We arrived in Des Moines late Friday afternoon and went over to Drake to see Kara. She is on the 4th floor of her dorm and is facing towards campus, so she see the trees and a few other buildings rather than overlooking the road. After picking up Kara, we went to El Rodeo for dinner. They definitely have over-sized portions. Our fajitas for 2 could have easily fed 3 if not 4 people. We then made the traditional Target run to pick up a few essentials and even more niceties.
We signed up for the Bulldog Run on Saturday morning, which for us is just a nice walk through campus. The walk takes you though the painted sidewalk where various service groups and organizations paint a large square to add a little color to the Drake Relays every spring. Kara helped with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sidewalk painting. The run finished up at Drake stadium with a lap around the track. The morning was cool but calm, and absolutely cloudless.
After our little bit of exercise, we headed downtown to the Des Moines farmer market. The market stretches for 3 blocks with appendages extending a block each way from each cross street. Besides the various fresh vegetables, there were many stands selling breakfast food, flowers, and crafts. We wondered through the market for a couple of hours, trying to get a look at all of the various booths on each side of the streets.
After the farmers market, we headed to the riverside park to check out the pagoda we had seen during other trips, but never took the time to visit. Beside the pagoda, there is a walking trail with some sculptures and engraved stones. A small man made pond sits below the pagoda, and has running water and waterfall. One of the caretakers was there adding more blue coloring to the water as she said it was tool green at the time.
