Iowa

Hello friends! Now that I have firmly established myself as a terrible blogger (how has there been a year and a half since my last post?!) I'm going to give it another try. Here goes.

I'm not in Iowa anymore! I had a fantastic year and a half in Des Moines. I'm not sure how to put that length of time into one blog post, so here are a few pics to sum it up:

This place! I couldn't have asked for a better place to work during my time in Des Moines or a better crew to work with. These girls (and the couple of guys who were brave enough to work with us) became my Iowa family, and I miss them all tremendously. Stay tuned for more on working at Caribou in an upcoming post. 

Around April I finally put an end to my extensive research and bought a bike. I love it! In the couple of months that I had my bike in Des Moines I feel like I got to know the city far better than I did when I drove or walked everywhere. It's a great city for cycling.

Such freaking awesome bike trails! It's sad I discovered them such a short time before we left.

I LOVED grocery shopping in Des Moines. This picture is of my favorite HyVee (which was across the street from Aldi), but I also shopped often at the Dahl's across the street from our apartment. I have never shopped anywhere where the employees for the most part seem to genuinely want to be there. I also had more random awesome conversations with strangers than in Des Moines grocery stores. Oh the Midwest.

By FAR the best part of living in Iowa was finally being married to this guy! Des Moines will always have a special place in my heart as the site of our first home together. Leaving our apartment was bittersweet. I was very ready to get out of the place where, among other things, the laundry facilities were terrible and the landlord was in complete denial (see below), but we'll never have another first apartment. I definitely teared up a bit closing the door on Apt 121 for the last time.

(I did not write this passive agressive note, just documented it. But it's true. The dryer sucked, even when set on "high" as suggested.)

And finally, the weather. Who doesn't love a random May snowstorm followed the next week by high temps in the 90s? Of all the places I've lived or spent time, Iowa takes the cake for crazy weather. Crazy.

For most of my life Iowa was one of those random middle-of-nowhere states that you referenced when you wanted to mention somewhere indefinitely far away. Never, ever did I imagine I would spend any length of time there. While it was a bit farther from... well, everything, than I preferred, I'm so glad I had the chance to discover the fantastic city that is Des Moines. Iowa, you will never be that random state in the middle of nowhere to me again.