Yes, I seriously took a day trip to Des Moines

Today we did something totally WILD. We got up, ate breakfast, and went to Des Moines, Iowa. Seriously, it doesn't get any crazier than that. When you have the ability to fly free or cheap, who among us can't take a day trip to New York City and buy fake hand bags, or have lunch in Boston, or take in a baseball game in Philly. No no, it takes a real adventurer with a great imagination to go to Des Moines. We may even be the first (and last) two people in the entire history of the known world to do it. Well, walk on the wild side, that's what I always say.

I am a little disappointed in myself because I spent like $55. The "plan," which I dreamed up yesterday, was to fly in and take the city bus to the science museum, which was free because of our reciprocal museum membership. I had even gotten directions on how to get there on the bus. Instead, we got to the airport and asked the lady at the "Des Moines Information" desk, who told me the next bus wasn't coming until 2:45. What!? That was the first sign...awful public transportation. I kept asking her questions about how to get back from the museum on the bus, and she kept saying "I don't know!" and she sounded angrier and angrier every time she said it. Excuse me for thinking the person behind a desk that said Des Moines Information HAD information about Des Moines. We had to take a cab, fine. The driver was cool and told us nice facts about the city. The museum was cool. Not the greatest, but still really fun. It was a lot like the Boston Science Museum. They had a Titanic exhibit that was awesome because they had an iceberg inside, which I still can't figure out how they kept cold. We also got to pet a salamander and see a planetarium type show called Iowa Skies Tonight.

We were finished with the museum by 4, so we decided to venture out in the downtown area to see what we could find. It was like 104 degrees so we did not feel very adventurous. We made it to the mall called Kaleidoscope something, where everything was closed and we bought an awful ice cream and iced coffee drink, respectively. We both threw them into the trash. We walked through a maze of skywalks and finally gave up. We went to the Marriott and asked (if by asked you mean begged) the bellman to drive us to the airport, even though we were not staying at the hotel. I paid him $20 to get me the hell out of there and to the airport. We bought some postcards and wrote them to ourselves. I also bought a pen for $3 because I thought I didn't have one (but it turned out that I did, another $3 down the drain!). We went to mail the postcards, and I asked the Midwest lady if there was a mailbox and she said "Honey we haven't had mailboxes since 9/11." Again...WHAT. There are mailboxes in all the real airports in America. What kind of town was I in? So I couldn't even mail the postcards I spent $1.80 on. Another $1.80 wasted! Plus I put stamps on them although that isn't really so much wasted because I can peel them off (time wasted).

Then I went directly to the gate since I had my priority verification printed out earlier in Milwaukee. I figured it was the same as it is here, and stand-bys were cleared at the gate. Well, what a production because I did that. It's giving me a headache thinking about it. They to re- sign in which was a big deal, apparently, then they couldn't work the ticket printer, than they put us in an exit row which is illegal. They collected the tickets from people while we were still in our seats in the gate area and counted us as we were scattered throughout the room. I was laughing so hard when I finally got out the door. Anyway, there were like 4 other people on the plane, and I pretended that I was on my own private plane. I knew the First Officer, so when I got on the plane, I grabbed him and shook him and said "GET ME OUT OF THIS TOWN." I'm sure the rest of the passengers thought I was completely insane.

In summary, it is unlikely I'll ever go back to Des Moines. Still, I am glad I did it. We can add Iowa to our States I've Been To maps. Museum = awesome, but I've had enough DSM for a while. And I will still go to every other boring city in America just to say I did.

Phone conversation of the day
My dad: Where are you?
Me: We're in Iowa.
Dad: You're what?
Me: We're in Iowa.
Dad: What are you talking about?
Me: We're in Iowa.
Dad: WHERE?
Me: I-o-wa.
Dad: Iowa?
Me: Yes, we're in Iowa.
Dad: What the hell are you doing in Iowa?