Kent-Stein Park has been around forever! I played softball here as a kid and fast forward a few…read moredecades-- my son now has too. It boasts over a dozen lighted fields-- baseball diamonds (8) and softball diamonds (9). There's also a few concession stands. It's no frills but has ample parking and plenty of restroom stalls so no complaints here!

If you enjoy checking out old vehicles or are into transport vehicles this is the spot for you! We…read moreveered off the highway to stop in here to stretch our legs and it turned out to be more enjoyable than anticipated. Entry is donation-based and there's a gift shop and public restrooms as well. It's very clean inside and each vehicle has really interesting fact plaques. Most of the vehicles here were donated to or purchased by the museum and they go way back to the early 1900s!

What's cool little place! The staff is so friendly and welcoming. They are ere on top of letting us…read moreknow that there are over 150 different trucks in the museum. One of the trucks celebrated its 100th anniversary this year too. It was a fun little place to walk around and check out all the different trucks throughout history. It's a free museum too, but donations are always welcomed to keep it going.

The Northside Oktoberfest is the annual beer festival in Iowa City to help celebrate everything…read moreBavarian. It's always well organized and one of the best sought-after beer festivals in the area. A great selection of beer and specialties throughout the day with Oktoberfest games. Highly-rated and recommended.

Herbert Hoover was our 31st president, in which he served from 1929- 1933. He served right when the…read moreUS went into the Great Depression. He only served one term and lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt when he tried to run for office a second time. Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa. He was born into a religious Quaker family. Unfortunately he became an orphan at only 9 years old, but was raised by his uncle in Oregon. After he graduated from Stanford, he went into mining. He actually ended up becoming a mining engineer, working in Australia, where he made most of his fortune in mining. He was one of the first presidents to forgo his presidential salary and donate most of it to his charity. Herbert Hoover met his wife at Stanford, while she was perusing a teaching degree. They got married the day before they left for China. He was under contract to the Chinese government in which he investigated the conditions in Chinese mines and would make his recommendations for improvement. They ended up living in Tientsin. Lou Hoover learned how to speak and write Chinese during their stay. Over the next 14 years, they ended up traveling all over the world. Lou Hoover gave birth to two sons. This presidential library does have a national historical site, in which you can view Herbert Hoover's birthplace cottage, his school house, the blacksmith shop his father owned and worked at, and also can visit the visitor center. The historical site is free. However the presidential library, which is right around the corner, does charge for admission ($10 for adults aged 16 and older, $3 for children aged 3- 15, $5 for seniors, military and college students). After you are done visiting the library, you should head out to the gravesite of Herbert Hoover and his wife. This presidential library is my 12th of 13 libraries that I have already visited (although there are 14 presidential libraries, please note that Obama's is not currently ready and open to the public to visit yet). I really enjoy presidential history and found that this library seems to have less information than the other presidential libraries that I have visited. There is not as much about the president himself growing up and the first wife. Also there is very little information about his children. So it may not take as long to visit this library if you read everything, my husband and I were here about 90 minutes, which includes watching the introductory video near the lobby of the library. Herbert Hoover's youngest Son, Allan Hoover, purchased his father's birthplace cottage and restored it. This eventually lead to the national historical site that I had mentioned earlier and the construction of this presidential library. Overall, I really enjoyed our visit. I especially enjoyed the flour sacks exhibit. This exhibit covered Herbert Hoover's initiative to help provide food relief to children in Belgium and also aid prisoners of war. Part of this program helped to raise funds by selling empty flour sacks that were made of cotton. The flour sacks were made into clothing, accessors, pillows, bags, etc. Some had embroider, some were painted on or stenciled on the fabric. Herbert Hoover was given several hundred of these special decorated flour sacks as gifts, in which you can see some on display in this exhibit. This exhibit has one of the largest collection of WWI flour sacks in the world.

Although I haven't been here since I was a fifth grader in elementary school, when your family from…read moreNew York City comes out and wants some Iowa culture this is obvious a spot in the area after you've run out of bars, bars, and football. The museum is pretty thorough, interactive, clean, and modern and also has rotating exhibits. If you for some reason wanted to go more than once a decade. Always nice to be able to tour inside the nearby original house and other time era structures on your own, which is a very cool and trusting thing. The price is normal for Iowa. I think it was between 10 and $15 a person for entrance but these days it always changes so make sure to check if that's an issue. I do remember that they have discounts for students and children.

The Iowa City Jazz Festival is a FREE festival held in the Pentacrest of University of Iowa for…read morethree days at the start of July each year. I attended in 2012 & 2013 and both years had a good time. Even despite it being a free event the bands are good and the sound/lighting are well engineered. Many younger (presumably students) people attend which adds a little more 'buzz' to the festival. The festival has been going strong since 1991 when it was founded. Suitable for the whole family, if you're in the area I would attend but probably would not 'fly-in' for it... A good effort by Iowa City and I hope that the festival continues for many years to come.

Held over the fourth of July weekend each year, this festival is consistently one of the best and…read moremost well attended festivals of the year. Clinton street shuts down for the weekend and plays host to a couple delightful beer tents, an increasing number of food vendors and plenty of random vendors with everything from phone deals to novelty shirts. Throughout the day Jazz is played to get you in whatever mood you'd like to be in. Around 6 pm, the main stage starts hoppin' and has, so I'm told my friends who are Jazz fans, some pretty big names. Regardless of whether or not they happen to be DJ Jazzy Jeff (The only Jazz person I know...), the music is excellent and makes for a nice chill evening. This past year, the food choices increased considerably and included a Caribbean spot, a number of BBQ places and the standards. In addition, if you're in the mood for a calzone (which it appeared few people were), those are available too. All in all, great stuff for all ages, very family friendly and overall - super chill. A great festival to check out where you'll probably hear something you like - because seriously, what else do you have going on all 4th of July weekend!

I look forward to the Beat the Bitter events every winter. I know that might be an odd statement…read morefrom a California native. The great thing about the Beat the bitter events is that there is a little bit of everything for everyone. The run, kickball, ice skating, and broom ball events are available for those looking to do something active. If you are looking for family friendly festivities then be sure to check out the Fire and Ice celebration. If music and a few adult beverages hit the spot then be sure to grab tickets to the Igloo Jam or Snuggie bar crawl. This years light display in Liberty park is also such a fun way to enjoy a stroll in the evening.

Every August, a little magic happens in downtown IC. The taste of IC is a chance for local spots to…read moreshowcase their culinary prowess to the masses. Tickets for food are purchased from a number of booths set up around downtown and are $1 each. Samples from approximately 40 restaurants in the area run between 1-4 tickets each and give all comers a great chance to sample a few or many of the offerings around town. In 2012, Molly's cupcakes, Mesa Pizza, Moonrakers, Basta and Masala were our favorite spots, but it's seriously hard to go wrong when you can walk around on a nice evening for 3 hours and go costco sample style for $20. A great event for a city that's doing a good job at expanding their culinary offerings downtown. Well worth a stop by when it's going on, you won't be disasppointed and you might even find your favorite new restaurant!

Downtown Iowa City is becoming a foodie's paradise. Places like Pullman, Iowa Chop House, Atlas,…read moreBasta, Forbidden Planet, Formosa, Devotay, and Masala are a few of my favorites (yes, only a few from my favorites). There are several tents stationed around the downtown area where you can buy tickets and pick up a map. $1 gets you 1 ticket (sold in bundles of 5). All the participating restaurants then have tables set up outside their storefronts where they're serving sample-sized versions of items on their menu and sampling these items requires anywhere from one to three tickets. My personal favorite of everything I tried this year was Pullman - their cinnamon roll with ice cream on the side melts in the mouth but the pulled pork sandwich was incredible. Let me say that again... incredible. I also really enjoyed the samples from Formosa, Iowa Chop House, and Pop's Old-N-New BBQ. Oh my word, I can hardly wait until my next dine-in experience at any of these restaurants! I love this event since it's an opportunity to sample new dishes and new restaurants without the commitment of ordering the full dish. The Taste of Iowa City seems to be growing in popularity and in offerings, with live bands and performances, plus a giant blow-up Herky on the Ped Mall, all upping the ante and making this a fun chance to slow down and enjoy the atmosphere of Downtown Iowa City.

Fun little festival hosted on the second floor of hotel Vetro, focusing on reading and imagination…read morefor kiddos. The festival lasts for three days and admittedly we only visited for an hour or so, so perhaps more was going on the remainder of the weekend. We arrived midday Saturday and wandered around for an hour or so. There were 20 or so booths there with a variety of activities including painting, coloring and autographs from "young authors". I assume those were little peeps who have published books, but since we didn't get any autographs, I'm not totally sure. Four or five of the booths actually sold books and we were a bit disappointed with the selection as we were excited for a book festival. The other booths showcased a lot of businesses and schools from the area and all in all, we felt the best reason to come check this festival out would be a great place to come if you're looking for schooling options for your youngish kiddos. All in all, this is a fun way to go and spend an hour or so, but it felt more like a high school type event then any sort of festival. I was told that earlier in the day Curious George and the Cat in the Hat both made an appearance, so that may have upped the starage a little bit, though not likely significantly. Worth checking out and almost certainly can only get better!