Iowa Girl on the Go

The Wild Rose Independent Film Festival came to town last weekend. Held at the Fleur (my favorite movie theater in Des Moines), it ran from Nov. 4-11 and featured short films produced by students and other independent filmmakers, feature-length films, lectures, panel discussions, an acting workshop, and more.

This seemed like a lot of fun, but the only day I could make it down was yesterday – the last day of the festival. It still seemed cool, because they were screening three feature-length films in the New Iowa Film Showcase Series. The first one started at 4:30 p.m. – awfully early, if you work an 8-5 job – but we made it there in time.

The film showing at 4:30 was The Experiment. I remember when it was being filmed in Des Moines because Adrien Brody was in a war-protest scene with hundreds of local extras, and it was filmed near the capital so it got a lot of news coverage – but I didn’t really know much about the storyline. I was actually more interested in the later films – one called Haunting Villisca about the unsolved Villisca axe murders of 1912, which you may remember reading about in this very blog, and one called A Million Spokes, a RAGBRAI documentary.

When we got there, I was rather horrified to learn that each film was going to cost us $10 – which seems like a whole lot considering the normal matinee price is $6.50 and regular evening shows are $8.50. I was hoping we could view all three films for $10, but nope.

At that point I wasn’t about to walk away, so we paid for two tickets and went in. I think there were five other people in the theater, all of whom looked to be retired. Before the show began, a woman from the film festival welcomed us, talked about the film, and showed us a trailer for another film shot in Iowa – Molly’s Girl.

And then The Experiment began, and I can’t begin to tell you how horrible it was. Dave said afterwards that he has a pretty high tolerance level for bad movies and this was one of the worst films he’d ever seen.

Let me just say that this film went directly to video, and there’s a reason for that. (Come to think of it, perhaps the fact that they showed it in the middle of the afternoon should have been my first clue.) The basic plot involves a group of men who volunteer to participate in a psychological study that takes place in a mock prison in the middle of a cornfield. The subjects will be paid $1,000 for each day of the two-week experiment – that is, if they make it to the end.

Think of it as Lord of the Flies For Grownups, Trapped In a Concrete Building.

I objected to the extreme violence, yes, but more than that, I objected to the ridiculous storyline and the evolution of these characters from mild-mannered guys to full-on sociopathic cretins in something like three days. It was totally laughable.

I would have laughed more if I hadn’t been robbed of my ten dollars. When the film was over, we decided we were NOT going to take a chance on the second film about Villisca, even though the subject was interesting to me. The running time was more than 2 hours – way too long for “paranormal thriller” about a haunted house.

We decided to salvage what was left of the evening and go to dinner. On the way there, we wondered aloud why two such excellent actors (Brody and Forest Whitaker, the film’s other “star”) would take on such terrible roles. Both men have won best actor Oscars (Brody for The Pianist and Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland). The only thing we could think of was, like their characters in The Experiment, these guys were told they could make $1,000 a day if they made this film. Or something like that.

Anyway, we headed downtown Des Moines to eat dinner, which is something we rarely get to do on a weeknight. We went to Django, a cozy French restaurant on 10^th Street. I had been there once before for happy hour (a great deal) but never for dinner. I thought it was amazing. We started out with fresh-baked twists of bread with big slabs of real butter while we looked at the menu – a menu that actually had many vegetarian selections. I’m not used to having that many choices, so it took me a long time to decide. Would I have wild mushroom crepes? The grilled cheese with white cheddar and swiss on South Union bread? The daily special veggie pot pie? Or just a wine flight and cheese plate? I ended up with the spinach and goat cheese ravioli tossed with fresh thyme, tomato and champagne beurre blanc. And a generous glass of Oregon Pinot Noir (not cheap, but the irony of that $10 glass of wine was not lost on me. Good wine trumps bad films every time.) I was hoping to have room for dessert, because the dessert list looked spectacular, but alas, I was too full from the bread and pasta.

With no little kids in the house these days, and no grandkids yet, Halloween does not interest me very much right now. I used to sew the kids’ costumes and decorate the house and buy lots of candy and carve jack-o-lanterns, but not anymore. And since Halloween and Iowa State’s Homecoming fell on the same weekend, that was one more reason to ignore the holiday.

I did, however, find one fun Halloween-y thing to do. Katie and I took Charley (my new grandpuppy) to the Ames Dog Park for the first annual Parks and Recreation Howl-O-Ween costume party.

Charley was the cutest little pink butterfly you ever saw. There were lots of other dogs there, dressed as bees and corn on the cob and pirates and cowboys and little ballerinas — all sniffing each other madly.

Some big dogs (on the other side of the fence) came dressed up, too, although it’s not so easy to get a 100-pound dog in a tutu.

Happy Halloween!

I was very excited when I heard Spring Awakening was coming to Stephens Auditorium this fall. I can still remember watching the 2007 Tony Awards, not knowing much of anything about the show, and seeing the reaction of the crowd every time it got nominated. And then, when the cast performed, I understood what all the fuss was about – this was a groundbreaking musical. This was something really different.

Spring Awakening ended up winning eight Tony Awards that night: best musical, book, score, direction, choreography, orchestrations, lighting design, and best featured actor in a musical (John Gallagher, Jr.). We were lucky enough to get tickets to see the show on Broadway a few months later, with the original cast still intact. I was thrilled! I would easily count it in my top five all-time favorite shows.

Two of the three original lead actors, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, have gone on to become famous for their roles in the popular TV show Glee. And Gallagher is currently the lead in the Broadway musical American Idiot. So the show had a lot of star power. In fact, I believe that every member of that young original ensemble cast could have sung the lead roles – it was such a great group of voices, and each character was so strong.

In the bus-and-truck version, which came through Ames Friday night, the voices were far less impressive. The cast was very young and, I learned afterwards, had only been performing together since September.

The show, set in late 19th century Germany, is about the sexual awakening and civil disobedience of a group of adolescent students. On Broadway, there are a few moments of humor, many moments of tragedy, and a lot of rock and roll.

The touring company, perhaps inadvertently, put far more emphasis on the humorous aspects of the musical. Or maybe it was the audience’s reaction — not knowing the tragic consequences that would ultimately befall the show’s young characters. Nevertheless, it was difficult to sit through the performance after seeing the true greatness of the original production.

After being on the road the past two weekends, I contemplated doing NOTHING this weekend except sleep late, drink coffee in my backyard, and attend the wedding of a friend’s daughter. But today was such an incredible fall day, and I keep thinking that one of these days this beautiful fall weather is going to end, so I decided to take advantage of it.

I started out this morning at Ledges State Park, where I ate a muffin and drank some coffee that I bought at Café Milo in west Ames. Then I hiked the upper part of the canyon despite the warnings that there were bow-and-arrow deer hunters about. Yuck! Fortunately, I did not see any hunters.

Ledges State Park is one of my favorite places, and it’s only about 15 minutes from my house, so I go there a lot.

After a quick hike, I decided to go to Northern Prairie Chevre, which is south of Ledges near Woodward, Iowa. I’ve been there before, because we did a VISIONS story on the three women who run the goat cheese business – Wendy Mickle, Connie Lawrance, and Kathy Larson. Since that story ran in 2004, they’ve added a gift shop and have frequent open houses, but I’ve never gone to one because I can always find their products at the Des Moines Farmers’ Market and at Wheatsfield grocery here in Ames.

I decided it was worth the drive this weekend because – sadness! – the women are calling it quits at the end of the year. They’re selling the business. I know there are other local goat cheese producers but I am going to miss this one, because it’s my favorite.

There were tons of people at the open house. I bought some goat cheese and toured the barn. I love the goats – one of them tried to eat my purse – and also the huge guard dog, Honeybump, a Great Pyrenees.

When I was buying my little tubs of spreadable cheese, Kathy asked if I was going to the other open houses in the area: Flowers by Donna Jean, Prairieland Herbs, and Picket Fence Creamery. Well sure, why not? My car was already filthy from the gravel road.

I followed the directions into downtown Woodward to the first stop, Flowers by Donna Jean. I’ve never been to this shop before; in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been in downtown Woodward before. I was really impressed; the shop is a mix of flowers, gifts, antiques, and other home decor, all extremely well-priced. Today they even had samples of Olde Main Oktoberfest, my current favorite local beer. I bought a couple of pieces of pottery for a Christmas gift.

I got lost trying to find Prairieland Herbs (I missed the road after the golf course because the sign was covered by a tree). It’s on a gravel road, too, so by this time my car was really, really dirty. People were parked up and down the road, but honestly, I didn’t see much there that I was interested in buying. It did smell good, though.

From there, I toggled between S Ave. and Hwy. 210 a couple of times and ended up at Picket Fence Creamery. This is one place I’ve visited before (the next sample Sunday is Nov. 17, and there are two sample days in December). They have the most amazing ice cream there. You can find it at Hy-Vee and Wheatsfield, but I think it tastes fresher when you buy it at the farm. They also have farm eggs, milk, cream, butter, pie, Iowa wine, pumpkins, local honey, and a bunch of other stuff. It was so crowded I could hardly see everything that was in the store. I ate a sample of a pumpkin muffin and drank a little bit of apple cider and then bought a couple of cartons of ice cream. On the way out, I stopped by an apple vendor and bought a half peck of yellow apples.

I could do nothing fun on the way home because it was a race against time before the ice cream started to melt.

I thought I had been to northeast Iowa before, but only after spending two days up there earlier this week do I truly appreciate the beauty of this part of the state. It’s really not at all like the rest of Iowa. In the fall, it’s sort of the New England of the Midwest.

I headed northeast last Sunday morning, full of advice from my friends Scott and Jim and accompanied by a fall color tour guide written by Mike Kilen of the Des Moines Register. From Ames, I took I-35 north to Hwy. 20 because I wanted to get there fast, but once I reached Hwy. 150 at Independence, things started to slow down. There truly is no easy way to get there, and that’s part of the fun.

So I took Hwy. 150 to Oelwein (a funny name for a town) and then Hwy. 3 to Strawberry Point. Scott told me the drive from Strawberry Point to Elkader was pretty, and it was. It’s amazing – when you turn north on Hwy. 13 it’s like the land just changes. Suddenly my car was groaning up the hills. IN IOWA. Just outside Elkader is the Barn on the Bluff B&B, where I stopped to take pictures. You apparently can reserve the entire 100-year-old barn for a family getaway. I did not go in (I was more or less trespassing as it was) but the outside looks beautiful and the pictures on the website are really cool. One thing I will say for sure: the view is fantastic.

From Elkader I stayed on Hwy. 13 up to, well, I’m not sure where, but I came to a sign that said “this way to Guttenberg” so I took that road (Hwy. 52). If you are following along on the map, you will see that I backtracked about 20 miles, but that’s OK. The drive was pretty, with a great payoff in Guttenberg: a view of the Mississippi River.

I’ve seen the Mississippi dozens and dozens of times, but I have to say that it looks very, very different in northeast Iowa/northwest Wisconsin. Lots of picturesque little “islands” and cool inlets and steep bluffs and unique bridges. It’s nothing like crossing the Mississippi in St. Louis, or the Quad Cities, or even Dubuque. So I took some pictures up on a bluff overlooking the river and then went into Guttenberg and walked around. It was a nice, warm day and lots of people were strolling the park that runs the length of the town along the river.

From Guttenberg, I took the Great River Road to McGregor, stopping in Pikes Peak State Park just long enough to realize I didn’t want to be there. By mid-afternoon, the temperature had reached the upper 80s and I swear every man, woman, child, and dog had driven their car to the park for what might be the last nice Sunday afternoon of the season. I literally could not find a place to park, and after being in a traffic jam for about half an hour, I headed OUT of the park and into McGregor.

My originally plan was to hike in Pikes Peak and then go to Effigy Mounds and THEN go to McGregor, where I had a hotel reservation. But I hadn’t counted on the crowds. And here’s the thing about me and crowds: I don’t like them. I love the idea that people are using and enjoying our state parks, but I just wish they wouldn’t do it when I’m there. I much prefer being alone. So I quickly changed my plans and decided to do those two things on Monday instead. Which left me with lots of time on my hands on Sunday afternoon.

Lucky for me, the town has several antiques stores. And there was a fall arts festival going on. Plus, I found the Old Man River Brewing Company, a wonderful bar and restaurant located in a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I had no problem killing time at the bar, watching the people out on the street and downing a few Scottish ales.

I stayed at possibly the weirdest hotel EVER that night in McGregor. It’s called the Alexander Hotel…well, technically, it’s the Latinos Mexican Restaurant Bar Hotel – at least that’s what the sign says on the front. Now, I chose this hotel with my eyes wide open. Here is what it says on the hotel’s website: “Seldom, in a small Mississippi River town will you find a hotel with nicely furnished rooms, good food and drink, meeting rooms, high speed Internet connection and a festive, relaxed, friendly Mexican atmosphere.”

True, right? I actually chose the hotel based on the address, because it seemed to be within walking distance of pretty much everything in McGregor, which it was. So I am not complaining. In fact, I sort of liked the place, even though when I first saw it I laughed out loud and figured my room would definitely smell like salsa. But it worked fine for me – the ultimate anti-chain hotel.

So I slept at the weird hotel and got up early the next morning because at this point I was behind in my itinerary. I headed straight for Pikes Peak State Park where – hallelujah! – there were about three people (plus me) watching the sun come up and the fog roll off the river. A more spectacular sight there never was. I took a lot of pictures and congratulated myself for being so smart to come back on a Monday morning. Good decision!

I needed to eat something after that, and the restaurant Mike Kilen recommended in McGregor wasn’t actually open despite the three huge signs declaring it was NOW OPEN. So I drove about 30 seconds to Marquette and ate eggs, hashbrowns, and toast at an authentic little riverfront diner. I know I was the only tourist there, because I was the only one carrying a camera.

My next stop was Effigy Mounds National Monument, which I am embarrassed to say I had never visited before, even though I’ve lived in Iowa for 13 years. Well, it’s just an absolute state treasure and I can’t believe it took me so long to realize this. I paid my entrance fee (just $3, or free with a National Parks pass) and hiked up to the Great Bear Mound Group and then on to Fire Point and Eagle Rock, both of which offered spectacular views of the Mississippi River. I literally could have spent a full day at Effigy Mounds, because is has everything: history, scenic beauty, great hiking through gorgeous woods. But I needed to move on. And besides, just about the time I got back to the visitors’ center after my hike, a busload of middle school kids unloaded…and you know how I feel about crowds. And groups of kids are the absolute worst (sorry!)

From Effigy Mounds, I took Hwy. 76 to Yellow River State Forest. I was hoping to do a little hiking there, but I ended up mostly just driving through the forest and enjoying the quiet and trying not to get lost. After that, I drove through Harper’s Ferry (disappointing) and then up to Lansing.

Lansing is a really, really cool little river town. For one thing, it’s got the scariest bridge I’ve ever driven across. And it’s got a park at the top of a tall bluff that to get there you have to literally make these steep, climbing, hairpin turns. Again, my car was groaning. But the top of that peak (Mount Hosmer) offered yet another extraordinary view of the Mississippi. I’m pretty sure it makes the cover of the state tour guide every year (and now it’s on my Facebook page).

I got gas and ate lunch in Lansing at a place called T.J. Hunter’s where the nice waitress let me order a grilled cheese sandwich off the kids’ menu. As I sat in the restaurant, I noticed a place across the street called Horsfall’s Lansing Variety, which Mike Kilen had specifically mentioned in his article was a not-to-be-missed attraction. So after I finished my meal, I walked across the street and went in Horsfall’s. It’s definitely an experience, that store. Have you seen the show “Hoarders: Buried Alive” on TLC? I am ashamed to admit that I watched that show once, and Horsfall’s kind of reminded me of the crazy people who can’t throw anything away. But it’s really a fun store and I bought a couple of books there for $1.49 each. You can’t beat that.

From Lansing, I probably would have taken Hwy. 9 to Waukon and then on to Decorah. But my friend Scott’s dad said to tell me to take Elon Drive (which is also called Alamakee County Road A52), so I did. After seeing so many breathtaking views of the Mississippi River and such pretty wooded areas, I was not expecting that FARMLAND would be the highlight of my northeast Iowa adventure, but indeed it was.

The whole area of far-northeast Iowa has pretty farmland. I kept stopping and taking pictures of it. Sometimes I’d round a curve and there would be a little white church with a steeple and a little country cemetery next to a cornfield or a rolling hillside with a barn and some cows and a grain silo and I’d think, MAN, this is really pretty. But the 13 miles of Elon Drive / A52 have got to be the absolutely most beautiful farmland in America. Hands down. It’s like a freaking Grant Wood painting from end to end. (Thanks, Scott’s dad, for the tip! I never would have gone this way.)

Once I got to Waukon, I hooked up with Hwy. 9 and headed to Decorah, a super nice town where I was hoping to eat ice cream and fill up my coffee cup for the drive home. Alas, to my great disappointment, the Sugar Bowl ice cream store was closed for the season. I had to make do with a strong cup of coffee and a power-walk along Decorah’s fine main shopping district.

I took Hwy. 9 back across to I-35 and tried to stay awake and not hit any farm equipment. The highlight of that section was driving through Osage, Iowa, only to realize that town had the most brilliant fall color of anywhere I’d visited in the last 48 hours. Truly, all of the trees looked like they were on fire. In Osage, Iowa. Who knew?

I’m back home now, with more than 2,000 miles on my car since Oct. 1.

I’ve been hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail on the North Shore of Lake Superior for 10 years now. The first time, I went with my friend Teri, and we hiked “lodge to lodge.” It was a pretty cool deal: We spent the night at a resort; then the next morning we ate breakfast, they gave us a sack lunch, we drove our car to one end of a hiking trail, they dumped us off at the other end, and we hiked back to our car. Then we drove to the next lodge and repeated the whole thing. After three days of hiking up mountains and over boulders, we could barely walk, but it was a blast.

The next year (2001), I went alone. The lodge-to-lodge experience had been great because it allowed me to explore the area, stay in very different kinds of lodging (from lakeside resort to rustic cabin), and gain some confidence in my ability to follow a hiking trail. But I didn’t want to do lodge to lodge again because, frankly, I didn’t want the hassle of packing and moving to a new place every night. The area Teri and I traveled only amounted to about 30 miles, so it seemed silly to stay in more than one place.

I had heard that Cascade Lodge was a good place to stay. It’s a traditional lodge with standard rooms, plus several private log cabins. Teri and I hadn’t stayed there on our trip because it was full, but we ate breakfast at the restaurant there one morning.

I booked Cabin 2 for four nights in fall 2001. That was probably the best trip I ever took, because for the first time in my life I was completely independent – I’d never even driven that far on my own. I had to maneuver through the Twin Cities and Duluth, find remote trailheads, hike alone, eat alone, and hang out in the cabin alone.

I loved it. I built fires in the fireplace, drank wine, hiked my ass off, got really dirty, saw amazing fall color, ate wild rice pizza at Sven and Ole’s in Grand Marais, and came back to the cabin so tired one night that I fell asleep with my hiking boots on.

In the next five years, I hiked on most of the trail sections on the Superior Hiking Trail (about 240 miles, end to end, from Two Harbors to Canada). I hiked there a couple of times each year, in the fall and late spring, to experience the peak of the fall color and spring flowers. I developed a routine: I always stopped at the first rest stop in Minnesota to pee, stopped in St. Paul at Whole Foods for trail snacks, marveled (when I popped up over the big hill in Duluth) at the first glimpse of Lake Superior – as big as an ocean. Heading north on Hwy. 61 after I-35 ends in Duluth, I usually stopped at a park and sat on the rocks and tried not to get attacked by seagulls. Even if it was hot when I left Ames, by the time I got to the Lake, it was always jacket weather.

From Duluth, you can take the expressway to Two Harbors. And then once you get past Two Harbors, it’s all just magical. The air is fresher, the trees are taller, and the sky is bigger. It even smells different. And there’s the Lake, sometimes just out of sight as you’re driving along hilly, curvy, wonderful Hwy. 61, but always there.

Sometime around 2006 I started getting old and out of shape, and I skipped a couple of my northern hiking trips. By the time I reestablished my routine in fall 2008, I was so out of shape that hiking sort of became secondary to just BEING in northern Minnesota.

So I embraced that. Now I still hike, and I still love the trail and the seasons more than just about anything, but I stay away from the really strenuous and treacherous trails that I used to do — because god forbid I should fall and break a hip alone in the wilderness, right? And the days of 15-20 mile hikes are gone. I’m happy if I do a short hike in the morning and another short hike in the afternoon. I sleep in, take long showers, eat that yummy pizza at Sven and Ole’s, drink beer at the Gunflint Tavern in Grand Marais, drink wine and read good novels in my cabin, build fires every night in the fireplace, and eat pie on the way home at Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors. It’s become a gastronomical adventure!

This fall, I booked Cabin 2 at Cascade Lodge for Oct. 1-3. The first weekend in October is usually the peak of the fall color. This year I missed it by at least a week – maybe two. All of the pretty maple leaves were on the ground. I guess fall came early this year.

I still had a great time. The weather was perfect for hiking: 52 degrees and sunny.

If you like to hike, or just enjoy the outdoors, I highly recommend a trip to the north shore. The trail is widely varied, with intimate birch, maple, and pine forests; wide meadows; deep canyons; high peaks; spectacular overlooks of Lake Superior and inland lakes; waterfalls; and rivers. It’s perfect for day hikes, serious through-hikers, and backcountry camping.

It takes me about 8-9 hours to drive from Ames to my lodge – and you can stay further south if you want. There is plenty of lodging along Hwy. 61.

I would not hike this trail without buying the book Guide to the Superior Hiking Trail. The book, now in its sixth edition, gives a blow-by-blow description of each trail and (sometimes more importantly) helps you find the trailheads. I’ve sometimes been frustrated by the book because it doesn’t warn you about some of the more treacherous sections (the author calls them “challenging” and mentions “ascents” and “descents” when I would use much stronger – sometimes unprintable — words), but it’s a good mile-by-mile description nonetheless. And it offers a lot of interesting information about the geography, history, flora, and fauna of the trail.

The trail runs through seven state parks – themselves worth a trip north — and now features a section in Duluth that will eventually be connected to the rest of the trail.

Check out these links!
Superior Hiking Trail Association (i.e., everything you ever wanted to know about the Superior Hiking Trail): http://www.shta.org/
Cascade Lodge (my favorite place to stay): http://www.cascadelodgemn.com/
Lodge-to-lodge Hiking: http://www.boundarycountry.com/hiking.html

When Linus went in search of a sincere pumpkin patch in “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” he probably didn’t count on the (literal) dog and pony show that goes along with the commercial pumpkin patches in Iowa.

These pumpkin patches offer lots of activities for the kids (petting zoos, pony rides, slides, hay rack rides), stuff for the grown-ups (shopping), and something for just about everyone (pumpkins! Corn mazes!)

Going to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins, buy apples, eat cider donuts, and ride in a hay wagon is my idea of a fun thing to do on a fall weekend. When our kids were little, we made a big deal out of choosing pumpkins with them. After they got older, we just started buying pumpkins and gourds at the farmers’ market.

Last year, on a whim, my daughter Katie and I went to the Center Grove Pumpkin Patch near Cambridge and had such a great time we wondered why we ever stopped this fun family tradition. There are LOTS of pumpkin patches in Iowa, so we decided to try a different one this year.

Howell’s Pumpkin Patch is near Cumming, Iowa – not too far south of Des Moines. Both of the girls went with me this time. Katie was crazy for the goats and ponies; Lauren liked looking at the different kinds of pumpkins. If they had been a bit younger, I would have had to buy them a pony ride and probably a trip to the corn maze, but as we are all more or less adults now, we just walked around and enjoyed the produce and critters. You’re never too old to feed the goats – at least not in my family.

There’s a website that lists all the pumpkin patches in Iowa. It’s not a great-looking site, but the links seem to work, and you can choose which area of Iowa to visit (the list is by county). I do recommend Center Grove for its cider donuts, caramel apples, apple butter, and hay rack ride. Howell has a lot of mums, dried flowers, holiday-themed gift shop, and the aforementioned goats.

Market Day is a monthly gathering of artists, antiques dealers, and craftspersons held in an old warehouse on SW 5th Street in Downtown Des Moines.

It’s a funky place, for sure.

This is the third time I’ve been. The first time was a special Black Friday Market Day – a nice alternative to big box stores and malls on the day after Thanksgiving. That was fun. And then I sort of forgot about Market Day, given the winter we had, and I didn’t think to go again until last month. Now I plan to go on a regular basis.

It’s such a great concept: Artists who sell their goods on websites like etsy.com come together for a fun event, described on the Market Day website as “arts festival meets bohemian garage sale.” That’s a pretty accurate description. There’s jewelry, hand-knitted scarves and caps, photography, wallets made from maps, T-shirts, and journals made from old Hardy Boys books mixed with cupcakes and flea market fare.

Don’t expect the place to be huge – it’s small and fairly crowded. I felt like every time I stopped at a booth I was blocking the way of someone who wanted to walk through. But the friendly vendors and nice selection of functional and eclectic art are enough to bring me back later this fall for some serious Christmas shopping.

Market Day is held 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. the last Saturday of every month at 300 SW 5th St., Des Moines. Black Friday Market is Nov. 26.

I had to go to Chicago earlier this week for a magazine story I’m working on. It’s hard to go to Chicago and JUST work, because there is so much to do and see there. In my opinion, the city of Chicago is second only to New York – it has fabulous museums, great shopping, a thriving theatre district, gorgeous lakeshore, interesting neighborhoods, hopping nightlife, and restaurants for every taste.

I’ve been there many times – it’s an easy 5-6 hour drive from central Iowa. If you drive in to the city on a Sunday, you’ll avoid the horrible traffic, which is one thing I DON’T love about going to Chicago.

Booking a hotel can be a bit of a challenge, too. Chicago has a lot of huge conventions, so if you hit it at the wrong time, you might find it difficult to find a single room in the whole city. I’ve stayed at some of the big monster properties, like the Marriott on Michigan Avenue, as well as some of the boutique hotels. All tend to be very pricey. You pay for location. A few of the ones I’ve stayed in off the beaten path were in scary locations (i.e., near porn shops) and/or in noisy areas (one hotel room I stayed in was so close to the El platform that I literally could open my window and talk to the commuters). That’s why people tend to stay in the really touristy area on (or very near) Michigan Avenue.

So I was pleased and surprised by the quality and location of the hotel I booked for this week’s trip. It was recommended by John Perkins, the alum I was going there to see, and it was only a few blocks from his high-rise apartment building. Located on Printers’ Row in the area referred to as The Loop, Downtown, and the Financial District, the Hotel Blake offered basic guest rooms for just $143 per night (AAA rate). That’s a very good rate for Chicago. The rooms were lovely (the whole hotel is very nice), with king beds and soft pillows, and the rate included breakfast. I was traveling with my good friend and VISIONS photographer Jim Heemstra…neither of us liked the free breakfast, but honestly, I didn’t expect anything at all, so donuts and granola bars were better than nothing.

The hotel is within walking distance of the big museums, but once we got checked in we hopped a cab to the Shedd Aquarium because it was getting late and we didn’t want to spend the time walking when we could be hanging out with beluga whales. (The aquarium closes at 6 p.m. on weekends.) It’s a good aquarium – I’ve been there before with my family – but the thing I noticed this time was that there are more gift shops and snack bars than exhibits. And they’ve added a lot of very child-friendly hands-on displays (actually, more like play areas than displays) but really haven’t added to their aquatic holdings.

If you’ve never been to an aquarium, this one is pretty impressive – especially the dolphins and beluga whales and the spectacular view of Lake Michigan. But after you’ve been to other ones (the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta comes to mind) this one sort of pales in comparison.

Nevertheless, it was fun, and Jim tried to help me take better photos of fish in dark tanks through reflective, finger-printy glass. He does this really well, but me – not so much. (Who knew I could change my ISO to 1600?? I should really read the manual.)

After they kicked us out of the aquarium at 6 p.m. we walked north past Buckingham Fountain (always spectacular). After a quick beer at the Congress Hotel, it was dark enough to go through Millenium Park – a truly fabulous place – to see The Crown Fountain by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. It’s so much fun to sit and watch the faces change, and the kids go crazy when water starts shooting out of it. Later we met a group of cool college-age tourists, all from different countries, who were in the park for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert (with its new music director, Riccardo Muti). They asked us to take their picture by the giant bean-shaped mirrored sculpture called Cloud Gate, which I totally love during the day but doesn’t look like much at night.

Normally, I have a “no chain restaurant” rule, but we broke it Sunday night because we wanted to hear live music. So we went to the House of Blues for food, beer, and a great band for no cover charge. (As we were leaving, the guy at the door was charging a $10 cover, so we must’ve gotten there early enough to avoid it.)

On Monday, after our work was done, John and Jim and I went to the French Market (131 N. Clinton), which I have to say was not so much French as it was Food Court. We all tried to be adventuresome by buying food from the RAW place (“100% organic raw vegan”), but we decided that the little one-taste samples tasted a whole lot better than the actual entrees. So we balanced the healthy food with a large paper cone of Belgian fries with flavored mayo. And then ate dessert. I can’t say I highly recommend this place, but it was sort of fun.

Next time I go to Chicago, I swear I will eat Ethiopian food – something I can’t find in Iowa.

Each spring, I eagerly anticipate the opening day of the Des Moines Farmers’ Market, held in the Court Avenue area downtown.

Each spring, the damn thing gets more crowded.

What started in 1976 with just 15 vendors and an average of 200 shoppers (according to the market’s website) has now grown to an average of 18,000 shoppers – and there were reportedly 30,000 people there last year on opening day.

That’s too many people. And dogs. And baby strollers.

An event I once would NOT HAVE MISSED on any Saturday from mid-May through October is now an event with which I have a love/hate relationship.

I still love the idea of the farmers’ market. I still go – although not every weekend – because there are things sold there that I can’t easily get anywhere else. I still have nice, friendly relationships with some of the vendors from whom I have bought bread and goat cheese and Dutch letters for more than 10 years. I still love the routine of going to the market and gathering whatever is in season – tomatoes, basil, sweet corn, watermelon, spinach – and the ever-present baked goods and cut flowers.

What I hate about it is, very simply, the crowd. It used to be that you could go early – say, before 9 a.m. – and find a place to park and walk easily from vendor to vendor. Now, even if you’re there at 7:30 in the morning, the streets are teeming with people and dogs, dogs, dogs. If you go much later, you might as well just forget it. It’s impossible to A) walk, B) find what you’re looking for, and C) enjoy the atmosphere…because it’s SO CROWDED.

That’s why I like the market so much in the fall. I was there mid-morning last Saturday, and the crowd was average – not overwhelming. This morning I got there at 7 a.m. (crazy, I know) and it was raining and still dark and hardly anyone was there yet, so it was like the farmers’ market of yore. I loved it! I got to talk to the Dutch letter guy and the bread lady and take pictures of the pumpkins. Pumpkins and apples are the best reasons to go to the market in the fall, in my opinion. But there’s still lots of produce — and everything else that I love about the market.

There’s still time to go this season! The market is open every Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon until Oct. 30. And indoor winter markets are held Nov. 19-20 and Dec. 17-18.

http://www.desmoinesfarmersmarket.com/