Iowa Girl on the Go

I was in Kansas City this weekend for my daughter Lauren’s birthday. We visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, one of my favorite places in the city to view art — and also my favorite place in KC to eat lunch. Dining in Rozzelle Court, I always feel as though I’ve wandered unexpectedly into a European courtyard, complete with a charming fountain.

We didn’t have a lot of time in the museum, so after lunch we hit the highlights: The Buddha statue (right, with daughter Katie and her friend Brittany) and the American wing. We definitely can’t visit the museum without seeing the Thomas Hart Benton paintings and the Cornhusker sculpture by  our own Christian Petersen (with Lauren, above). We also made it a point to stop by a special exhibit featuring some outstanding behind-the-scenes photographs of Pablo Picasso and also a disappointing collection of photographs of the remains of some of the World’s Fairs.

Today I viewed art of a different sort: The Octagon Arts Festival in Ames. This art fair, held on Main Street, offered a surprisingly good selection of art by more than 100 artists. Offerings included paintings, photographs, ceramics, sculpture, wooden furniture, hand-made purses, jewelry, glass, metal, lawn art, prints, and more. I didn’t have the I’ve-seen-this-before feeling like I often do at the larger and highly touted Des Moines Art Festival. Most of the works were approachable and affordable.

A quick scan of the list of artists shows that most were from the Midwest: mostly Iowa and Minnesota, but also Wisconsin, Illinois, and the surrounding states. A few were from out of the area, coming from as far away as Florida and even Montana. But this was definitely a Midwestern art festival, and I think that worked well.

In addition to the art, there were also a children’s crafts area, live music, and food vendors. Although I was tempted by a ceramic pumpkin, a tiny and adorable purse, a lithograph of a funny “cat lady” (with whom I related), and a wonderful necklace, my only purchase was a veggie gyro.

If there’s anything I enjoy more than a fall day, it’s a fall day in a pumpkin patch. Today felt more like summer, but it’s starting to look like fall, so I visited the pumpkin patch at Geisler Farms east of Ankeny.

This pumpkin patch is the perfect blend of family fun and straightforward grownup stuff.  There’s a 10-acre corn maze, trails, pedal karts, games, hay rides, and a playground. There are also rows and rows of perfect pumpkins in every size and shape.

Baskets, carts, and shelves are also filled with pumpkins, gourds, and squash. I don’t know when I’ve seen this many varieties of pumpkins, and they were all beautiful. I bought three large gourds for $1 each, a small pumpkin for $1, a butternut squash (to make vegan butternut squash and macaroni casserole, a recipe I just got from the Whole Foods Market Facebook page) for $2, and a perfect white pumpkin for $4. I was tempted to buy more.

If you go to this pumpkin patch, you will appreciate the location. From I-35, take the  First Street Ankeny exit and drive east for 3 1/2 miles. The farm is on the right, and there’s a large, well-maintained parking lot. No gravel roads to drive on; no mud to deal with.

The corn maze and pumpkin patch are open weekends in September and October. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. If you want to do the corn maze, it’s $7, and the other kids’ activities require a nominal entrance fee. No charge just to walk through the pumpkins, which is the best part — and there are lots of cute photo ops for the little ones.

While seemingly half of the citizens of the city of Ames were in Iowa City for the big Iowa State/Iowa football game (or at least hunkered down at a sports bar in anticipation), it was  great day to be downtown Ames.

I started the day at the Main Street Farmers Market. The market, one of three farmers markets in Ames, is located in the 400 block of Main Street in downtown Ames. The market offers all the usual produce, local eggs and meat, baked goods, prepared foods, coffee, and crafts you’d expect at a small farmers market. I thought the late-summer produce selection was especially attractive. Here are some views:

Click HERE for a list of vendors. The Ames Main Street Farmers Market is held Saturdays through Oct. 27 from 8 a.m. through noon.

Later in the day I visited the Octagon Center for the Arts exhibit “Rail Reality: How the Trains Made Ames.”

In 2009 the Ames Historical Society realized that there was a significant anniversary on the horizon for the city of Ames: the 150th anniversary of the Union Pacific Railroad in 2012. The society applied for a grant from the Union Pacific Foundation to fund an exhibit to tell the story of how the railroad shaped Ames. The resulting exhibit, presented by the Ames Historical Society and Octagon Center for the Arts, opened June 1 and runs through Oct. 28.

It’s a mostly poster-presented exhibition, with a few artifacts and a scale display of the Ames railyards from the 1930s and the Ames and College Railway, a.k.a. “The Dinkey.”

I’m especially interested in the history of the Dinkey, which ran from 1891 to 1907. The exhibit tells us that from the 1860s until 1890, you could get between the small town of Ames and the small Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) three ways:

• By walking the train tracks, cutting across a pasture, and taking a footpath.
• Taking the unpaved Boone Road (now Lincoln Way), which was often muddy.
• Using the horse-drawn “college bus” departing from the depot or hotel downtown.

The Ames and College Railway changed all that — and helped both the town and the college to grow and prosper. The fare was a nickel, and ridership reached as high as 14,000 per day. In 1892 the motor depot or “Dinkey station” was built between Old Main (now Beardshear Hall) and Morrill Hall — the current location of the Hub.

The Dinkey also carried mail from the main post office to the campus depot and transported building materials and equipment during the campus building boom: The Campanile (completed in 1898), Marston Hall (1903), Beardshear Hall (1906), and Alumni Hall (1907).

The Ames Depot, which is still standing, is also filled with interesting history. Did you know that five presidents passed through Ames’ train depot? Yep — Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William McKinley, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

A portion of the of the Rail Reality exhibit is on loan from the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs. The Octagon Center for the Arts is located at 427 Douglas, Ames.

If you’re a train buff, you won’t want to miss the “Living Legend” Steam Locomotive tomorrow (Sunday, Sept. 9) on the track at 20th St. and Ridgewood Ave. in Ames. The locomotive, constructed in 1944, will be in Ames from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Also coming up are two free gallery talks: Sept. 18 (“The Railroad Today” by Brenda Mainwaring of Union Pacific) and Oct. 6 (“Today’s Freight Trains” by the ISU Railroad Club).

For art enthusiasts, The Octagon’s biggest annual event is also coming up on Sunday, Sept. 23. The 42nd Octagon Art Festival will be held on Main Street in Ames from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mason City may be one of Iowa’s most historic and well-known towns. At least to older folks, Mason City will forever be associated with one of the most famous, most popular, and most American of all Broadway and film musicals: “The Music Man.”

Meredith Willson, songwriter and playwright of the famous musical, was raised in Mason City, and he based the fictional “River City” of Music Man fame on his hometown.

Today you can tour Willson’s boyhood home and visit The Music Man Square, a 40,000-square-foot facility featuring an indoor 1912 River City streetscape, a replica of the Warner Bros. movie set for “The Music Man.” A combined ticket for the two attractions costs $6 for adults.

Your ticket includes guided tours of both facilities as well as a museum located within Music Man Square. When I visited this weekend, the tour guide was – how shall I put this? – almost too thorough. It took us a full hour for our group to get through the boyhood home. I could have easily done it in 20 minutes.

I learned, for example, that when Willson was born in 1902, he was the largest baby born in Iowa up to that point: 14 lbs. 7 oz. He was one of three children; his sister Dixie was famous in her own right as a writer and performer in the Ziegfeld Follies. The home, built in 1895, is in remarkable shape, especially considering it was a rental property and boarding house for 60 years. The house still contains the original (never painted) woodwork and some original furnishings.

Once inside Music Man Square, our tour sped up a bit but our group started to wander. I enjoyed viewing the film about the making of “The Music Man,” starring Shirley Jones and featuring Buddy Hackett and other stars of the stage and film version. My kids would think it was boring and awful, but I thought Hackett was hilarious, and some of the behind-the-scenes stories were delightful. I had no idea Shirley Jones was pregnant during the filming.

The River City streetscape is fun and includes reproductions of some of the buildings in the movie, including Mrs. Paroo’s, River City High School, the Pleez-all Billiard Parlor (where all the trouble began), and an ice cream parlor

Meredith Willson’s boyhood home and the Music Man Square are open Tuesday through Sunday 1-5 p.m.

Apparently the facility is a popular place for wedding receptions, because the day I was there it was all set up with tables, chairs, and a buffet. Didn’t exactly thrill me because all these things were in the way when I tried to take pictures.

Although we arrived at Music Man Square / Willson Boyhood Home (located next door to each other) right as they opened at 1 p.m., by the time we finished it was after 3 o’clock and another Mason City attraction was already closed for the day: The Frank Lloyd Wright Stockman House & Interpretive Center. I was ambivalent about visiting this 1908 Prairie School home because admission is $10 and I’m not such a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. So I was OK with the fact that the home was closed. I took pictures of the outside. For free.

Throughout Mason City’s historic district you can follow the Prairie School architectural tour (14 blocks) and historic walking tour (an additional 13 blocks). Walking tour guides are available at tourist info centers. One special feature of the walking tour is the Meredith Willson/Music Man footbridge (above) on Second St. SE, connecting River Heights Dr. and S. Connecticut Ave.

The last thing I did in Mason City’s historic district (because by this time I was very hot and extremely hungry) was walk through the historic Park Inn Hotel, the last remaining hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This classic example of Prairie School architecture has been completely restored – and it is a gem. Apparently you can take a guided tour for $5 a few times during the week, but you can just walk through the lobby area for free. It’s fabulous.