2 for One: LeClaire and Clinton from the American Queen

After an unexpected day on the river, we had a busy day on and off the American Queen.

I got up early and went to breakfast in the dining room. It looked like another picture-perfect day and I sat by the window for my pancake breakfast. My friend Lynn joined me in a little while and then we headed off the boat to Clinton, Iowa.

The low water levels on the Mississippi had kept us from Dubuque the previous day and had changed the Bettendorf stop to Clinton on this way.  

I had made arrangements to visit Le Claire from our stop in Dubuque. It took some reorganizing, especially since the Clinton stop was shorter than Dubuque, but I was able to keep that appointment.

I still wanted to see some of Clinton, so I took my scooter around the scenic waterfront and a bit of the town. I saw the Veterans Memorial and lighthouse in a town that once had more millionaires than anywhere else in Iowa.

Lynn met me at the curb in front of the ship, where Bob Schiffe, Executive Director of the Buffalo Bill Museum, was waiting to drive us to Le Claire.



The Buffalo Bill Museum was the highlight of the town and it did not disappoint. Although Buffalo Bill, aka William F. Cody, spent most of his life in Colorado, he was born on his family’s homestead in Le Claire in 1846.



The museum offered many details and artifacts of the man who was a Border Scout during the Civil War and earned his nickname from all the buffalo he killed to supply meat to the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He would later go on to start and star in the Wild, Wild West Show.



Although most of the museum is dedicated to Buffalo Bill, it also offers history of Le Claire, the River Pilots that fought the strong rapids on the Mississippi in this area, and other famous natives, including inventor James J. Ryan III (seatbelts), Musician Cecile Fletcher, and American Pickers Mike Wolf.

I wish we had more time to explore the downtown restaurants, bars, and shops in Le Claire. Before leaving, I couldn’t resist stopping at The Shameless Chocoholic to pick up a few goodies, including their signature White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Truffle. We also made a quick stop at Mississippi River Distilling.



Bob took us back to the boat in time for lunch in the dining room. We spoke to some guests who stayed in Clinton and were able to go to the Windmill Cultural Center, Sawmill Museum, and George M Curtis Mansion on the complimentary hop on, hop off bus the cruise line provides at each stop.



Breakfast and lunch in the J.M. White Dining Room is a combination of table service and buffet. There are a few menu items (different each day) you can get delivered to your table and a nice spread (also changing each day) on the buffet. I usually had something from each.

I chose a little of everything for this lunch too. We went upstairs after for the traditional Calliope Sail Away but chose to go back and rest and shower before dinner, foregoing the activities of Match Game, Riverside Chat with Riverloarian Frank, and Jazz in the afternoon.



We made it to the cocktail hour and music before dinner. The food never let us down on the American Queen and my favorite part of this dinner was the short rib & polenta main course.



I liked all of the shows on the cruise, but this was the night of my favorite show, Curtain’s Up, Sounds of Broadway. The performances of top Broadway shows, in full costume, were outstanding.



After the show and our nightly ritual of a little music and a nightcap in the Engine Room Bar, we headed back to our cabin to get a good night’s rest for the next day on our American Queen Voyage.

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Introduction to Broadway in Chicago through Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking

I did an interview with Desperate Housewives actor James Denton, current owner of Harry Caray’s on Navy Pier and former waiter at one of the chain’s other restaurants. He told me that he first ended up in Chicago because there was so much theater to do. I had heard that too, but I figured it was time for me to check it out myself.

My mother was in town visiting me and it just happened to be at the same time that Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking was playing at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago. I don’t usually make roundtrips there in one day, but the timing just didn’t work out for an overnight stay and we were both anxious to see this show for various reasons.

When my mom was a teen, singer Eddie Fisher was her idol. She had pictures of him everywhere, owned his records and even had obtained a few autographs. She was also a fan of Debbie Reynolds and had seen Carrie Fisher on television a few times.

For me, the attraction to Wishful Drinking was very different. I had lost the attention of many a male when faced with a poster of Princess Lea and though I’m not a Star Wars fan (I hear many a gasp out there, but it’s true, not everyone loves the series), I had enjoyed watching Fisher in other movies. The big one for me, though, was my favorite movie. Carrie Fisher had played best friend to Meg Ryan’s Sally Albright in When Harry Met Sally

Regardless of our reasons for going, my first experience with a Broadway show in Chicago went above my expectations, as they did my mom’s.  The Bank of America Theatre rivals any one on New York’s Broadway and the parking was a lot easier (you can stay or valet with the Hampton’s Majestic right next door). The theater was also extremely helpful and accommodating to my mom’s need for accessibility.

The show itself was just fantastic. Carrie Fisher is open and honest about the wild ride she has taken with her life. The things that would make most people fall apart, she manages to relive with the audience while carrying on a sense of humor. She sits down to talk, takes walks around the stage, brings audience members up to join her, uses props to make her points, and even sings in a voice that could only come from the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

Wishful Drinking manages to turn the tragedies of Carrie Fisher’s life – a public split of her parents after her father left her mother for Elizabeth Taylor; alcoholism; drug addiction; two divorces, including one from singer Paul Simon; a bi-polar diagnosis;  and electroconvulsive therapy, formerly called electric shock therapy – into comedy.

While Wishful Drinking is no longer in Chicago, Carrie Fisher is still touring with the show. You can also catch the details with the Wishful Drinking bookor a DvD of the show. (She also has a  new book out, Shockaholic, which I have not read.)

As for Broadway in Chicago, I will definitely be back and I urge you to schedule it in on all trips you make to the Windy City.