Iowa 2023
The Iowa State Fair was the star of our visit to Iowa, but we love exploring new places and built in time to see a little more of Des Moines and a quick stop in West Branch, IA to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
Completed in 1886, the Iowa State Capitol Building is grand in all the best ways. The building is filled with marble that’s been worn over time, deep wood trim, beautiful artwork, stained glass, and topped with a gold dome.
The best part of the Capitol Building is the Iowa Law Library. I’m a sucker for any library, but an old and beautiful library with spiral stairs and stained glass, gimmie.
One of my summer bucket list items was going to a baseball game, and we were out of town so much this summer we didn’t make it to any of the Appalachian League summer games, but thankfully while we were in Des Moines, the Iowa Cubs (Iowa Caucuses the night we went) were playing the Louisville Bats at home. Both teams' colors are red, white, and blue and my outfit leaned a little more Bats than Caucuses, oops, but we were just there for the fun of the game and wanted both teams to have fun, Go Sports! The Bats won.
The best part of the night was the after game fireworks show. I freakin’ LOVE fireworks.
After the baseball game, we walked over the The Highlife Lounge for drinks and some dinnerish food. I saw a TikTok about the Highlife Lounge earlier in the day and it looked so kitschy, I knew we had to go.
I had a gin and Starry and Christopher had a Miller High Life, obviously. We ordered chicken tenders and chicken nachos to snack on for a late dinner and they were both decent, I’d get the nachos again, but probably not the tenders.
The people watching was top notch. Lots of the people in the bar had come from the game like us. We sat near a group of 8ish men probably in their 60s & 70s just drinking and chatting about baseball, they seemed like regulars, then another small group of people on the other side of us kept telling the server “funny stories” they weren’t funny, but they were drunk.
It reminded me of a place in Winter Park called Spatz, but like if Spatz was clean, and not a trashy heap of shit.
The Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines is breathtaking. We visited Iowa during an intense heatwave so we waited until it was dark to go to the sculpture garden. Everything in the park is well lit and the pieces are stunning.
We went to a few coffee shops and stores while we were in Des Moines, and especially loved the East VIllage part of town.
We had coffee at Plain Talk Books and Coffee, and tried to play chess - we don’t know how to play.
I bought some cards and stickers at Porch Light, and drooled over how cute that store is. It felt like home in a store. Christopher grabbed a record at Marv’s Music, such a cool vibe and helpful staff member.
Another coffee at Daisy Chain Coffee, before heading in to RAYGUN to do some more sticker shopping. And even more coffee from Smokey Row Coffee.
Somewhere in that coffee and shopping extravaganza we had burgers and Iowa beers at the Iowa Taproom for lunch, and more coffee from Vibrant Coffeehouse and Kitchen. These coffees happened over a couple of days, so don’t worry.
One morning we went to Scenic Route Bakery so we could get coffee and pastries and work somewhere pretty. After we were done working, we got ourselves a little treat at Dairy Zone.
I love that Des Moines not only has trash cans available all over downtown, but recycling bins next to them! How cool is that?!
We had a good dinner at Machine Shed Restaurant while in Des Moines. It’s a farmer themed place serving American classics, and bringing a trio of fixin’s to the table to share. Christopher and I shared a bowl of their world famous baked potato soup to start and it was delicious, the potato chunks were substantial and the soup was creamy and cheesy with plenty of bacon on top. I ordered fried chicken with mashed potatoes and the veggie that day was corn, so kind of a mess of beige, but tasty. Christopher had the beef brisket dinner with baked beans and fries, and the meat was so smokey and good. I liked his meat better than mine, but I love mashed potatoes, so we’ll call the dinners a tie. The trio of family style fixin’s includes coleslaw, cottage cheese, and a bread basket with apple bread and big soft dinner rolls. As soon as they brought out the fixin’s I immediately knew my dad would love this place, because those might be three of his favorite foods.
Our last adventure in Des Moines was a tour of the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates. I had never heard of the World Food Prize, but in short it’s like a Nobel Prize for people making significant contributions to advances in agriculture and/or fighting hunger. The Hall of Laureates serves as a museum to recognize and showcase the work that has and is being done.
The building itself is a LEED Platinum certified restoration of the old Des Moines City Library, built between 1900 and 1903. The building is magnificent. Even after walking around the first floor for 30 minutes waiting for the tour to begin and then taking the two hour docent-led tour, I was still finding new details in each room as we left. The gardens surrounding the building are lovely and I wish the heat index had been under 100 degrees so we could have spent more time enjoying them.
Each wall has a quote about food or Dr. Borlaug. “Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world”, “Those real life heroes whose work touches the soil and the hearts of all mankind”, “To advance the human condition by increasing the quality, quantity and availability of food”, “The man who saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived”.
After a few days in Des Moines, we headed over for a night in Iowa City so we could go to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, and Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
We love a roadside attraction, so you bet we drove by the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel.
We had Jimmy Jack’s Rib Shack for dinner in Iowa City. I ordered the sliced brisket sandwich with baked beans and honey cornbread, Christopher ordered The Supreme sandwich that has pulled pork, chicken, and brisket, with french fries and mac and cheese on the side. We tried all of their sauces, Original (bold and tangy), Chicago Fire (sweet heat), Cowboy (sweet and smokey), and Carolina Mustard. The meats were great, the sauce in the baked beans was super runny so it made them hard to eat, but the taste was nice, the mac and cheese was meh, and the fries were pretty good. Overall, not bad.
After doing some laundry at the hotel and getting some sleep, our next stop was breakfast at Bluebird Diner and coffee from Press Coffee, before making our way to learn all about Herbert Hoover.
We want to visit all of the presidential libraries and Herbert Hoover was our third library. Herbert Hoover is one of only two presidents to have been buried in the same place he was born, the other is Richard Nixon, our last presidential library visit.
Herbert Hoover, we decided to call him Herbie Fully Loaded, had a really interesting life. I knew nothing about him before visiting his library, and I mean nothing, like I probably couldn’t have even listed him as a president.
Hoover traveled all over the globe while working in mining, did a lot of work coordinating relief efforts to help feed people all over the world, and was elected and served as chairman of Boys’ Club of America until his death at age 90.
Next to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site which includes the house Herbert Hoover was born in, his father’s blacksmith shop, and the schoolhouse in which he attended school.
Our last stop in Iowa City was lunch at Nodo Iowa City. I had the grilled peanut butter & banana sandwich, Christopher had the Nodo banh mi, and we shared chips and a peanut butter cookie. This place was super cute and the sandwiches were great. This is definitely a place I’d go again if we were to come back.
We had a surprisingly great time in Iowa. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Iowa really showed us a good time, except for the fucking heat. I hope I never have to experience heat indexes of 110+ again.
Have you been to Iowa? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments.
