Just got back from a quick trip to see my lovely friend and her husband in Des Moines in the middle of winter, and apparently I’m good luck. I brought the warmest weather in weeks and successfully avoided a huge winter storm that’s coming in later this week, so good job me. This was my first trip to the Midwest, and I had a great time. There weren’t as many corn fields as I thought, maybe that’s because Des Moines is the biggest city in the are, but Chantal and I had a fun filled weekend, and it was so nice to be able to catch up wth my friend.  

 
Here’s a recap of our weekend. 

I arrived in Des Moines after an uneventful set of flights with a layover in Chicago. I tried Garret’s popcorn, a must have in terminal B. Pretty good indeed. We went to the famous grocery store, Hyvee, and stocked up on food for the weekend and had Chinese for dinner. On Saturday we toured the city! We toured the capital which was set up in preparation for the Iowa Caucus tomorrow. It’s a very pretty building, very ornate, and I learned a lot. Fun fact, when part of the building caught fire in the 1870s, they sent college and high school students into the building to save books, tables, and anything they could grab… Oh Iowa.

    
 
We then saw the sculpture park and made our way to Zombie Burger. Yum. Weird delicious burgers and one of the better milkshakes I’ve had, plus zombies! Definitely a must see and try. Afterwards we walked around and went to Raygun, which is apparently “the greatest store in the universe”, a bold claim we had to check out. What a fun store of weird and funny sayings on tshirts, cards, magnets, etc.  

 
We followed that with coffee before grabbing dinner and heading to a comedy show at the Last Laugh. My face was hurting from laughing so much. I really enjoy those shows; I should check out the ones in Raleigh more. Sunday we went to church in the morning, had an Iowa classic, Culvers (we were total adults, we all got kids meals 😄) after that, Chantal and I went to Jaspers Vineyard and did a wine and chocolate pairing class. A perfect way to relax after a fun and busy weekend.  

 
My flight is about to board, so I’ll end this here. Maybe I should try Des Moines in the summer. It’s supposed to be really pretty, but I lucked out this weekend with the weather anyway. I’ve missed my friend, and had a wonderful mental vacation weekend being able to reconnect. Cheers Iowa! You’ve been lovely!