On the Road Again

The first week of August I spent in Des Moines, Iowa, with my daughter who competed in the Junior Olympic track meet.  

Des Moines was never really on my bucket list, but I ended up really enjoying it. We stayed in an rental apartment in the East Village part of downtown Des Moines. When we first drove up, late on a Sunday night, I was a little disconcerted by the drunk people outside of the apartment building. A party was going on, a loud party, in the building's restaurant/lounge, and some guy was outside cussing into his phone as we pulled up. This was not the a cute little complex I was expecting. After finding parking, lugging our bags upstairs, and looking for ice in the hallway machine, the party seemed to be winding down, but I didn't want to stay at a place with a bunch drunk people around. I spent the next couple of hours looking at other options for accomodations in the city before crashing into bed. 

The bed was comfy, and in the morning light after a good night's rest, I realized the neighborhood wasn't as sketchy as I initially feared. We were less than a mile from the capitol building, blocks from the river and a nice bike path, and a few minutes' walk to coffee shops, restaurants, and cute boutiques. Across the river were more restaurants, a sculpture garden, and more hotels and highrises linked by an elevated pedestrian walkway. Since we had to rush off early to the track meet before I could find a place with a vacancy in my price range or find out if we even could cancel, I decided I'd give it one more night before moving on. Fortunately, the lounge was closed the remainder of our stay, and I ended up loving our little urban getaway. 

Des Moines, although the capitol of Iowa, is not a big city, although it has personality. We were in the trendy urban neighborhood, but a mile's jog along the bike path led to an older community with beautiful old homes. I drove a couple miles the other direction one morning to jog around a lake in a park near downtown. The track meet was at Drake University, which is not a bad looking campus, with lots of native plantings and big trees to give it a botanical garden feel. The surrounding neighborhood where we parked was hit or miss - definitely some houses looked like students lived there. I also admired the neighborhood around the art museum, which I visited in a lull between events during the meet, which also was filled with gorgeous, old brick homes and big, tailored gardens.  The art museum was designed in three stages by Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier.  Works were exhibited sparely, but to their benefit. I was interested to see the docents leading several groups of adults with sight impairments around the museum and allowing them to touch the sculptures, including a Rodin and a beautiful black water woman by Wangechi Mutu, based on a character from East African folklore.

Because the rental apartment was booked for the weekend, we had to move to a hotel for the last two nights. I also wanted to be able to cancel the reservations for the weekend because I wasn't sure my daughter would qualify for finals in the last relay. This hotel was in a more suburban area, and again I found a trail along a creek that was absolutely beautiful, so pretty that I ran seven miles without noticing until the very end - when I cursed myself for going so far.

Des Moines has surprised me.  I brought a huge bag of books and had a number of projects to work on during the down time between races (She had 5 races on 5 different days), but I was distracted by things to see and do around Des Moines, including watching some exciting races.  A highlight was the art museum, but we also toured the capitol building, which has a law library famous for its ornamental stacks.  With time to spare and half a dozen salons in the area, I treated myself to a hair cut - something I hate doing because I hate paying a lot for bad haircuts. Happily, I liked my cut, and it didn't cost a fortune. I tried four different coffee shops and two bookstores and enjoyed walking around the campus of Drake.  And I did get quite a bit of reading done, too - mostly young people books: The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Outsiders, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Watsons Go to Birmingham... trying to decide what books to teach. 

My daughter also had a successful meet - she PR'd and medalled in the 800m and her relay teams both medalled also (4th in the 4x800 and 7th in the 4x400 - top 8 medal.) She had to run on 4 different days because each event had qualifying heats and finals, and none were on the same day.  They really want you to stick around.  She now is heading into senior year with a faster time and more options for running in college. She isn't elite level yet, but if she wants to compete in college, she would be a contributor on a lot of teams.

Now in the third week of August, vacation is a dim memory, and I'm getting the school schedule down after a week of classes. More on that to come. 

A sculpture at the airport that reminded me of one our son made from papier mache and plastic bags - same subject

I ran at Drake Relays in college - does this include me? 

Fun murals

The view from our window 

Trying to capture the full moon. Always fail to do it justice.

A Japanese friendship garden along the Des Moines river

The Capitol of Iowa

First lady dolls. a little creepy.

The law library

Oldest books

 

View of the city from Capitol.

More fun murals

Pedestrian bridge honoring women of Des Moines

Fun sculpture

Touching the Rodin

A Henry Tanner

Lawn mowing system

Meanwhile, back at the ranch - The Lion King!

A Weekend in Maine, then back to Boston

 October Travelogue, Part II

After covering a good part of Boston on foot, (Did I mention I have been shopping for attractive, comfortable walking shoes for some time? I can't seem to find them. So, much to my daughter's chagrin, I wore my tennis shoes), we headed in a different direction on Saturday. 

The morning began slowly: we walked the cousins' dog through a walk, then picked up breakfast sandwiches at the corner shop, and had a leisurely visit over coffee with the teen cousins still in town. Then we loaded up in their borrowed cars to head north for a weekend in Portland, Maine.

The drive is about ninety minutes up the highway lined with autumn glory. Our first stop, after the bathroom, was Len Libby candies. They are famous for their 1700 pound chocolate moose, standing in a lake of blue chocolate since 1999. They are also famous for their caramel taffy, which is why we stopped. We've become addicted to it after our son's girlfriend started bringing it to us when she visited. We loaded up on taffy, candy, and some tchotkes - a Christmas ornament and a stuffed moose for LK's friend - before heading into Portland.

There we waited 30+ minutes for lunch at Gilberts.  Apparently a cruise ship had recently pulled into port, so we were competing with other tourists who heard this was the best place for chowder and lobster rolls. As diners left, they'd smile at all us waiters and encourage us with a friendly "It's worth the wait!"  And indeed it was. We finally got a table on the deck out back on the harborside, which was chilly but sunny. I had the appetizer sized crab cakes, which I shared, and the chowder. My daughter ordered the chowder in the bread bowl, which we shared. And everyone else ordered lobster rolls, which were loaded with lobster meat and very little mayonnaise. Just what you hope they should be.  (The kids were loving oyster crackers, which we haven't eaten in years, so I bought some at the grocery the other day to eat with butternut squash soup, since it's now cool enough for soups and stews) After filling up, we strolled around Portsmouth and popped in and out of shops. We were looking for a gift to take back to our brother and sister-in-law, new shoes, and anything eye catching. I found some books I wanted to buy but put them back because I didn't have space in my bag or my brain. I had bought a used copy of Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America at Brattle's, but I wish I had gone ahead and bought the copy of Celia Thaxter's short stories that the Portsmouth bookstore had on sale. I'm not that familiar with her writing, but one of her garden essays is included in our Nature Writing textbook, so I'd like to learn more. I think she's one of those early 20th c. women writers whose work wavers between sentimental and scientific.  In the interest of representing women in the nature writing genre, some authors like Thaxter and Gene Stratton Porter, whose voice is a bit dated, are being revived. 

I also wanted to buy a novel about Winslow Homer, because I was hoping we were going to be able to walk by his house on Prouts Neck, but the trail was closed because someone had fallen off the cliff and died recently. 

Instead we left Portsmouth having purchased nothing but some bracelets from a street vendor for the girls, and instead went to see the Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth just down the road. The lighthouse and the view were beautiful, and we took a lot of photos, along with everyone else, including several bridal parties who were taking advantage of the golden hour for a photo session after their October nuptials. 

As the sunset waned, we left to go to the girlfriend's house for dinner with her parents. They treated us to an authentic Maine meal with oysters and fresh lobster complete with bibs and blueberry pie for dessert. We had a great time visiting around their backyard fire pit and laughing over great food and wine. 

The one and only dim spot of the trip was the hotel I booked. Note to self: hotels in Maine book up in October. I had initially been shopping out Air BnB properties, but when we decided to only stay one night, I decided to find a local hotel on the beach. Here is where I should have booked early. The place I found was a great location, even though our son's girlfriend was a little worried when she heard it was Old Orchard Beach, apparently the Coney Island of Maine. But we were a little north of the Ferris wheel and carney rides. Unfortunately, the hotel gave us the wrong room, with only 1 bed, when I had booked a suite with 2 beds and pull out. And since it was late check-in, no one was at the property to help us out -- and no other hotels in a 30 minute radius had rooms. The two boys stayed with our friends, the two girls and I slept in the one uncomfortable double bed, and my husband spent a miserable night on a slim couch with no sheets, only the bedspread from the hotel bed, which I always hate to touch.  The next morning the clerk who checked us out couldn't help us with refunding the cost of the larger room, and she said she had had a number of unhappy customers that morning.  Eventually, I did get a credit for the price difference, but I had to call several times to get an answer. 

Happily, the hotel was right across the street from the beach, and the tide was out. So when I finally decided to stop trying to sleep just before dawn, I was able to get up and take a long, beautiful walk on the deserted beach before everyone else woke up.  They joined me for a bit before we had to get ready for Mass. 

After Mass and a delicious breakfast at the C Salt Market, we waved goodbye to Portland and headed back south, making a stop not too far down the road at an apple orchard where we picked 30 some pounds of tart, crisp apples - Cortland, Macintosh, Jonagold, yellow delicious, and something else I can't remember. Yum.  We photographed our way through the orchard before returning to the car with our harvest and some cider and apple cinnamon donuts. 

That evening back in Cambridge, we cooked in - Dan grilled steaks for the cousins, and we made apple crisp for dessert.  That night, filled with fresh air and antioxidants and exhausted from the short night, we all slept well. 

Our last day in Boston was museum day. We started with bagels and coffee, and then visited a friend at Boston College, She gave us a tour of campus and showed us around the track before having to meet her team for lunch. I regretted that we didn't bring her candy from Len Libby's or something from Austin. I am not a natural gift giver, but while I'm writing this, I'm sorry we didn't come bearing an offering of some sort. I guess we thought we'd take her to breakfast or lunch, but she was not an early riser and already had the lunch meeting. 

The rest of the morning was spent at the Boston Museum of Fine Art. It was free day for the holiday, which was good for saving money, but bad for having to wait in line. The line moved fairly quickly, but it ate into the time we had to see the museum, so we missed a lot of it. Highlights: the Obama's presidential portraits were on tour and were displayed in their own gallery to highlight the work of the artists, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald. 

LK loved the Egyptian art and artifacts, especially the shawabti, the little doll effigy of a queen. We also made it through the American impressionists - Mary Cassatt and friends - but we missed all the European art from the Renaissance to contemporary.  Nonetheless, we saw enough to satisfy and nearly to overwhelm.  Definitely a museum that takes several visits to enjoy. Fortunately, our son bought himself a membership, so he can return often. 

After a restorative but boring lunch of sandwiches, we did some walking along the Boston Harbor before spending about an hour at the Aquarium - again we had free tickets. Aquariums are all very similar to me, and thus not very high on my list of things to do, but it was something the girls wanted to see. They love sea turtles, and two swam around the big tank at the center of this aquarium. 

By the time we finished there, evening was upon us, and a little sprinkle of rain. Our son had Chinatown on the schedule for dinner, the Emperor's Garden, which is located inside of an old, grand theater. The place was huge, and empty, which doesn't always bode well for the cuisine, but it was fabulous. We all shared plates and laughed and feasted our way through our last meal before our early flight the next day. It was a celebratory ending to a memorable family vacation. 

The Chocolate Moose at Len Libby's

Chowder and lobster rolls at Gilberts in Portland

Portland Head Lighthouse

Never enough lobster

Mercy Otis Warren, my favorite American historian

The Schwabti

This one is titled "Brother and Sister"

Me at the end of the day and first thing in the morning...

Can you see the seahoreses?

Till next time, Boston!