La Quinta Inn Des Moines West Clive

Day 15<br>10/22/2009<br>Witchita, Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa<br>Huh, yeah, reality is coming back slow but sure and that should just about say it all. It was insanely cold this morning, 40 degrees. Ok, so a week ago I was sweating bullets in the 90 degree weather on the first full day of vacation that we did not have any rain, and now 40 degrees and rain with predictions of heavy wet snow and I 70 is closed to the west ...

... br><br>After dancing the lights came on and the parents started packing up so Mark and I helped out and once everything was clean Alicia and Nate headed off as did the parents. For some reason someone decided it was a good idea to leave the bar open for the Aussies. I wasn't drinking still but Mark and Kym jumped right in as did the four J's - Jenny and Jill, Alicia's cousins and James and Jeff, their partners. Don't ask me which is which but this was the first chance we had to ...

... I replied "I didn't see one" (I honestly didn't) and we debated a little and headed home. Alicia ribbed me a little to the others back at home but it was cut short as we were all running late. The Aussie crew packed up and headed off to the motel (via a Hyvee raid that turned out to be costly) to check in and get dressed for the wedding rehearsal.<br><br>Upon check in we realised that we didn't quite have enough time to dress up so we headed down to the chapel. The chapel was very nice ...

... I got some nice pics and Mark and I started a beautiful trend that lasted our stay - check the photos! We also lucked out with the tour as none of the head honchos were working so we got to check out their offices too.<br><br>Next stop was the State of Iowa Historical Building which had some interesting looking stuff but we kind of took a quick look through. There was an Iowa caucus presentation which was pretty good as well as some 'stuff we have in Iowa' stuff which is ...

So we left Chicago and was stuck in traffic for a little while longer and then finally started heading west. We made it about 100 miles outside of Des Moines before we stopped to sleep. We found some random campground right off of the interstate and slept there. I have never seen a place with as much dew as that place. One good thing was it was so dark and the sky was clear, so we could see alot of stars. And they were so bright! Once we woke up, we ran for the first time in a while. It was ...

... did a quick bog lap around town. There was a fair bit of construction going, hopefully it will add further to the city when complete. <br><br> We had heard that the bridges from the movie the Bridges of Madison County weren't too far so we drove a little further south to Winterset, Madison County. How romantic, you drive down a dusty road through a corn field and there in ...

... ready for the day and decided to head into Des Moines, the capital and largest city in Iowa, with no real plan in mind. For reference, Des Moines&#8230;although the largest city in Iowa, has a population slightly higher than that of Morristown (about 200,000). All of Iowa only has 2.9 million, and I'm pretty sure they cheat on the census and count the corn too as people.<br><br>Des Moines was easy enough to find, their lone skyscraper rising out of the fields in the distance. First ...

... had generally discussed somewhere in Florida or California and we're also taking into consideration our want/need to go somewhere that a "discount" airline flys to. How: This is definitely a trip we'll fly to in the pursuit to get the most relax time for our buck. We're also considering "how much" and hoping to get to our destination and get lodging for $500 or less per person ...

... we experienced, not exhausted by it. So we're taking it a little bit slower and soaking in as much as we can. Well, this is getting a little long for a first post, so I guess we will stop there for now. We're new to all of this blogging stuff, but stick with us and we promise to try not to get worse as we go. Our bags are packed, the kitties have been hugged goodbye, and we're ready to get on our way... J &amp; S

... towards the park and lake. Sure didn't look very good for a while. We made our way to the closest entrance to the lake from Gary and paid $7 to park at the beach. The attendant was half asleep but he managed to get up and come over to take our money. There were a few people out swimming and paying on jet skis and sunbathing. The sand was a dingy white, there were small waves off the shore and the water appeared to be clean and felt about 60 degrees. It was cool, but not cold enough ...