There’s a very cool new protruding ramp known as “the EMC overlook” at MacRae Park on Des Moines’s south side offering dazzling views of downtown. We also took in some new views from the new Chris Coleman bridge in Gray’s Lake Park. Looking good Des Moines.
Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations
Views from on high – at Des Moines’ MacRae Park
Filed under Des Moines, Iowa
Los Poblanos, Church Street Cafe/Old Town, Nob Hill, Bosque trail, motel el Vado and Duran central pharmacy —Albuquerque
The weather wasn’t cooperative enough for us to take a proper hike so we walked instead in Leah’s Nob Hill neighborhood past pretty adobe houses with colorful vegetation and cacti to the main Nob Hill shopping district, where we explored some craft, resale and jewelry shops – and discovered a familiar car with Michigan plates and Iowa bumper stickers that did indeed belong to our friend Scott who moved here recently. We tracked him down and had a drink later. Small world.
Even when it’s rainy, the sky is very dramatic, with a band of dark blue and below it light blue and fluffy grey white clouds. The dark bit looks like a heavy curtain rising up or down on the mountains. We walked around the pretty grounds of Los Poblanos, a farm converted into a classy inn, restaurant and pricey gift shop. The bar there was closed so we ended up having chips and salsa in old town at Charles Street Cafe, an old New Mexican place.
On our last day, we walked along the muddy banks of the Rio Grande along the Bosque trail and checked out the El Vado motel, a renovated white adobe gem along Route 66.
Way cool mid-century modern furnishings, pool, outdoor food court and reasonable prices. Turns out it’s owned by the same folks as our go-to lodging in Santa Fe — the El Ray Inn. Our last meal in abq was at Duran Central Pharmacy, a fun place that’s a little dining area with a counter and good New Mexican fare (particularly hot carne adovada, I learned) tucked in an adobe drug store that is also an interesting gift shop. We really enjoyed Albuquerque and are thinking it may be a possible retirement option…
Filed under Albuquerque, New Mexico, Uncategorized
Cocina azul, High and dry Brewery — Albuquerque
We arrived to blue skies and brisk temperatures in Albuquerque this afternoon and were whisked off to some excellent New Mexican food at Cocina Azul, near old town by our relatives here, Leah and Wellington. The brisket and carne adovada were highlights. I would have tried the flan if I had an room left in my stomach. This evening, after visiting dirck’s mother, we stopped at one of the many brewpubs in town, High and dry, for some beer and, in my case, cider.
Filed under Albuquerque, New Mexico, Uncategorized
Good news in DSM: Kathmandu restaurant moves to Windsor Heights
Good news – our favorite Nepalese/Indian restaurant in Des Moines has moved a little closer to where we live — from the south side to Windsor Heights. My only concern is that one of my favorite things about Kathmandu (beyond the food) is the waiter’s shirt which said across the front: “More Parking in the Back.” (Now there’s plenty of parking in the front at the new location.)
Filed under Des Moines, DINING, Iowa
Check out the Wangechi Mutu sculpture at the MET – NYC
(After the fact post)
You don’t even have to go into NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to see these four new haunting sculptures. They’re in the four niches of the MET’s facade — the first time that sculpture has been placed in them.
The commission went to Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu, whose work I know from the Des Moines Art Center where her Water Woman sculpture of an enticing and somewhat menacing mermaid/siren is a big hit with the fourth-graders I take on tours. The Met installation is temporary so see it while you can!
Filed under museum exhibit, New York City
DUMBO, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the East River Ferry – Brooklyn!
What a glorious day in Brooklyn’s DUMBO (“Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”) neighborhood. Now I understand what the fuss is all about. Last time I explorer the old cobblestone streets and warehouses in the rabbit warren of streets between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, I didn’t find much going on. Flash forward several years and the place is full of people, strolling along Brooklyn Bridge Park, with it’s great views of the bridges, lower Manhattan and even the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Old brick warehouses are now home to trendy shops (Empire Stores, The Modern Chemist), food courts (TimeOut market in Empire Stores), coffee roasters (Brooklyn Roasting Co.), bookstores (Powerhouse Arena/books) and theaters. (And now I know where Bargemusic – the outdoor music venue – is. And the venerable St. Ann’s Warehouse theatre, where I sat at an outdoor table in a lovely courtyard in the shell of an old brick building, looking out at the water.)
I bought some excellent Thai food at a food truck and ate in the Pearl Street Triangle picnic area, carved out of a patch of street beside the massive Manhattan Bridge, with the subway rumbling by high above.. Another cool picnic area nearby is the Archway Under Manhattan Bridge.
I took a New York ferry (for a whopping $2.75) that stopped at several Brooklyn spots before the final stop at East 34th street (which was a bit of an odd drop off, right by the midtown tunnel but I walked to Third Avenue and hopped a bus to the upper east side.)
Met some nice people on the ferry including a young family from Argentina and a woman from Montana. Several ferry options are available and the pier is next to the venerable River Cafe (where we attended a bar mitzvah about 30 years ago) and a stand next door that touted famous lobster rolls. (Next trip!)
Filed under New York, New York City
Amy Sherold show, Mission Ceviche, Fabrique Bakery, High Line, Hudson Yards, Central synagogue – nyc on a fall day
Is there anywhere like New York city on a sunny fall day? The place was humming with activity, crowds of people outside everywhere enjoying the sights and sounds of a vibrant city.
After a quick direct morning flight from DSM (thank you delta) we had an afternoon to play in the city. What a treat! We took the 6 train south from the upper east side where we are staying at my aunt S’s apartment to 14th Street, stopped at The Strand bookstore (where I did find a copy of a 20-year old book about Vietnam that I hoped to find, except it was hardback), and then walked west along 12th street (relatively quiet and charming compared to 14th), past 5th Avenue (and One Fifth Avenue, where my parents had their wedding) thru Greenwich village to Gansevoort market, where we had delicious ceviche bowls at a Peruvian stand, Mission Ceviche, sitting on seats around the cooks. Across the street, we bought cardamom buns at Fabrique, the first nyc outpost of the bakery we discovered last summer in Stockholm.
The High Line seemed narrower and even more jam packed than usual, which added to the excitement and frustration. Many people speaking foreign languages. Stunning plantings, art installations, architecture, city and river views from on high. Very slow walkers (and I am not exactly fast.)
The eight Amy Sherold portraits of ordinary striking black people (not Michelle Obama this time) jumped off the stark white walls of the large airy open gallery on 22nd street. Stunning. As with the Obama portraits in DC at the National Portrait gallery, I saw black people in particular posing next to these portraits, which I found moving. 
We continue north on the High Line to the glittering new colossus of Hudson Yards, which felt like a cross between a Batman set and Disneyland, with huge hulking dramatic buildings and skyscrapers and a copper-colored tower of tunneled walkways that tourists and presumably locals were lining up to walk up and up and down and down. 
Overwhelming and disorienting and showy and unnecessary are the words that came to mind. (Here’s a promo blurb: Hudson Yards is unlike anything ever built before — a living, breathing neighborhood that champions first-to-New York experiences. Climb Vessel, the interactive centerpiece of Hudson Yards. Visit The Shed, a new center for art and inspiration. Or take in the scene from thrilling new heights on Edge — an outdoor space a thousand feet in the air.)
For a far more charming encounter with architecture, we sat in the ornate cavernous Moorish Central Synagogue and enjoyed the gorgeous singing and ceremony of a Shabbat service (we are here for a family bat mitzvah). Also was relieved, sadly, that we had to go through a metal detector to get into the sanctuary.
Filed under museum exhibit, New York, New York City
Another annual Iowa farm tour – this time Union and Madison Counties (with a quick drive through Earlham)
We enjoyed the annual Iowa farm tour so much last year that we did it again this year — picking a different area of the state. This time we headed southwest, to Union and Madison Counties. Very pretty rural countryside, more hilly than in central Iowa around Story County where we went last year.
Millie, our lab, came with us again and enjoyed sniffing around the old barns. The first we visited was a 19th century red wood beauty we finally found (GPS kept sending us to dead ends) in a little c county historical village in the small city of Creston. The “(New) Union County Barn” aka “Harris Barn” built in 1896 had been relocated from the countryside so it felt a little less authentic but inside, it was the real deal, with old dairy equipment, wood stalls for animals, a high hayloft and a rope, presumably to swing in the hayloft. (Or hoist hay bales into the loft.) (We’re told it’s: a perfect example of post and beam construction with diagonal braces. Horizontal cladding is rare and is associated with Civil War veterans.
Next stop, two barns in Madison County, the first west of town on Highway 96. A nice woman showed us around inside the big white 19th century barn with a pretty cupola atop. She even pointed out the dead cat hanging from the rafters that she reported noticing early in the morning but didn’t want to deal with it.
North of Winterset, on Highway 169 just north of the Winterset Cidery, we stopped at our last barn — the McBroom-Hargis barn, five miles south of I-80, an enormous red barn sitting on the edge of the highway and part of a country estate with several buildings that appeared to be old but were actually new-ish construction. The owner is apparently a talented carpenter — and we marveled at two miniature toy barns inside the big old barn. An 1884 story in the local newspaper referred to it as “the largest barn in this part of the county.” It has a wooden track, post and beam, pegs and was designed by I.F. Carter of De Soto. More photos here.
We also drove at the onset through the town of Earlham — and spotted the Restaurant the Hare and the Hound there, which I’ve had on my list for awhile. It’s next to RJ Home (RJ stands for Rescued Junk) which sells vintage, salvaged, junk items one weekend a month. We went once several years ago and didn’t find much but it was a fun outing and worth another visit, especially with the restaurant nearby.
Filed under Iowa
Super 8 in LeClaire/Helix Cafe in Chicago
Linus Paul
(Posted a few days late) We are in Chicago yet again to see our new grandson Linus, now 3 weeks old. We haven’t done much beyond what we came to do, which is to hold Linus and stare at him in wonder.
En route, we stayed in the lovely Mississippi River town of LeClaire, Iowa and the unlovely Super 8 (lumpy pillows, a noisy portable frig that was loud enough to keep me up). In Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, home to Linus and parents, we went on walks with and with our baby and pugs and E&R, stopping once briefly at the Helix Cafe on Clark, with a big used bookstore next door.
Filed under Chicago, Illinois, Iowa, Uncategorized
Next visit to Detroit — Ochre Bakeryp
Just read that Ochre Bakery in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood has landed on Bon Appetite’s 10 best new restaurants in the U.S. (Details below). So hope to visit. It appears to be not far from Woodward Ave. (my main reference point), west of the Shinola Detroit Store and the Wayne State U. campus. Now if I can only figure out a way to hear the Detroit Youth Choir, which recently took America’s Got Talent by storm!
8:43 a.m. I’m at Ochre Bakery, and the first thing I’m eating today is a danish, the crumbly, deep-golden pastry barely holding on to the squiggles of still-juicy rhubarb in the center.
8:46 a.m. Watching the guy behind the counter make a cortado, I realize that this is as much a Serious Coffee Shop as it is a bakery, which makes sense given that it’s owned by Jessica Hicks and Daisuke Hughes, the same people behind Detroit’s much-loved Astro Coffee. I’m getting lost in the idea that I could live in Detroit and this could be my coffee shop and I could eat this Danish every morning when…
8:57 a.m. My plate of scrambled eggs shows up, but to call it a plate of scrambled eggs is kind of rude given that it’s eggs softly scrambled with turmeric; tzatziki with slivers of kohlrabi; a big pile of bitter greens; a very generous serving of very good butter; two holey slices of country bread; and a tiny handmade ceramic bowl of cumin seeds, Aleppo-style pepper, and flaky salt that I can sprinkle over whatever I like.
8:58 a.m. Can we talk about this bread? I was so fixated on the pastry case, I didn’t notice the room behind the counter where cult local baker Max Leonard babysits the sourdoughs. So not only does this place turn out pastries and coffee and savory food at the highest level, but there’s also a high-key bread program?
9:18 a.m. I’m the person taking pictures of the blue and ochre (duh) tiles hand-painted by Hicks.
9:28 a.m. Yeah, I’m going to need a slice of the lemon-pistachio loaf cake, a piece of the chocolate banana bread, and one of every cookie (espresso shortbread, chocolate-hazelnut, oaty Anzac) to go. Or maybe I’ll just never leave. —J.K.
Wanna try Ochre Bakery’s food? Get tickets to the Hot 10 party.
THE PLAYERS: Chef-owners Jessica Hicks and Daisuke Hughes
THE SETUP: The dream of a sun-soaked bakery/café
THE ORDER: Spiced scrambled eggs with tzatziki, a seasonal Danish, and an Anzac cookie
THE MOVE: Grab one of everything from the pastry case to go—and a loaf of bread too.
TakeBetsywithyou 