Fish taco quest, taprooms and fall colors road trip

Seed Savers is in a lovely valley in Iowa's Driftless region. Hence all the go Driftless T-shirts for sale in town.

We had a few days of vacation to burn and after a spate of wedding/funeral runs, decided to make a trip to Iowa that didn't involve an officiant. We hadn't been in Decorah in 33 years, and blissfully know no one there, so we booked into the restored Hotel Winnishiek and hit the road.

We made a detour to Lanesboro after Rick Nelson's recommendation in his fall colors food tour. Since we never pass up the opportunity to try out a new-to-us version of fish tacos, that was the obvious choice on the Pedal Pushers' menu. I'm not sure if the fish picked up some bacon flavor from the grill, or where that nice smoky note came from, but the fish was tasty, and guacamole and black bean salsa made for a nice combo. Then we got mildly lost on some really pretty roads before landing in Decorah in time to do some hiking at Dunn Springs waterfall and in Palisades Park along the river. The two restaurants we'd most wanted to go to were closed while we were there, but La Rana was a decent substitute.

The next day amid bouts of museum-going, I had another fish taco opportunity at Ede's The Angry Pickle. This was the winner for sheer size and for the taco wrap itself, a toasted sun-dried tomato version. Tasty, but a tad unwieldly as it was plate-size. Then it was on to Seed Savers for some gawking at exotics, shopping and hiking on their extensive trail network. As a reward, we checked out the taproom of the much-buzzed-about Toppling Goliath, so Dave was happy.

Didn't find the label for this monster at Seed Savers, but it was taller than us.

We wound our way back on some roads that cry out for a motorcycle next time (Hwy. 43 squiggles adorably through cliff-lined valleys.) We took in the newly expanded Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, which now has an even more fabulous collection on exhibit with all the usual suspects in such an unusual spot: Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Constable, Turner, Corot, Morisot, and oddly my favorite, a Kandinksy. Lovely silk screen exhibit ends soon.

Then our last stop was a two-fer: fish tacos and a taproom. Reeds Landing Brewing Co. has a great setting along the Mississippi, tasty beers (a dark porter with dulche de leche notes was oddly my favorite of those we tried), and most importantly, the best fish tacos we've had in the state of Minnesota, and you know how we keep trying. Nicely minimalist, with a fabulous lime aioli that puts it out in front.

It's possible we might make it back to Decorah before another 33 years pass, if nothing else just to have a place to stay in between the best parts: the trips down and back.