Cedar Rapids is Iowa's second-largest city, a manufacturing and processing centre on the Cedar River in east-central Iowa. It is best known as a production hub for grain processing — the smell of Quaker Oats cereals has historically been synonymous with parts of the city — and for its large Czech and Slovak immigrant community, which shaped the culture of the surrounding area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Czech Village neighbourhood along 16th Avenue SW preserves some of this heritage, with Czech bakeries, restaurants, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library, which is genuinely worth a visit for anyone interested in immigration history. The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art holds a significant collection of works by Grant Wood, the regionalist painter who depicted Iowa rural life and is best known for American Gothic. Cedar Rapids is not a typical tourist destination, but it has more substance than many midwestern cities of similar size — the Peoples Savings Bank, a Louis Sullivan 'jewel box' building, and the restored Paramount Theatre are both worth a detour.