An Outing to Holland - actually Pella, Iowa

For this Preperation Day's adventure, we went to Pella, Iowa. It is a town founded by a group people from Holland. They left Holland looking for religious freedom. They arrived in the USA around the same time the Saints had left Nauvoo in 1846. The Dutch actually considered buying Nauvoo for their refuge, but in the end, decided to buy unfarmed land in Iowa. The main attractions in Pella are the Bakery (and you will see why), the Historic Village and working Windmill, and Tulip Time (festival in April)

First ---- the Jaarsma Bakery

Jarsma Bakery had so many Dutch Yummies to choose from!

We bought some for now and for later. We also bought their State famous salami and summer sausage from the meat market across the street. All very tasty!!

The town square is the center of the April Festival where tulips abound. Maybe we'll have a chance to come back in the spring. 

Historic house of one of the founding families. It was closed for the season. 

Town square from a different angle. Note the bakery bottom right. 

You can see the windmill down the road. It grinds the flour used in the bakery. It was made in Holland, disassembled and then reassembled in Pella.  

Ya...Das is Elder Walton.. 

and das is Sister Walton.

Part of the tour in the historic village was to see an incredible miniature of a town in Holland. 

This man "drives" the blades of the windmill so that the wind is caught just right. The whole top of the windmill can turn too. There aren't very many active windmills in Holland and you are not allowed to tour any that are working. So this was a unique opportunity to learn about windmills. 

The end result is a bag of flour!

Making wooden shoes wasn't an easy job.  Much of Holland is below sea level. This is why there are dykes to keep the sea from overflowing the country. Leather shoes wore out too quickly and got wet too easily so the people in Holland wore wooden shoes.

These are shops and homes in the historic village. Very quaint, picturesque and interesting. 

I did "try my hand" at the puppet theatre. I'd like Bryce to build one for when the grandkids come over.  

I think it would be alot of fun and much better than TV.  

This is Bryce's version of a "selfie"! Along with the puppet show, kids could dress up.

Tools used to carve wooden shoes.

Ladies...look at the old fashioned... perm machine???? Not too sure about that one! 

We tried to call home from Pella but we had a bad connection!

Bryce really enjoyed the large personal collection of Delft. It really was beautiful.  

One of the side streets had a cute walkway. The street directly around the town square and the windmill are very quaint and inviting.