A Feast For Your Senses: Fuel for your sense of wonder and sense of humor: Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.

Today's port stop brings us to the town of Dubuque, Iowa. Our excursion for today took us by bus to the town of Dyersville, IA most known for being where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. This excursion cost us $99 per person. The venue is fairly handicap accessible and was an easy activity level.

This port offered two included tour options; National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (this also was offered as an optional guided excursion for a cost), and Historic Dubuque (a shuttle service to explore the town at your leisure). For an extra cost, you could choose to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, the Stonefield Historic Site: Rural Wisconsin Farm Life, Galena On Your Own, or Art in Dubuque (a privileged access excursion). The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is literally right across from where the ship docks. We had hoped to visit there on our own after the Field of Dreams tour but Cruise Director Tim warned us that there wasn't enough time between when our excursion returned and the ship needed to leave.

Viking Cruises starts off each cruise by giving you a sheet of paper summarizing your pre-cruise booked excursions for the voyage, their prices, start times, and coach numbers. Sometimes different coach numbers leave at different times and tours are called by coach number so it's important to have all of that information correct. During the cruise, your individual excursion tickets to be turned in to the local guide as you board the coach, will be delivered to your cabin the night before that port day. As schedules and circumstances can change, make sure to check both the first day's summary and your newly received excursion tickets when you receive them the night before. Today's tour tickets noted a start time of 8:30AM but our summary said the excursion started at 9AM. We would have been 30 minutes late if we hadn't noticed the difference.

It was also helpful to have these screens by the elevators that gave useful information specific to each day's port.

Once we arrived at the Field of Dreams home, we were split into two groups so that we didn't overwhelm the small farmhouse space inside. Those who didn't go into the house first got to sit in chairs lined up by the baseball diamond made in the yard specifically for the movie. As we sat we heard the firsthand story of what it was like filming the movie from the gentleman who played the catcher, Paul Scherrman. He also took the time to answer questions and pose for pictures. Our local guide offered to take photos for anyone who wanted to get a picture of themselves coming out of the corn with Paul.

The nearby full size Major League Baseball Park that was constructed to host the MLB Field of Dreams game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox was close enough to the baseball diamond created for the movie that we could see the tall spotlights for that field. MLB was not allowing anyone to visit that site however.

A plaque at the site is dedicated to Denise Stillman who worked to preserve the film site by creating a youth sports complex on the grounds to help fill a preservation fund.

And of course there is a gift shop. A lot of the merchandise inside is youth sports oriented like mitts, hats, and baseball themed shirts but there is a small amount of souvenirs from the movie itself. Another kind shopper gave me the tip that there is a QR code posted on the front wall by the door of the shop. If you scan it with your phone, it takes you to a virtual scratch off where you could win free items and/or discounts to use in the shop. She had just won a hat and I got a nice $5 off coupon.

A common misquote from the movie is the line "If you build it, he will come." Most people quote it as "If you build it, THEY will come." The museum guide leading the house portion made a big point of explaining the correct line. I used my coupon to buy this otherwise $8 magnet featuring the quote. I also really liked how it has the feel of rawhide and stitched like a baseball glove.

Next was our turn to tour inside the farmhouse. The museum guide encouraged us to sit on the front porch and take pictures. There was a step to get up here but a ramp was available for getting into the house.

Love the little extra themed touches like this baseball diamond shaped pile of stones marking the border of the walkway.

The house is preserved to look like it did in the movie. Several spots, also pointed out while the museum guide told the story of how this house came to be the Field of Dreams house, had framed movie stills sitting there so you could see screen captures of the scenes filmed in those same spots from the movie.

There were a couple extra mementos scattered around like this statue from the iTIP Awards, a distinction given to The Field of Dreams House by the Iowa Travel Industry Partners in 2023.

The TV in the home was set up to show the movie:

Words to live by: Tipping - Bad for cows, good for us!

Our museum guide pointed out that a few items used as decor actually belonged to the family who owned the home at the time of filming. This yellow cake tin was positioned in several places throughout the movie becoming a sort of Where's Waldo experience for fans of the movie to rewatch so they can spot how many different places they see this cake tin.

This bay window was added to the house by the movie production team so they could film the scene where the cast looks out over the ballpark from their porch.

After we'd each had our group's turn at the ballfield and inside the house, we were given free time to take pictures, run the bases, or shop in the gift shop. I spent most of my time in the gift shop but I grabbed these few pictures back on the field.

The second stop of this tour took us to the Textile Brewing Company in Dyersville. We each got to sample a dark beer and a pale ale paired with soft pretzel bites and what else but beer cheese dipping sauce! Those who opted out of drinking could get water or pay for a soda. I did try a couple sips of each beer but it wasn't my cup of tea...err beer.

With such an early back on board time of 12:45PM, there were several informative talks scheduled through the afternoon. Cruise Director Tim and Captain Cory Burke gave a presentation on the locks and dams we were passing through on this voyage. Captain Burke then joined Chief Engineer Brandon for a Q&A about the marine operations side of Viking Mississippi. Tonight's Destination lecture by Gabby covered European Influences on the Midwest.

After dinner at the River Cafe where I sampled lots of sushi among other random bites, we found ourselves sitting in rocking chairs on the bow watching the sunset and chatting with fellow passengers as we sailed through the next set of locks.