Things to do in Sioux City when you're not on call

Today was a day off, so I spent today being a tourist. (Except that I brought an OB/Gyn textbook along for a little light reading. It occurs to me that I'll probably be in the hot seat for a delivery sometime soon, and since I haven't done that for about eight months I figured it might behoove me to review the instruction manual.)

I started off at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. They had a nice video showing L&C's encounter with the Blackfeet from both perspectives, but the animatronic Lewis & Clark kind of freaked me out. It turns out that Charles Floyd, the only member of L&C's expedition to die on the journey, expired nearby and was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. I was delighted to be offered the opportunity by one of the exhibits to retrospectively diagnose Sgt. Floyd's illness. L&C diagnosed "Biliose Chorlick," but it is now thought to have been a ruptured appendix. (I concur.)

Next I stopped by the M.V. Sergeant Floyd, a river steamer that's been put ashore on the riverfront and converted into a museum. (One of many landmarks in the vicinity named after the good sergeant.) Nearby is the Flight 232 memorial. (In 1989 United Flight 232, a DC-10, crashed trying to make an emergency landing at the Sioux City airport, killing 111 out of 296 people on board. It's a gripping story, well worth reading.) Also nearby is the Anderson Dance Pavilion, an open air venue on the river. Visiting these sites I got the message that Sioux City is very serious about its flower gardens. Everywhere I go there are nicely-tended beds of very colorful flowers. Finally, a five-minute drive took me to the charming, Guggenheimy Sioux City Art Center. Spent an enjoyable hour or two there. (I have a thing for small museums, of which more later.)

From the riverfront I headed up into the hills. Specifically, up to the bluff to see the Sergeant Floyd Monument. It's a mini-Washington Monument that dominates the southern approach to Sioux City. It was built after the Missouri had eroded away the original site of Floyd's grave.

Heading upstream from the monument site, I found a vantage point on a high bluff directly overlooking the very easternmost tip of South Dakota, where the Big Sioux River flows into the Missouri. In fact, I was overlooking the triple border of South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska (although I couldn't actually stand on the triple point without wading into the river). On the drive back I even had a delightful wildlife encounter: two wild turkeys were crossing the gravel road with about eight young ones (chicks? turkettes?) in one direction, and then a deer came out from where the turkeys were going and crossed the road in the opposite direction.

A very nice day off. Now it's early to bed so I can be up for rounds at 6:00 tomorrow morning.