Iowa Bucket List

So, life hasn't been super blog worthy lately. Joel and I have just been doing the typical day to day living. Joel and I decided to make a bucket list for the next couple months before moving out of Iowa. Here is what we came up with awhile ago. Some of them we have already crossed off the list. (We actually found out that we have done a lot already while here.)

1. Go to Living History Farms
2. Go to Pizza Ranch (a few more times. :))
3. Hike at Lake Red Rock
4. Go up to Boone and ride the train.
5. Have a baby here--just long enough for Blueberry to have a Iowa birth certificate. :)

Joel also would love to explore more of Iowa, but I am not so sure that will happen, because of how busy he is going to be studying, moving and the whole having a baby thing. One of the places he wanted to go was to Elden, IA. What is in the small town of Eldon, IA? Well, have you ever heard of the painting: "American Gothic". Eldon, IA is where the house in the background of this painting is located. Well, since we don't think we will make it to the small town of Eldon--we instead opted to go to the Des Moines Art Center. From January to the end of March the real painting was at the art center. It was cool to see the real thing. Of course, we decided to go the last day it was in town. There was a line out the door almost to the road. We probably waited outside for about a half hour. We got inside and the curator told us we had two options. First, we could wait in line for at least another hour to see the painting close up or we could go around and see it from further away. He told us we'd be about 6-7 feet away, but we wouldn't have to wait. We decided since we had waited that long already we may as well wait a little longer and actually get to see it close up. We had made "friends" with the couple standing behind us and the guy decided to go around and see how far away we'd actually be if we did skip the line. He came back about 5 to 10 minutes later and told us to come with him. So, we bypassed the line and saw the real "American Gothic" painting close up. We maybe weren't in the first row of people looking at it, but we were able to get at least a foot away. We saw just as much detail as the people in front of us. :) It was fun. We felt very sneaky, but the curator did tell us that we could. So, Joel may not get to pose in front of the house that was in the background, but we can see that we saw the authentic painting. (As you can see from the picture that started this post, Joel likes to pose like the American Gothic farmer. Or shall we say pirate. We have a whole series of these pictures with a good friend from Calvin--love you Becky!)

So, what would you add to a bucket list if you were in IA and only had three months left?

I thought I would list some of the things we have already done in the past year and a lhalf. Gone to Neal Smith Wildlife Refugee (two-three times). Went to northwest IA to see life on the farm, Lifelight, and we ate ice cream at La Mars Blue Bunny Ice Cream Shoppe. Had milk shakes at Drake Diner. Saw the bridges of Madison County. Hiked Ledges State Park. Camped along the Mississippi River--survived a tornado during that same trip. (I really want to make a t-shirt that says "I survived a tornado in Muscatine, IA.) Survived serveral tornado warnings while living in a townhome with no basement. Gone to some other local restaurants: Red Rock Brewery, Granite City, Racoon River Brewery, Waveland Cafe, and Urbandale Cafe, Tasty Tacos, B-bops. (Why does so much of our list consist of food?!) We went to Pella for Tulip Time. Went ice skating at Brenton Plaza. Walked the skywalk. Walked Grey's Lake. Walked Racoon River trail. Went to a Bucs, Stars and Chops hockey game. Went to an Iowa Cubs game.