What a relief!

Monday 19 July

It was such a relief to wake up this morning feeling normal again! So, back to the business of seeing Iowa.

We had a very leisurely morning as Tony had some work to do. Aileen and I decided to brave dodging the thunderstorms by going for a walk along the trail which goes along the creek behind their house. Needless to say, we got soaked to the skin and were very grateful to a kind driver who gave us a lift home...

Iowa State, Des Moines

Around midday there was another power cut - there must have been storms elsewhere as by this time it was sunny. So we got in the car and went to explore downtown Des Moines. It is a compact city centre with all the amenities required. We parked up and had a look inside the State Capital building - an amazing French-style building with a gilded dome built in the 1880s. We were able to go into the State Senate and State House of Representatives and just before we left we were shown into the Governor's office by one of the staff - a very nice lady who answered any questions we had and seemed very interested in us.

From there we went to see the Science Center of Des Moines which had various interactive exhibits including snakes and other reptiles. We went back to the house having planned to have a quick cup of tea before heading out to a shopping mall but when we got back the power was still off so we went straight to the Jordan Creek mall. To make up for the missed cuppa we had a coffee and a bear claw (a kind of foot-shaped Danish pastry although this foot had seven toes!). Tony showed me part of a department store which would be completely alien at home, i.e. the firearms department. Extraordinary!

We then had our dinner at Bravo Cucina restaurant and came home to laze around in the evening sunshine in the garden.