details, click here.
One thing I did not know about Decorah is that it is highly influenced by Nordic culture. We saw a lot of Norwegian flags and advertisement for Nordic Fest in Decorah every July. Might be something we will have to check out in the future.
There were plenty of restaurants in downtown Decorah as well. We did not eat downtown, however we did see a couple of cafes, a pizza place, a sub shop, and sushi! Looked like there was something for everyone for sure.
On our way to try and find a lunch spot, we did a quick search and found a place called The Landing Market. Once again we were not really sure what to expect, but we walked in and found it was kind of like a mini food hall. It was a big open space with casual seating and then a handful of vendors lined the outside walls. They had card and board games near the entrance that were open for anyone to use as well. It was such a neat spot. We walked around and looked at some menus to see if anything sounded good. We didn’t see anything we were in the mood for, so we headed just down the road to check out a place called Dixie’s Biergarten.
Jake and I each got one of the breaded chicken sandwiches they had on their food menu. It was really good! I’m not a huge beer person so I didn’t get anything to drink but you can kind of see the beer menu in one of the photos and they definitely had a lot of variety. Ciders too!
Overall, we had a really good time spending our Saturday morning in Decorah! We will definitely have to go back and do some more exploring and try more restaurants. I’ve heard they have some pretty good ice cream spots too! If you have any recommendations of things to see/do in Decorah, feel free to click the Contact link at the bottom of this page to find my email address where you can email me and submit suggestions.
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