Once Upon a Pella

Yesterday I went to Pella, Iowa -- home to the biggest windmill  in the United States. Well, we drove there and it took like an hour. And first we walked up to the windmill and couldn't see much of it because it was SOOOOO high! So there were big shoes right in front of the entrance but we didn't get to go in there so I just stood in them. They were BIGGGG!! I guess they used those in the old days, but who was big enough to wear those? A giant? Maybe even too big for him.

So we went into the real entrance and we got a stamp and it was of a tulip which I'm guessing was the town symbol. And after that I went into a room that said "Pella's History" and I saw something that was pretty interesting. Two things that were pretty interesting. A model gun -- it looked like a real gun to me because it was done so good and a picture of when a really big flood hit Pella. Then I started thinking if that flood was bigger than the flood that happened in Des Moines a long time ago. I'm pretty sure they were the same heights but maybe Des Moines' was bigger. Or maybe Pella's was bigger. So after that we started to do a tour so we went up an elevator to the second floor and we saw an old-fashioned playhouse. It was a small kitchen and it had lots of accessories in it. It looked very fragile and a board slided out of the bottom so a kid could sit in it. I thought that was pretty cool.

So then I saw another thing and it was with 40 horses carrying one carriage. It was pretty strange because the carriage was not that big and there were only two people on it and the carriage was not carrying anything. So then we went into another room and that room was a giant model of Pella and in the old days when the houses were not that big and wide. They were very narrow and bunched together and the yards were very narrow too, and since the stairways were so steep and narrow, they couldn't get new furniture up them so well. So there was a hook connected to the roof and there was a rope on it and what they used to do was tie the rope to a piece of furniture and pull the furniture up and it would go through the window. Big things like shelves and beds they would also do that too. And since the houses were so thin so your kitchen might be on the top of the house and your bedroom on the bottom and your basement might be in the middle. Some people had storage in a basement beside their house. And some people that were really poor lived in huts. And some huts were really deep down in the ground.

So then we went up another floor and we had to push a button with a "M" on it and that stood for "Mill" so I pushed the button because M is my favorite letter after all. When we got there, I stepped out and I thought I was going to fall because it was wood I was standing on and there were big gaps between the boards. But I was a tiny bit scared when I stepped on. So I jumped on it and nothing seemed to move so then I lost my fear. There was a tour guide and he told all of us that it was the tallest windmill in the United States and other windmills were close to the ground and used for houses. This windmill had a lot of stuff in the top and there was a flag that could tell which way the wind was blowing and to tell if the person who worked the windmill was there or not. And there was a wheel that I think it made lightning go away. We went inside and I saw a big bag full of flour and it was sitting on a trap door. There were many trap doors so the person who worked the windmill didn't have to take it all the way downstairs because it was so heavy, instead the trap doors made it fall to the ground. When I went out the other way I saw the blades of the windmill and I thought they were going to hit me because they were so close up to me!

In the old days people used to live in windmills so we went down a whole bunch of flights of stairs, most of them were full of storage, and we went to floor two and finally got to the living quarters. When I went inside I saw a kitchen -- it was pretty fancy. And a bed that I thought was awesome. The bed was in a little house and you could open up a window and crawl in, so I really wanted one of those beds. But it was pretty small and I think I was too big to go into it, but I still wish I could sleep in it instead of my metal bed. But my metal bed is still pretty nice.

Then we went to the bottom of the windmill and I saw some models of windmills. Then we went to the bottom floor where the shoes were and saw more things. And then I went all the way back up and went down the elevator to floor 2, and then to floor 1 and then we had more to do still. One of the ladies at the front office gave us a book and it said Old Fashioned Villages in Pella so we went to every village there. The first was a log cabin. It was nice because the bed was nice and there was a fireplace and everything. I wish I could live there, it looked pretty nice. Much cleaner than our house! And much smaller than our house. I've always wanted to live in a cabin like that. There was another house that was a dugout. Dugouts are a house that are built halfway into a hill and they are good shelter for tornadoes. Ones that have porches and a door aren't that safe, but ones inside hills are safe because tornadoes can't destroy hills, they only destroy stuff that is not stuck to anything and is not stable. We saw more houses and then a few minutes later we saw a watermill house. It was pretty awesome because I'd never seen one of those things before in real life. And it was in a blacksmith shop. So we kept walking and walking and there was a sprinkler that was sprinkling all over so me and Bo ran through it for a long time and then we saw something amazing and incredible and almost the most amazing thing in Pella! It was Wyatt Earp's house! Wyatt Earp is a cowboy lawman. His house was pretty huge and there were a lot of guns in one of the rooms and there was his most famous gun -- a kind of pistol and it was named after him. So when we kept going on we saw a heritage hall place. We walked inside and it was huge. There was a greenhouse in there. You could open a little door to see what was inside. So when we kept walking there was a whole bunch of guns everywhere. Upstairs there were bedrooms and there was even a church there -- an old fashioned one. Those churches were much differenter than the churches now. They had a big stand with stairs and a little tube thing that a guy could stand in and talk to the people that were there. And the boys were on one side and the girls were on the other. There were a whole bunch of clothes everywhere because I think they were performing something. Then we got out of the house and decided it was time to eat lunch.

So we went to a playground and ate lunch. And then we left to go to the famous bakery. I got a goat leg, which was a piece of bread with lots of nuts and chocolate on each side. And I got some cherry balls, I think that's what they were called. They were some bread that was like doughnut bread and on the inside it tasted like cherry. Here's a picture of me eating the goat leg and cherry doughnut hole:

So after the bakery, this is what I did in the alley:

  

I'm doing something that I saw on a show. It's pretty ridiculous, I know. I called this the "spider climb" and it's on a show called "Ninja Warrior" on the G4 channel. Only three people have got through the whole obstacle course. I drew a drawing of it that I will show you. I hope you think it's pretty good because that's really what it looked like.

After that I went to a canal. I will tell you what a canal is if you really don't know. Canals are a big river with sides kind of like a dock but there are some small docks with boats that you can get on. I drew a picture of what it could look like. After that, we went to a butcher shop. We were buying some bologna. And we were allowed to sample some cheese. So I picked cheddar cheese. I really wanted another piece, but I couldn't. But there was some bologna I could try so I tried it and it tasted really good. The word "bologna" looks like "bu-log-na" is that really how it's spelled? It's like the Weird Al song, "My Baloney."

So after that I went to a giant sculpture. It was for the Tulip Time Festival. You should really go because there's like 20 stairs and a whole bunch of chairs behind that big thing and there's plenty of places to hide, but you would have to pick a different time than when they are having the festival because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let you up there. There were two little spaces. I was hiding in one. And when Keesia and Sherie came really close I jumped up and said, "Ladies and Gentleman!" I kept running from spot to spot for the whole time. And then we had to leave. My adventure at Pella was great and I'm going to go there some other day, too. See you next time, folks!