Guinness World Record set in Pella

After months of waiting and prodding, on January 13 word came from the Guinness World Record headquarters in England that Pella had indeed set the world record for dancing in wooden shoes, or as they reference the record – “dancing in wooden clogs.”

On a cold and windy May 8, 2010, a record 2,605 people gathered around the Pella city square and danced in wooden shoes for 6 minutes and 15 seconds to the Dutch dance “De Slaapmuts.” The previous record was 475 dancers.

A certificate of recognition has arrived from Guinness and during Tulip Time 2011, May 5, 6, & 7, a presentation will be programmed into the Tulip Time Festivities.

A 35-minute documentary film of the event, made by local film maker Jacob Rosdail, was shown at the Opera House on Sunday, January 16, to a crowd of 159 people and will be shown again sometime in the Spring. A DVD of the documentary is available at the Pella Historical/Interpretive Center gift shop for $15 and from Jacob Rosdail. Guinness is also offering a personalized certificate to participants for approximately $30. If interested in the certificate or a copy of the DVD, please contact Bonnie Verburg in the Interpretive Center, 641.620.9463, or pellamill@iowatelecom.net.

There is the possibility that IPTV will run the documentary if they receive enough requests from the public. Contact IPTV at: 515.242.5424 or webcomm3@iptv.org.

Members of the committee who planned the dance event were Sallie DeReus, chair, Sue Youngman, Amy Van Haaften, Davis and Eunice Folkerts, Mike Olson, Lowell Olivier and Hank Vande Kieft. Assisting the committee was Bonnie Verburg, Director of the Vermeer Windmill.


Bonnie Verburg, Director of the Vermeer Windmill

Anything but Sleepy

For some, the winter months can be a time of “hibernation” or retreating from Mother Nature’s cold weather and winter fury. For many in the Des Moines metro area, winter is just the opposite. Sleepy Hollow Sports Park is anything but “sleepy.”

Our boys have snowboarded at Sleepy Hollow for several years. Each year the course is changed up with added jumps, moguls, rails and other terrain park features. Sleepy Hollow organizes fun winter competitions and offers a nice snack bar with oversized windows to watch the skiers and snowboarding from inside where it is warm and toasty.

The place is hopping with excitement and winter activities, as well as a great place for year-round fun. Summertime offerings include batting cages, go-karts, mini golf, a rock climbing wall and a par 3 golf course. If you haven’t already been there, you definitely need to get it on your radar of fun things to do anytime of year!

Lonie Mezera, Iowa Tourism Office

Celebrating National Pizza Week

Apparently the second week in January has been designated National Pizza Week. I'm not sure by whom, but any excuse to eat pizza is fine by me!

Yesterday I asked our fans on Facebook as well as our Twitter followers for their favorite Iowa pizza places. Below are their responses (in no particular order). Is your favorite included?

• Mesa Pizza, Iowa City
• The Pizza Place, Center Point
• The Other Place, Waterloo
• Naso's, Cedar Rapids
• Bianchi Brothers, Altoona
• Leaning Tower Pizza, Ankeny
• Encore Pizza, Johnston
• Tubrosa, North Liberty
• Bordenaro's, Des Moines
• Scornovacca's, Des Moines
• Pagilai's, Iowa City
• Wig & Pen, Coralville
• Alger's Pizza Place, Mt. Vernon
• Happy Joe's, Bettendorf
• Belluci Pizza House, Boone
• Jerry's Pizza, Sioux City
• Polito's Pizza House, Bondurant
• Great Plains Sauce and Dough, Ames
• Salvatore Vitale's, Muscatine
• Pizza King, Council Bluffs
• Tomaso's, Cedar Rapids
• Zeno's, Marshalltown
• Zoey's, Marion
• Vesuvius, Ames
• Cranky Hanks Pizza, Cedar Rapids
• Pizza Ranch (multiple locations; started in Hull, Iowa)
• Torino's, Fairfield
• El Fredo's, Sioux City
• Napoli's, Burlington
• Bob Roes Point After, Sioux City
• Doughy Joey's, Waterloo
• Rastrelli's, Clinton

Jessica O'Riley, Iowa Tourism Office

11 Places to Visit in 2011

Let me just state up front that the Iowa Tourism Office staff does travel Iowa...frequently. However, there are some places on our own personal "bucket lists" that we have yet to get to or want to get back to. Here's our list of 11 places we'd like to visit in 2011.

1. Rathun Lake, southern Iowa (Lonie)
2. Spook Cave, McGregor (Lonie)
3. Matchstick Marvels, Gladbrook (Shawna)
4. Historic Park Inn Hotel, Mason City (Shawna)
5. King's Pointe Resort Waterpark, Storm Lake (Shawna)
6. American Gothic House, Eldon (Colleen)
7. Breitbach's Country Dining, Balltown (Colleen)
8. Honey Creek Resort, Moravia (LuAnn)
9. Santa Maria Winery, Carroll (LuAnn)
10. Buck's Bar and Grill (current home of the Iowa Pork Producer's best breaded tenderloin), Mitchellville (Jessica)
11. Pancake Day, Centerville (Jessica)

What Iowa locations are on your 2011 wish list? Have you been to any on our list? Let us know in the comments.

Jessica O'Riley, Iowa Tourism Office

Plan your 2011 Iowa adventures

The 2011 Iowa Travel Guide is hot off the press and ready to inspire travelers with hundreds of destinations and diversions in Iowa. It’s time to make room on my shelf for the latest version, next to the archive of 22 Travel Guides and Iowa Visitor Guides we’ve published since I’ve been here. This year’s 184-page perfect-bound book is quite a contrast to the 1988 version with 52 pages and a fold-out map!



2011 Iowa Travel Guide



1988 Iowa Travel Guide

The process of creating the Travel Guide begins in late spring, when we ask the communities, attractions, and accommodations to review and update their information. We have about 675 attractions, more than 200 bed and breakfast inns, nearly 680 hotels/motels, and more than 450 public and private campgrounds listed in the 2011 guide! Our goal is to provide the most accurate information possible and every listing needs to be verified. It’s exciting to see new attractions and destinations pop up every year.

  

After the listings are updated, one of the most rewarding (but challenging) tasks is to choose the photos that will appear on the cover and throughout the pages of the guide. Cover photography is planned several months in advance, in case we need to send a photographer out on assignment. Recent covers have featured the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Honey Creek Resort State Park on Lake Rathbun, the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, Okoboji, the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, and many more scenes from all corners of the state. It’s a bit easier to choose the inside photos – we work region by region and view dozens of photos that have been collected from Iowa photographers. Balancing text, photos and ads in a pleasing way is the job of our art director, Jody O’Neill, at the Integer Group.

We print 200,000 copies of this 184-page guide, and it takes two to three truckloads to deliver them all to our warehouse in Fort Madison. Supplies are sent to the 19 Iowa Welcome Centers as well as visitor information centers and local tourism organizations around the state. It’s easy to obtain a free Travel Guide: request a copy online at http://www.traveliowa.com/, call 800.345.4692, or stop in at any one of our Welcome Centers. You can even browse through the pages online with our nifty digital version (coming soon!).

Enjoy your new Iowa Travel Guide!

Kathy Bowermaster, Iowa Tourism Office