Iowa Girl on the Go

It’s the end of another year, and that always makes me want to look back and see what – if anything – I’ve accomplished in the year just past.

This time last year I was in New York City for Iowa State’s appearance in the Pinstripe Bowl. My strongest memory of that trip was not the holiday decorations, nor the cold (since it was actually fairly mild), but the insane number of tourists in the city. I mean, INSANE. I vowed right then and there never to return to NYC between Christmas and New Year’s. It isn’t worth it.

Highlights of 2012 included a lot of travel outside the state of Iowa: Hawaii (above, on the Big Island); the Deep South states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia; Tennessee; Kentucky; North Carolina; Virginia; Alaska; the Upper Midwest (Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota); the New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and glorious Maine (all spectacular in the fall); and the Southwestern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Twenty-three states in all. That travel (for the Iowa State University alumni magazine, VISIONS) kept me pretty busy all year.

But I did find time to take in plenty of activities in central Iowa: The Winter Blues Fest in January, St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the CelebrAsian festival, Zoo Brew, a Lego exhibit at Reiman Gardens, the Octagon Arts Festival, a Sunday afternoon concert at Prairie Moon Winery (above), an Iowa Cubs baseball game, the Holly and Ivy Tour in December, and several Downtown Des Moines farmers markets. I also photographed the sights along the Downtown Des Moines riverwalk and took a walking tour of the Des Moines skywalk system last winter. Both of those were a lot of fun. Also in Des Moines, I visited La Mie Bakery, one of my favorite places in the whole world, and I wrote about West Des Moines’ newest grocery store: Whole Foods Market. My “love letter to Whole Foods” was reposted on the Whole Foods Facebook page, garnering me a whole slew of page views I probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

Elsewhere in Iowa, I visited the 1966 Grinnell College Yearbook Project exhibit at the Faulkoner Gallery on the Grinnell campus; the small, German-inspired town of Manning; Victorian Albia; the historic Lincoln Highway Bridge in Tama; Santa Maria Winery in Carroll; a pumpkin farm near Bondurant; and the multi-faceted town of Mason City. I took a driving tour of Sac County’s barn quilts, hiked at Swan Lake State Park, attended an opera in Indianola, and enjoyed the Prelude to Christmas in Amana. I finished my three-part Grant Wood Tour of Iowa in May (with a visit to the American Gothic House in Eldon, above) and June (with visits to the Grant Wood Studio in Cedar Rapids, the Tipton Public Library, and Iowa State’s Parks Library).

I ended the year with 23,687 all-time page views (beginning with my first post in August 2010). Two popular page views were the aforementioned Whole Foods post and the Manning, Iowa, post. But to my great surprise, the most views I received all year were on a little story I did about my own city of Ames. The Downtown Ames post (above) received 183 views the first day, 473 views the second day (the highest single day ever for Iowa Girl), and 150 the following day, for a three-day total of 806. These may seem like small numbers to big, nationally followed bloggers, but to me, this was huge. (Thanks, Ames, Manning, and Whole Foods shoppers!)

Happy New Year!

There’s no better way to kick off your holiday food shopping than the Downtown Des Moines Winter Farmers’ Market. There you’ll find gifts (hand-made ornaments, jams and mustards, knitted scarves/hats/mittens, pottery), special holiday foods (cookies, pies, turkeys), and all the things you’ve come to expect from the farmers’ market: late-season produce, eggs, cheese, bread, pastries, and lots more.

I’ve complained about the location of the winter market — it’s too small for the number of vendors and shoppers — but this morning wasn’t too bad. I actually got on and off the escalator without fearing for my safety.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and I bought way too much cheese.

Happy holidays!

History and the holidays came together this weekend during the Holly & Ivy tour of historic Des Moines homes. The tour prominently featured Salisbury House (below) and Terrace Hill (above), plus two private homes.

I started at Salisbury House, a 42-room English estate just off 42^nd Street south of I-235. Even without festive Christmas décor, Salisbury House is wonderful – filled with a fantastic collection of artwork and antiques, and gorgeous architecture. I learned today that the home was built in the 1920s for Carl Weeks, a cosmetics giant, and his wife, Edith.

The self-guided tour (with volunteer historians in each room) included the large common spaces on the main floor, the library, and dining rooms. Upstairs are the bedrooms, Edith’s dressing room, and other spaces.

Each room was decorated with elaborate period Christmas trees, greenery, ribbons, flowers, wreaths, baubles, pinecones, Santas, and other Christmas items. The rooms were decorated by Des Moines florists, interior decorators, and Salisbury House volunteers.

Next I went to Terrace Hill, which was also overflowing with holiday cheer and cheerful volunteers. Terrace Hill, today the official home of Iowa’s governors, was built in 1869 by Benjamin Franklin Allen, the first millionaire in Iowa. The mansion is said to be a fine example of Second Empire Victorian architecture. It features a grand staircase, brilliant stained-glass window, and eight marble fireplaces.

It’s decorated to the hilt for the holidays. Even the stuffed moose and elk were wearing bows around their poor, dead necks. Each room has a large tree, and many have secondary trees. The chandeliers are festooned with greenery, gold pinecones, and sparkly balls. Everywhere you look, there’s Christmas. Dressed for the holidays, Terrace Hill truly is a Victorian beauty.

I did not tour the two private homes, although they sounded very cool (a Cape Cod with 13 trees, each decorated with a different theme; and a 1922 Colonial Revival).

Holly & Ivy continues through Sunday, Dec. 9.

If there’s one thing that’s been on my “Things to Do in Iowa” list longer than any other, it’s the Amana Colonies’ Prelude to Christmas. Today I finally checked it off.

Held annually the first weekend in December, Prelude to Christmas features the Amana Colonies at their best: All decorated for the holidays, with yummy food, good smells, and twinkling lights.

The event was held this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Saturday would have been the best day to go in terms of activities, with both a cookie walk and a church bazaar — not to mention live accordion music at the Ox Yoke Inn. My husband, Dave, and I opted to go today, and there was still plenty to see and do.

We started at the Amana General Store, a two-level store that includes the Amana Coffee & Tea Co. I don’t know what it looks like during the rest of the year, but right now it’s packed full of holiday goodies. There are gifts of food from Amana (think corn relish, sweet potato butter, salsa, jams, root beer, and much more), holiday tableware, Christmas ornaments, and seasonal decorations galore. It’s a very fun store if, like me, you can’t get enough of holiday decorations.

Next we visited the Tannenbaum Forest, located in the century-old Festhalle barn, which opened the Friday after Thanksgiving and remains open through Dec. 16. The forest is a display of decorated trees and other holiday scenes; the $3 admission donations benefit a local child from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Visits from Santa and a live reindeer are scheduled throughout the month.

Just outside the Festhalle barn, visitors could catch a horse and carriage ride that took them through the streets of Amana. Some proceeds from the $5-per-person charge also go to Make-A-Wish.

You can’t visit Amana without visiting the Amana Woolen Mill. The show room was filled with cozy blankets, scarves, hats, mittens, and clothing for adults and children. Across the street is Millstream Brewing Co. We stopped by there on the off chance that they’d still have some of their fantastic Oktoberfest left, but, alas, the young woman at the brewery informed me that they had actually run out of Oktoberfest during Oktoberfest weekend. (Note to all brewers in the state of Iowa: Please make more Oktoberfest next year. Thank you.) We bought bottles of Schild Brau Amber instead.

I went into several more stores, some good (Yana’s Boutique, Chocolate Haus, Kitchen Sink), some not so great. There is a lot more shopping in town, but I have a limited interest in shops, and I was getting hungry. So we went to the Ox Yoke Inn for the advertised brunch with Santa and Mrs. Claus. As luck would have it, Dave and I were seated right next to them. We could have shared the meal. The whole time we were eating (the brunch buffet included breakfast items, made-to-order omelets, salads, potatoes, several meats, breads, and desserts) a steady stream of adults and children came right beside our table to get their pictures taken with the Clauses and put in their wish lists. I heard the whole thing. One kid asked Santa, “You give a lump of coal to kids who have been bad, right? Well, what if they WANT coal?” That sort of stumped the jolly old elf who, as it turns out, lives in North Liberty, Iowa, not the North Pole. Don’t tell the kids.

If you missed Prelude to Christmas, there are still two more weekends to visit Amana before the holidays: Dec. 7-9 is Kids and Music Weekend; Dec. 14-16 is A Taste of Christmas Weekend.