Exploring Iowa, part deaux

This past weekend, we hit the trails again to explore. We drove to Des Moines, the largest metro area in our state, but still considerably smaller than Indianapolis, where we were before—only about a third of the size.

Anyway, the state fair was going on so we wanted to check it out. We have been to the Wisconsin state fair many times, which was very fun. A big eat fest/drink beer fest/music fest, plus some ag thrown in. Then, we hit the Indiana state fair. Total opposite fair. Very agricultural, little party atmosphere. I asked where the beer garden was and you'd think I'd asked where the topless dancers were stationed. "Uh mmm, ah, maam, there's no beer here at the state fair."  The Iowa one came in the middle--lots of ag stuff, but also some beer gardens thrown in and some evening bands. A nice mix.

It was SUPER hot, one of those days where you walk around sweating, and don't realize in all of it that your thighs have rubbed together in heavy sweat all day and are completely chafed by the end of the day. Not that this type of thing happened to me, I've just heard of others.....MY thighs surely don't touch each other. Anyhoo, brings on lots of grumpy people too who just want you out of their way because they are hot and sweaty and their kids are also complaining of being hot and sweaty and tired of walking, etc.

We dropped $100 within the first 39 seconds or so of arriving. How does this happen? Who knows. Maybe when rides take 3-5 tickets each and the kids want to ride everything. Oh well, this only happens once a year, right? And we had fun.

We never did figure out if there was a real person in there or if he was all remote controlled. Very cool.

Mmm ice cream from the dairy barn. Yum Yum.

The famous butter cow. WOW. It's all made of butter.

As is all of this.

Bad picture, but they loved this ride. Just looking at it is enough to make Daddy want to throw up.

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Sunday, we continued our explore Iowa adventures and traveled to Guttenberg, a really quaint little town along the Mississippi river. Our friends and neighbors invited us to go on their boat in that area, where they were familiar with the river. It was a great time. So relaxing.

Jack needed to challenge himself to do this, which is always good.