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May 2003

Iowa

David Aaronson
2005-09-29 13:38:39

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Iowa, doesn't exactly strike most people as a major tourist destination and well, it isn't. In the process of spending 5 weeks in Des Moines however we found quite a few places that are worth a visit if you're in the area. Note that we did not spend any time along the Mississippi river area in Iowa but we covered quite a lot of the rest of the state. This picture is of the state capital building in Des Moines (1).

Des Moines is the largest city in Iowa and really is quite a cosmopolitan place for its size. There is a wide selection of restaurants (we don't recommend straying too far into the ethnic market though if you're expecting authenticity) a couple of nice microbreweries downtown and a fairly lively nightlife on weekends at least. The metro area extends in all directions but most of the interesting stuff appears to be towards the west side.

We didn't find the selection of museums in Des Moines to be of any note, but what did clearly stand out was the park system (2). There is a truly extensive system of parks, biking and hiking trails and greenways crisscrossing the city of Des Moines and most of its suburbs. Waterworks park downtown, the Clive and West Des Moines greenways and Ewing Park (the Lilac arboretum is shown here) are some of the best. Des Moines is also a fantastic city for disc golf (aka frisbee golf) if you're into the sport. There are 16 courses within 40 miles of Des Moines.

One of the local side trips of note is the town of Pella, famous (so to speak) for its Dutch heritage. Of note they have a crowded tulip festival in May every year which culminates in the crowning of Tulip royalty in the park. Pella is one of those towns that has seized on a rather tenuous connection in an attempt to draw tourists. They've retrofitted the 'historic' downtown area to look like a Dutch town, and added an assortment of shops selling wooden shoes and other ...

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