Des Moines bucket list

I had a good friend ask me what there is to do in Des Moines, the answer . . . everything! While that may seem like an exaggeration, there really is lots to do, so here's a list comprised of the things I've done this summer! 

#1: Iowa Cubs game at Principals Park

#2: Zombie Burger + Drink Lab

#3: West Glen bar scene

• Shotgun Betty's — country bar, spent a couple nights tearing it up on the dance floor!
• Wellman's — great patio, not so great food with the exception of the chicken quesdilla
• Saint's — neat patio

#4: Downtown bar scene

• El Bait Shop — largest selection of beer on tap. Added bonus of being close to principal park. 
• Beer Can Alley — another great country bar. Has an awesome back patio, which is must better suited for dancing. 
• The Exchange — a unique set-up where the price of drinks fluctuates based on popularity like the stock exchange. 
• Micky's Irish Pub — I can only speak for the patio, but it was fun. 

#5: Ledges State Park

#6: ZooBrew

#7: Tasty Taco

#8: AnkenyFest

#9: Downtown Farmers Market

#10: Drive-in theater — Newton, Iowa

#11: Walnut Woods State Park

#12: World Pork Expo

#13: The art festival

#14: Fongs — complete with Kamikaze shots

#15: Cemetery in middle of a round-about

#16: Timberwood campground

#17: Mini-golfing

#18: Yankee doodle pops

#19: Dog Park

#20: High Trestle Trail bridge

#21: Go-kart racing

#22: Jordan Creek mall

#23: Gray's Lake

#24: Bike trails

#25: Swimming

#26: Concert in Wells Fargo arena - Alice Cooper/Motley Crue

#27: Third Thursday's — After work bonding with my co-workers

• Draught House 1908 — Not only is the location ideal (quarter mile away from the office) but the food and the patio are fantastic here!
• ChickenCoop — food was decent, beer selection was just o.k.
• Jethro's — on top of having fabulous barbecue, and a back quasi-patio patio, they also have a very unique drink selection and possibly the best nachos! 
• OverTime — you can count on a decent selection of Iowa beers here
• Cattoor's on Grand — a must see dive bar. Good for karaoke and pool with friends. 

#28: DMACC pond — complete with a fountain! Good for fishing, I wouldn't recommend swimming. 

#29: Breweries 

• Firetrucker Brewery
• Rock Bottom Brewery

#30: Plaza Mexico — Awesome Mexican food, good margaritas, and the best FREE dessert!

There it is folks! Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything, but if have look for it in a later post! Des Moines is any young professionals dream! It's a big city, no denying that, but it feels small, and there is always something to go do!

Just a girl and her camera

To say 10 weeks has gone by fast would be an understatement. I started my last weekend in Des Moines on an adventure, because anything less would have been a waste. My friends and co-workers joke that I am the Iowa expert, despite only being here for a few weeks. There in lies my advantage. I didn't want to miss out on experiencing Des Moines, and my mission has been successful thus far!

I skipped the cartoons Saturday morning, and instead headed north to Ledges State Park. Because of the recent volumes of rain, the road is blocked off, so with my Chaco's strapped on, my tri-pod and camera in hand, I hiked in.

Because my friends were also on adventures of their own, it was up to the self-timer on my camera to capture snapshots of me! This was a challenge in and of itself. There's an art to figuring out the distance,  the poses, and then all the technical aspects to actual photo itself. While I got many odd looks, it was surprisingly fun perfecting the technique.

The fun didn't end there, a good friend was having a house-warming cookout, which turned into Val eating four ears of corn on the cob (with no regrets). Yard games, card games, and a midnight swim made for a pretty great night.

Speaking of adventures, today was the perfect day to get my photography website and Facebook pages started. While it was a good learning experience, it isn't hard for me to see how some of these "easy to use" websites frustrate people.

Little of this, little of that

You know that feel-good high you get after listening to a motivational speaker, or attending a worship conference? A meeting with peers on how to better connect with consumers about where their food comes from and how it's grown... results in the same effect.

It's no secret that agriculture is my passion, but things that one person might be passionate about are not always shared by those around. For instance ... the world cup. I cheered on the US when they played, but I didn't really follow all the other teams, and I couldn't name off who the best and worst players were. For many, that's how they feel about agriculture, there are too many moving parts and pieces.

It has been brought to my attention that as of late I've been a little lax with keeping up on my blogging. Being busy is no excuse, because who isn't these days. As many of you may or may not know I've spent my summer in Iowa doing an internship for an integrated communications agency. Both my days at work and my evenings and weekends have been filled with learning, fun and adventure, which is going to leave me spending the next few posts playing catch-up. That in mind, I need to continue to play my role in being a touch point for consumers. Stay tuned! 

HFC - Meating In the Middle

Ben Rice - Prairie Land Dairy 

I realize this is two days late, nonetheless, here is the recap. Husker Food Connection, is actually a registered student organization on campus, but we just had our big event of the year. Meating in the Middle - was a way to connect students with where their food comes from. People are four generations removed from the farm today, so it is more important than ever to educate consumers with the correct information. HFC partnered with several companies to help sponsor the food and information packets that were handed out. We had a chicken, two baby pigs, a dairy cow and calf, a steer, and a tractor, along with a free meal!
One of the highlight attractions was the dairy cow and baby calf that Prairie Land Dairy brought. In addition to being a sponsor for the lunch, they were also there to represent the dairy industry.

12 week old piglet 

In addition to the dairy cow and calf, there we a couple baby pigs there as well. I'll admit, that I'm not much of a pig person, but I do love me some bacon! 

Milking Cow

One of the neat resources we had available to us, (HFC planning committee) was the "Milking Cow". This is a station where participants could learn how to milk a cow. When her udder gets empty, you can recycle the water back in through a port in the top. It was fun getting to teach students, even some Husker Football players, how to milk a cow. 

John Deere prototype tractor 

It wouldn't be a proper "Ag Day" without a tractor there! This is one from the tractor test lab here on campus! 

My favorite part of #HFC14 was getting to talk to students on campus about agriculture and why we do what we do. I was surprised by how open students were willing to be with the mis-conceptions about ag. This gave us the opportunity to help guide them in the right direction. Here are some of my favorite facts that I got to share with students: 

-Nebraska is the Beef State, meaning we have more cattle on feed than Texas, despite how much bigger they are than us. 

-In Nebraska, cattle out number people 4 to 1.

-It would take 7 cups of raw broccoli to equal the calcium found in one glass of milk!

-A dairy cow can produce 120 cups of milk a day!

-White eggs and brown eggs have the exact same nutritional value. 

Feel free to share these with all your friends too! 

*Little side note, the posters that you see displayed in these pictures were designed by me! 

Saturday Morning Coffee

Hanging with friends, listening to some great  music, drinking coffee (with the perfect amount of creamer), and eating a LaMar's donut equals a perfect Saturday morning! We call it: Coffee in Reid's room. This was a tradition that three of my friends and I started last year. We were all Resident Assistants in Cather Hall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Let me start with, there are three factors that made Reid's room the optimum location for hanging out.

 #1: Walter. Walter the couch. One of the most comfortable couches, that a college kid could ever hope to have in their room. It's inevitable that you will fall asleep on Walter, but there's one rule when you do, you have to sign the couch.

Signatures on Walter 

#2: The hammock. Reid has a hammock hanging under his lofted bed. I would be lying if I said I haven't fallen asleep in it more than once. #3: Food. It never fails that Reid can brew the best pot of coffee. But I'll let you in on a little secret, he also usually has homemade ice cream. Or, one of my new favorites, animal crackers with Jiff's version of Nutella. Being RA's, we would have leftover food from programs, so we consumed lots of popcorn. We learned our lesson, and that was to not dump the bag of M&M's in the "body pillow sized" bag of popcorn. (All the M&M's fall to the bottom!). Needless to say, there is always something to snack on. It would do no good to describe a typical hang-out, because they don't exist. That's part of what makes it fun!

Coffee, donuts, and Reid's room! 

This particular Saturday morning, we walked down to the donut shop, came back, fixed our coffee, then took up our respected seats and settled in for the morning. No telling where the day will lead now!
 

Road Trip: part 3, 4 & 5

Well folks, it should be no surprise that there is little to no reception up in the Sandhills, which is what makes it so still and peaceful, but it prevented me from blogging in real time. My trip went off without a hitch! Also, I would like to add that it was a blast. To give a little background, I was born in Valentine, Nebraska so it is always fun to go back and visit. I had the great fortune of staying with the nurse who delivered me (which is something I don't think very many people can say!) Ruth is such a sweetheart, who knows everyone and is related to quite a few of them. This makes her the ideal tour guide. We made stops at the Easter Yucca, and the first house I ever lived in.

Easter Yucca

My First House!

Emma and I had a little free time that morning, so we headed out to the Wildlife Refuge. It's been a while since the Subaru has been off-roading, so it was fun to go exploring (staying on the designated paths of course!). While we were out exploring the raw uncut Sandhills we happened upon Clear Lake, and Pelican Lake, looked but couldn't find Swan Lake as well as my personal favorite, two Sandhills Cranes. There were some ducks, and some swans, and some black and red birds, that had we been prepared explores would have identified in our Bird Book, but we A) forgot to pack one and B) don't actually own one. 

Sandhills Crane 

Duck in the Sandhills.

Clear Lake - Wildlife Refuge 

Pelican Lake - Wildlife Refuge 

 I could talk about the trip all day, but to re-cap it was more fun than words can describe. Had the weather been warmer we would have gone Kayaking or tanking. There was one thing we didn't get to see, which boils down to I'm going to have to take another trip soon! There are supposedly some pretty neat waterfalls, so until then!

Road Trip Part 1: Packing

In my efforts to work on homework this afternoon,  I find myself distracted by the final details of my up and coming road trip. For instance it's 1:30 pm with an expected departure time of 4, and I have yet to pack. But where's the fun in begin 100% prepared??!
I am a planner, and had this been three years ago, I would have been packed Monday, but a couple years of college has taught me to let go and live a little. Being insanely over involved (which I couldn't imagine life any other way) has numerous benefits, for instance you have no choice sometimes but to fly by the seat of your pants. Here's all I really need: camera, toothbrush, Chaco's, water bottle, and my best friend who has graciously volunteered to be my traveling companion. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures as we venture off to the Nebraska Sandhills!