Stone City’s General Store will be your new favorite hangout

I found a new favorite place to have a bite.  A place with good food, a cozy atmosphere and live music.  A place where even my five-year-old has fun and isn’t out of place dancing. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but well worth the drive.

Nestled on the bank of the Wapsi River in Stone City, IA the General Store is a little piece of history.  It’s had many names and provided different services to the community, but the iconic building is as much a landmark in the town as the famous quarry down the street.

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It’s Playtime Poppy

The Children’s Theatre of Cedar Rapids Playtime Poppy is ready to start its 2008-2009 Play season. The first play will be “Timeless Tales” which is a rendition of four of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories.  It will include scenes from “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, and “The Ugly Duckling”.

This Timeless Tales starts on October 15^th and runs through the 18^th.  The play will be at Jefferson High School in the auditorium (pdf map of the building), located at 1243 20^th St SW in Cedar Rapids.  Here are the show times:

• Wednesday October 15^th is a matinee showing at 1:00pm
• Thursday October 16, 2008 showing at 4:30pm and at 7:00pm
• Friday October 17, 2008 showing at 4:30pm and at 7:00 pm
• Saturday October 18, 2008 showing at 2:00 pm and at 4:30 pm

The rest of the 2008-2009 play season will feature:

• Disney’s 101 Dalmatians – the musical (January 29-31, 2009) at Kennedy High School
• Sleeping Beauty (April 23-25, 2009) at Washington High School

This is truly a low cost entertaining event to bring your children to.  The tickets cost $3.00 and are available for sale 45 minutes before the show starts.  The plays usually last about an hour, and I know I plan on attending, my daughter always loves it.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

posted by: Kristen Everett

Some unique family getaway spots await you just outside the Corridor

This weekend my family explored some of Northeast Iowa’s treasures including Spook Cave and Pike’s Peak state park.

If you’re looking for something different to do this weekend, I encourage you to travel two hours north of the Corridor and do some exploring at one of Northeast Iowa’s hidden treasures.  Spook Cave, located outside McGregor, IA , is unlike any other cave tour you’ll experience.  

I had been to Spook Cave as a child, although I don’t remember much more than the sweatshirt someone bought for me with a Casper-like ghost on it.  As we waited for our tour to start, I read up on some Spook Cave history.

We Found Fun at The Lost Island

An overcast day in the low 70s doesn’t exactly scream water activity weather, but none-the-less three carfuls of my girlfriends and our kids made our way the The Lost Island water park in Waterloo today.  Of course, when we planned the excursion last month, we expected a Friday in late July to be hot and humid.  We debated going for a moment, till I admitted I’d already bought my tickets in advance to save a couple bucks.  So, with grey skies and the threat of rain, we put on our ‘make the best of it’ mom faces and still had a pretty good time.

I found the beef and it’s in Solon!

This weekend (July 18 and 19) the community of Solon will swell as residents return to this prideful hometown and others come to see what all the fuss is about.

Solon Beef Days features bands, pedal tractor pulls, hay bale throwing contests, carnival rides, and beef of course! Check out the website for a full schedule.

Beef Days got it’s start back in 1971 when four local organizations came together to start an “old time celebration.” Because the Johnson County Cattlemen’s Association cooked steaks for the event, it seemed like “Beef” should be in the event’s name.

Come enjoy the fun, get to meet some of your neighbors and witness another first-class community in the Corridor come together with pride.

posted by: danaengelbert