A Travelin' Girl: Our Day in Des Moines

After an uneventful flight, we arrived a little early into Des Moines and picked up our car...next stop our hotel. It was a little too early to check in so the front desk told us about The Breakfast Club and off we went. Lunch was tasty...they had some really cool options and the service was good as well.

A quick stop at the Visitor Center and we got all sorts of great suggestions from Paula, Ambassador of Fun (literally her title!). Of course, I couldn't resist talking a little shop at the CVB and wanted to get the scoop on how their meeting business is bouncing back since COVID. She said things are coming back...the National Pork Producers Council Expo is in town right now. In 2019, there were about 25,000 attendees; in 2020, there was no expo; and this year, there are about 15,000 attendees talking about all things pork.

Paula highly recommended a visit to the Iowa Capitol building and it did not disappoint! The outside is beautiful but inside is stunning. All of the work in the building was done by hand. What looks like wallpaper is actually paint and the mosaics are absolutely gorgeous. The ceilings in the Senate chamber is the original and is breathtaking.

Senate Chamber

House Chamber

Supreme Court

Left side is original and right side is restoration

We had read about a free concert series every Thursday night at the Jasper Winery before we left so we asked a couple locals about it and found out it was a good time. The show starts at 6pm so we thought getting there around 5:30 would be early enough but man were we wrong! Cars were lining the road leading into the winery but the parking gods were looking down on us because there was a spot just big enough for our rental right across from a spot under a tree...good thing because it was 95 degrees and screaming hot! Folks from every walk of life seem to come out and many of them bring some pretty big dinner set-ups but for those of us that didn't pack a picnic, they have food trucks and of course wine.