Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
Herbert Hoover NHS | October 2022 in Iowa
After returning from our trip out West, we spent the second half of October in our hometown in Iowa, where my parents so very graciously opened their home to us. (We’ve looked at places to buy or rent here for whenever we’re “home”, but the housing market is weird and it doesn’t look like we’ll be around very much for at least the first half of next year, so for the time being our stuff remains in storage while we passively continue to look). We arrived at the peak of fall here, and October had plenty of warm and sunny days to enjoy the colors. Curtis started his new job remotely, I turned 30, and I had to move this website to a new server. That was a stressful process, and though I still have lots of things I’d like to fix I’m glad to be past the more technical parts and back to writing about all the fun we’ve been having! Best of all, these weeks at home allowed for lot of time to get to know our niece, who seems to be growing and learning new things every day.
We fit in walks at parks with my parents almost every day, and on the weekends tried to travel a little further to places we hadn’t been before. One weekend we went to Squire Point in North Liberty along Coralville Lake for a hike, and had dinner at Big Grove Brewery in Solon. (Easy Eddie is my family’s favorite IPA if you’re ever looking for a good local beer in Iowa!)
Another weekend, we realized that Curtis had never been to Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, despite growing up less than an hour away, so we decided to rectify that with a day trip. We drove over to West Branch, IA with all the dogs in tow. We walked around the historic village, through the buildings that are open to the public (including Hoover’s childhood home and Quaker church), and Curtis and I toured the visitor center and watched the short film while my parents walked the dogs around. We considered visiting the Presidential Museum, and even found out that the National Archives also has a Passport Program (complete with a secret reward), but decided to save that for another visit. We finished our time here by visiting the graves of President Hoover and his wife. (A slightly morbid tally – we’ve now seen 6 dead presidents together: Lincoln, Taft, Hoover, FDR, JFK, & Ford),
It’s kind of impressive how involved Herbert Hoover was in preserving his home and how that influence reflects his Quaker Values, and we spoke at length with the Rangers on the history of the land. We also thought it extremely interesting that the only monument in the park was the one donated by Belgium for Hoover’s role in organizing relief to the Belgians during WWI. In fact, most of the park’s info boards focused on Hoover as ‘The Great Humanitarian’ – something that, truthfully, we were less aware of, considering Hoover to be one of those ‘failed’ presidents because of his hands off response to the Great Depression.
We’re not ready to promote Hoover to the ‘All Star’ team of presidents, but we also concede that there is much more to him and his presidency than perhaps a 5th grade understanding of U.S. History would lend.
Wanting to continue our adventures, we took county roads up to Sutliff, IA to see the Sutliff Bridge over the Cedar River and took a stroll across and back. It was impressive to see how the pictures of the impact the flood of 2008 had on the bridge, carrying away an entire trestle, and how well they had the bridge restored. After that, we started our drive home, going up towards Lisbon where we had lunch and cider flights at Sutliff Farm & Cider House.
The weeks went by fast, and before we knew it, it was time to leave again. Up next, our first on the road adventures with Curtis’ new job!
