Brian Marshall & The ROCK 108 Morning Show - "100 Things to Do In Cedar Rapids Before You Die"

So I've said I'm an Eastern Iowa native, right?

Cause I was born in Cedar Rapids.

And yes, I moved to Minnesota and I moved to Texas and, but I came back and here I am on the Rock What A Way Morning show hanging out in my hometown.

Well, there's a hometown book called 100 of the Things to Do in Cedar Rapids Before You Die.

It's published by Reedy Press and a local author, Katie Mills Giorgio,

The first question that has to come when there's any book that's 100 things that you've got to do in Cedar Rapids before you die, there's one question that has to start everything.

I've got to ask Katie, what in the world made you write a book about 100 things in Cedar Rapids?

Well, thank you for asking.

This publisher, Reedy Press, is based in St.

Louis, Missouri, and they actually do these books all over the country.

So there's an Iowa version.

I think Des Moines is getting one.

It makes me feel kind of glad that Cedar Rapids beat Des Moines to the punch.

but they do these books all over the country and they reached out and we're looking for their processes is they connect with local authors because they want local experts people that know these communities and know the fun things to do in the cities that they love so they reached out and asked if I wanted to do it and it's really funny a lot of people have said well

Are there a hundred things to do?

Like, did that stop you when they said you have to come up with a hundred?

And honestly, I started kind of typing right, you know, just kind of brainstorming a list and I got to about 50 really easily.

So I knew that this was going to be a really fun project and a really easy project and not to drop too many spoilers, but there's more than a hundred things in the book to do in and around the Cedar Rapids area.

It includes a few things, you know, of course, Marion, Hiawatha,

swishers, solans.

So I kind of included a few surrounding city opportunities as well, just because those cities won't get their own book.

And that's kind of all part of what makes Cedar Rapids great, I think.

So let's start with food.

It's in the book.

Where's one of the good places to go grab a bite to eat when you're

in Cedar Rapids?

Oh my gosh.

I think I could have filled the whole book with places to eat.

I think what's really cool about Cedar Rapids, and I think you guys have shared this, and lots of other media outlets are picking up, that we have more

locally owned restaurants now in Cedar Rapids and we have chain restaurants, which is a total shift from the Cedar Rapids that I knew growing up.

So I just think that is really awesome.

I mean, you are getting such unique local flavors.

We have such creative chefs in town.

So I really tried to give the a wide range kind of classic places, right?

Like Leonardo's or

you know, Irish Democrat, but classic favorites, right, that you couldn't not put in.

But also those other places that have really established the Cedar Rapids dining scene, right, like Cobble Hill and Coucho, some newcomers.

I love Vivians over on the west side of town, just for some really unique flavors.

So just really tried to mix it up and really tried to send people to all different segments of town as well across all the categories, but especially restaurants.

I think sometimes we think of kind of that downtown core, new bow area as places to eat.

And really you can kind of wander into any segment of the city.

Marion is really kind of up and coming with a lot of great new restaurants, places to eat.

So.

It was fun and I tried to pack as many in.

So you'll see some categories, coffee shops for instance, right?

I tried to put all my favorite coffee shops in the book.

So you'll see a wide variety of things, no matter kind of what you're looking for to eat.

Earlier, Katie Mills Giorgio, she's a local author who wrote this book and we talked about places to eat and got a text from 6629 mentioning Tommy's on the southwest side.

Great place to have breakfast before COVID.

They used to have a wonderful Sunday breakfast buffet that I was all about.

Just haven't been back since.

Why?

Because I haven't been by Sunday morning available.

Okay.

Maybe this week.

But Katie, I was talking to her about that and noticing like things like donut land made it.

But what about things that didn't make it?

So I asked her about

that.

the other neat thing in here.

I've had so many people say, Oh, wait, you didn't put this thing in, right?

Like this didn't make it or this didn't.

And there are a few things that have announced that they are closing.

Like Fong's pizza was in there, right?

And rustic heart bakery.

So that's hard.

But you're going to have that right with retail and restaurants.

I think it's ever evolving.

But I really hope that this book is a conversation, right?

So like, you definitely after picking up this book, I want you to tell people like, Hey,

These restaurants weren't in here.

You should go check these out too, right?

I just want it to kind of inspire people to keep telling people about all the great things there are to do in Cedar Rapids.

Katie, I'll put it this way.

I mean, you said inspire, but I look at it as almost a checklist, like a challenge.

Can I get to all 100 of these and not die?

But you have got Mount Trashmore in there.

And what is it about Mount Trashmore that is something that we need to do there?

Yeah.

I think just the whole concept of it is really impressive.

I'm really interested in sustainability and the way we care for the environment.

And that is a really innovative idea that Cedar Rapids Solid Waste took and said, hey, look, we've got this mountain of garbage in the middle of our city.

But when you get to the top of it, you get a really cool view of our city.

So why not?

Because we're not using that anymore.

In that way, why don't we transform it and make it into an urban space that people

can get out, you know, see the city, get some exercise, you can bike up it, you can bike down it, you can run up it, you can run down it.

I just think it's a really unique feature and actually I think Cedar Rapids Solid Waste or Lynn County Solid Waste has been asked to present this in other cities because this is such an interesting idea.

And you know, it's long been a joke, but I think it's one of those

kind of quirky things that like make Cedar Rapids its own unique place.

So it definitely made the cut.

I'm a Cedar Rapidian.

I also know the good, but I know the bad.

Some places have called a stinky town in the city of five smells.

So I addressed that with Katie Mills, Giorgio.

Cedar Rapids has been known as the city of five smells for a long time.

I was going to say I could not mention the crunchberry

number 79 on page 102 of the book.

Stop and smell the crunchberries from Quaker Oats.

That is one of those things that even Reagan made a t-shirt out of it about Crunchberry Day.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So I really tried to create a balance of, you know, putting in the things that people would expect, right?

Like there are things that you couldn't not put in there because they are uniquely Cedar Rapids and you want to do that.

But really try to come up with some creative ideas too that maybe people hadn't thought of or hadn't done in a really long time or maybe especially as residents we take for granted, right?

In this city.

So just wanted to give it all a little bit of credit and a little bit of a shout out and encourage people to check off the list.

We've been joking.

people say, Oh, is it in any particular order?

And I said, no, no particular order.

I mean, I definitely got to play my favorites in there, but it's, and it's, um, I have heard of one gal that so far is going around to all of the places and she's having all of the business owners sign their page, like as proof that she's been, been to these spots.

So I love that idea.

Right.

I said it's the first one to 100 wins, although there's more than a hundred.

I was going to say, she beat me to it.

100 things to do in Cedar Rapids before you die.

So after doing this,

particular book and something like this.

Did you learn more about the town that you grew up in?

Yeah, definitely.

I have loved Cedar Rapids.

I've written about Cedar Rapids for a long time.

And it was really fun to get to kind of piece this together.

And like I said, kind of play favorites.

and make sure that all of these bits and pieces were in here.

What has been really fun is since the book came out, I have learned more things.

People have told me things that they thought of or places that I didn't realize.

But I really tried to do a good job of packing it all in there.

And it really truly has been an honor to write about Cedar Rapids.

Like I said, I don't think, especially as residents, sometimes we don't give it as much credit as it truly deserves.

And it is such a fun, unique spot.

So it was

It was a great process to put it all together.

It was nice to have categories.

You mentioned the restaurant category.

So it was nice to have categories to kind of break it down into.

I was really surprised by how many things popped up.

There's a sports and outdoors category.

And that was one that, you know, as I started putting things in there, I was like, wow.

I really have a lot to do here in this area.

So it was surprising.

It was fun to kind of make that checklist.

And when I got down to the last couple, it was like that 95 to 100.

Those last few, I was like, what's making the cut and what's not?

Or how can I group these together to get everything featured?

So it was a very fun project.

Where can people get the book?

Oh, you can get it all over however you shop.

So I have a website.

The publisher has a website.

If you are an online shopper, Amazon and Target major retailers, you can get it online.

But what's really cool about a local book is that you can get it locally as well.

So there are a ton of local shops that are carrying it.

Everything from

Here's Swamp Fox books in Marion and next page books down in Nubo.

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Moss, Reagan.

I know I'm going to forget a few.

The Scribe Stationer and Scout of Marion.

So it's just really great to have all of those local retailers supporting a local book as well.

Katie, thank you so much.

Anything else you want to let the audience know about?

No, thank you so much for having me on and I hope people just, like I said, have a really fun time reading through it, going out to do all the things and keeping that conversation about all the great things there are

to do in Cedar Rapids.