[ Down-tempo music plays ] Tjarks: The boat is my happy place.

Really, in May, I start to get excited.

I get to be on the water all day.

It looks different every day.

The trees are changing or there's more animals.

I have people ask me all the time if I ever get bored doing this.

There's no way you could.

[ Music continues ] The Empress, she was brought here in 1991 and sold to our board of directors.

So, we are a nonprofit -- 501(c)(3).

We can fit 50 total passengers.

Tjarks: Once we're away from the shore, you can go upstairs, downstairs, wherever you want, as long as you stay in the boat.

'Cause I'm wearing a white shirt and I don't want to go swimming.

Tjarks: Anyone is welcome to sit down below or up top.

Up top is open.

It's a double-decker pontoon boat.

Carpenter: Good morning, everybody.

Welcome aboard the Scenic City Empress.

My name is Mark.

I'll be your captain today.

We're gonna take you about a mile and a half up the beautiful Iowa River here in Iowa Falls, Iowa, and let you see the sights and sounds of the river and let you enjoy the beautiful foliage at this time of the year.

Carpenter: I would say it's our show boat of Iowa Falls.

This is the TMC boat.

It was built in 1987 in Poskin, Wisconsin.

It's 55 feet long, about 14 1/2 feet wide.

It does weigh in at 38,000 pounds, so it is very heavy.

Tjarks: I try to get the boat in by Memorial Day.

We say we can cruise from June to mid-October.

Carpenter: We do public cruises at 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

That's open to the general public.

We also have dinner cruises, and we actually have lunch cruises that are open to the public twice a month, sometimes three times.

Carpenter: We're currently on the Iowa River in Iowa Falls.

It starts near the Britt-Garner area and continues through Iowa Falls through Marshalltown, and eventually meets up with the Mississippi River.

Tjarks: People like the boat.

We have a lot of people that come back, even from out of town.

They'll come back, and next year they'll bring more family members or friends.

Everybody just thinks it's a neat, different thing to do in the middle of Iowa.

You can go to Dubuque and ride the riverboat there, or Clear Lake, and you've got the lake boat.

But here, it's different.

Carpenter: Kids love it 'cause they love to be on the water, love to be on the boat.

Some of the people that were formerly from Iowa Falls get on the boat and like to relive a little history and how much it's changed.

People from out of town can't believe where they're at.

And that's the neatest part.

We're supposed to be in the plains of Iowa, and they come out here with the trees and the bluffs and the cliffs and the waterfalls, and that's one thing that they really are kind of amazed.

Tjarks: We have a waterfall.

We have our swinging bridge.

There's a lot of different little things to see.

Carpenter: One of our unique features are limestone bluffs.

We're built on limestone here, which is a natural resource, and it's a river cut down through limestone.

It left these gorgeous bluffs with the trees that actually grow out of the limestone.

The foliage is amazing.

What you see as you progress upstream and back downstream completely changes from what you see from one end to the other.

[ Engine humming, water splashing ] Carpenter: Thank you for coming along and helping us keep our boat afloat and help us with our children's river education.

I hope you enjoyed your trip, and have a great day and safe travels and come back and see us again.

Carpenter: Iowa Falls has a lot to offer.

It's very beautiful.

It's very scenic.

It's kind of a hidden gem.

We love to get people on the boat because they can't believe what they see.

Tjarks: If you drive down the river road that goes right next to the river, it's not the same as seeing it from the boat and on the river.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] It's a whole different experience.

[ Birds chirping ]