VIEWS OF A FARM BOY

Five-Fav-Fab-Fri

AUGUST--2019

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Friday, July 26, 2019. This was a beautiful Iowa day--the weather was perfect. I picked up the morning newspaper and discovered a new sculpture was installed yesterday at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Let's take a little trip downtown and check it out. But, I want to make the most of this fabulous Friday so I will take you to five of my favorite places  before we return home.  

Indiana in Iowa! This beautiful work of art was created by sculpture artist Robert Indiana. There are several of Indiana's theme based works around the world. In fact when our son, Trent, and I were in NYC in 2015, we made a special outing to see HOPE (right) in Manhatten. Now we have LOVE in Iowa! This is a 10th birthday present to the Mary and John Pappajohn Sculpture Park. An old saying is "You can't buy love," but the Pappajohns may have proved this wrong! They donated the money to buy LOVE as a 10th anniversary present to the park.

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Here is a place I stop a lot--my favorite coffee shop, Smokey Row located at 1910 Cottage Grove Ave, Des Moines. We are on the perimeter of the Sherman Hill Historic District (NRHP since 1979.) Today, I got my usual high table by the window. I am looking north toward the Kathederal and the beautiful display of international flags that outline the mini park. Drake students are often sitting at adjacent tables plugging away at their computers. But, I usually leave my electronic gadgets in my pocket as I look out the window and think about all the countries these flags represent. There are so many hungry people in so many of these countries--I am very blessed to live in America.

This picture "represents" a number of places. There are a lot of beautiful old buildings in Des Moines, but I hadn't been to Terrace Hill for a long time and it is just a short distance from the sculpture park. The beautiful Terrace Hill, located at 2300 Grand, Des Moines, was built as a family home in 1866. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.  The building became the Iowa Governor's residence in 1976 and was first  occupied by Gov. Robert Ray. The building is currently the home of Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Just south of Principal Park you will find the Jackson Street Bridge, also known as the Green Bridge. I love all of the Des Moines area bridges with all of their many different architectural styles. Couldn't you guess--the one I chose to feature has long been closed to automobile traffic. This is now a recreation bridge as you travel from Grays Lake to downtown Des Moines. My bicycle has been across this bridge many times.

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This was my last stop for the day. The Iowa State Capitol Grounds is one of my favorite places in the whole world.  

This was a good day for me. When I started my adventure today I had no real goal in mind, other than visiting the new sculpture. I have discovered some of the best times are when you just let them happen!  Five-Fav-Fab-Fri. It was fun to visit Five of my Favorite places on this Fabulous Friday.