June 2013 - Iowa Sojourn

Even though our blog is “Travel with Tobey and Sue,” we sometimes travel separately. I just returned from five days in Iowa and thought I would share some of my experiences with you.

I grew up in Marshalltown, but one of my best friends, Kathryn, lives in Des Moines, so that is where I stayed. We had a great time!

On Thursday, another friend, Carolyn, joined us at the Reiman Gardens in Ames. The Gardens is owned by Iowa State University and is one of the largest public gardens in Iowa. The butterfly wing has up to 800 live butterflies, of 80 different species, in flight. It was wonderful! The top two butterflies are the SAME butterfly! The color when it opened it wings was incredible.


We spent about three hours touring the 14 acre garden and checking out some unique garden art by local Iowa artists. The “Eco Bug” was one of my favorites!

There was even a pond filled with lily pads which offered the red-winged black birds a cool resting spot!

http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/index.cfm
On Friday, Kathy and I went to Marshalltown and we joined Carolyn and Sandy at the Maid-Rite for lunch. If you are from the Midwest, you will understand and appreciate the trek for a Maid-Rite! Nothing compares to this loose-meat hamburger! Taylor’s Maid-Rite opened in Marshalltown in 1928 and has been in its current location since 1958!

I have to admit, I was excited when they added catsup as a choice on your sandwich because until a few years back they didn’t even have catsup in the restaurant! (I used to bring my own with me!) A Maid-Rite is perfect when accompanied by a chocolate malt!

http://www.maidrite.com/maid-rite_history.html
On Saturday, Carolyn, Kathy, and I had a busy tour day in Des Moines. We started at Terrace Hill, the Iowa Governor’s mansion. It was interesting to learn about the mansion and imagine the rich history of the original residents. They don’t allow pictures inside the mansion for security reasons.
http://www.terracehilliowa.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrace_Hill
After the Terrace Hill tour and lunch, we toured the Iowa capitol building. The tour was free and well worth the time.

Our tour guide told us about how the original capitol was in Iowa City, then moved to Des Moines in 1854. A three-story brick building served as a temporary Capitol and was in use for 30 years, until destroyed by fires. The “new” building includes their Supreme Court Supreme Court Chamber, the House of Representatives. the Senate, and the Law Library, as well as other offices. The spiral stairways in the law library were so beautiful, as well as the dome!

Being a quilter, I especially liked the patterns in the tile floors. It was impressive.

We finished our tour day with a tour of some shopping malls. Our son is getting married in November so I needed to find a mother of the groom dress – and we were successful! WOOHOO! No pictures of that … we need to wait until the wedding!

We rounded out our weekend by going back to Marshalltown and doing the tour of all the houses we have lived in.

Afterwards, we had to cool down with homemade ice cream from Ev’s – a Marshalltown tradition.

I had a great time and look forward seeing them all again soon, but it is always good to be home!