Day 5: Des Moines, IA

Trip Start Jul 21, 2010

Trip End Jul 29, 2010

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Pappajohn Sculpture Park

Flag of United States Des Moines, Iowa
Sunday, July 25, 2010

When we left Elk Horn, we got back on the highway heading east to toward Des Moines. It was nice to be back among hills and lush green trees again after the flat, relatively treeless prairie. We found our hotel right on the outskirts of Des Moine and dropped off our bags before heading downtown. We'd found in the "100 Sites to See in Des Moines" magazine, that the Pappajohn Sculpture Park opened recently so that's where we took off to. The sculpture park was lovely, especially in the beautiful evening weather.

When you are traveling like this, it's easy to get caught up and forget the days of the week, so now it's Sunday around 9 o'clock and there isn't that much open for dinner. As we were driving around thinking of what to do, we were drawn to the Capitol building glinting off in the sunlight, so we re-directed ourselves in that direction. Turns out that there was a "Jazz in July" concert going on at the steps of the Capitol

View from "Jazz in July"

Comments!

. There was a good mixed-age crowd it appeared, many with lawn chairs or blankets, just hanging out and listening to the music. We chose to walk around some gardens across the street from the Capitol as the concert came to a close beneath a slow sunset.

Of course, we still hadn't found anything for dinner so we set the GPS to lead us to a Panera back near the hotel. We never actually found the Panera but we did come across the illogically-named restaurant "Marco O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe" which sounded too odd to pass up. Mom and I split a spinach and mushroom enchilada, a frozen Pomegranate Margarita, and a cheesecake empanada dessert. Not bad, but a good late dinner -- we were the only ones in the place. Now we're back in our hotel, relaxing and trying to plan the last few days of our trip. I'll keep you updated on which route we are going to take back.

More pictures of Days 5 & 6 at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=193525&id=837899636&l=2613d68c03

Slideshow