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Other stories in "Fall"

• Head toward the (twinkling) lights
  At Christmas, tourist destinations pull out all the stops.
• Big birds on the move
  On the Mississippi, tundra swans and bald eagles are heading south.
• Join the fun
  With an outdoors club, make friends, see new places and save money.
• Remember the wrecks
  On Lake Superior, gales of November bring haunting memories.
• All quiet up north
  Like the leaves, room rates have dropped.
• Save on the ski hills
  Get a deal now on a season pass.
• Home of horsepower
  In Wisconsin, see where race cars, snowmobiles, outboards and motorcycles were born.
• On the ropes in Lanesboro
  Try walking a high wire on Halloween.
• Eyes on the skies
  On bluffs and ridges, it's time to watch the hawk migration.
• Culture in the bluffs
  Follow musicians to four unusual venues near the Mississippi.
• Ghouls ahoy
  On Great Lakes, two haunted ships are spoiling for a fright.
• Scenery in the studios
  On autumn art tours, treasure hunters strike gold (and orange and red).
• Hot tip/A different North Shore
  Didn't reserve for fall-color season? Thunder Bay has rooms.
• Hunters on the North Shore
  A special deer season this weekend may put guns close to hikers.
• 10 great trails to ride in fall
  Here's where to get your fill of flora, fauna and fall colors.
• Go on a trail-clearing trip
  If you enjoy a hike, help make it possible for others.

In Iowa, a singular inn reopens

Through December, snag a $99 room at the Hotel Pattee.

In central Iowa, a gleaming Arts and Crafts boutique hotel has reopened.

To people in Perry, 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, it seemed like manna from heaven when hometown girl Roberta Ahmanson, who had married a California savings-and-loan heir, took the dowdy old Hotel Pattee and filled it with terra-cotta tile, Persian rugs and so much Honduran mahogany she cornered the market for it.

Artists painted luminous murals and whimsical folk-art furnishings. Decorators created 40 theme rooms and suites that honor everyone from Louis Armstrong to the creator of the "Alley Oop’’ comic strip.

But after a decade of losing money — the hotel is drop-dead gorgeous, but Perry, home to a large hog-slaughtering plant, isn't — it closed at the end of 2006.

It reopened in July with virtually all the goodies intact, and new owners Leisure Hotels & Resorts of Leawood, Kan., are offering best-available rooms for $99 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 30.

That's a steal, considering they usually go for $149-$349. The hotel would make a nice getaway for couples and also girlfriends — most rooms have either a king, two queens or a king and a sofa sleeper — and there's also a spa, two-lane vintage bowling alley and railroad-theme restaurant.

If the weather is fine, bicycle the paved, 56-mile Raccoon River Valley Trail, which goes within 14 miles of Perry. For more, see Perry's palace.

Last updated on October 29, 2009