Went to Des Moines for Lunch last Saturday

Do a trip report here....go to another city and want to relate it to what KC is doing right or could do better? Give us a summary in here.
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Joe Smith
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Went to Des Moines for Lunch last Saturday

Post by Joe Smith »

We actually went up to take care of a minor problem up there, but it was very cool anyway.

I posted this in the beer thread, but will add more pics of things not beer related.

Rode up to Des Moines and back Saturday for lunch and we stopped at a really cool place called El Bait Shop. They have an incredible selection of microbrews and other assorted flavors. It's the first time I had seen Fat Tire in a can and it was damn good.

It also seems to be a gathering place for bikers. We pulled up and the place was in the middle of a registration for a urban ride the next day that was being put on by New Belgium. They were everywhere inside and out.

Btw, I asked a guy where the good biker bars are at in that area and he started rattling off a number of places. It took me a few to realize that in Des Moines, a biker is most likely someone who rides a bicycle.

Here's a few pics.

High Life Lounge. It's in the same building.

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View of the downtown skyline from the parking lot.

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This huge wall mural is the one of the first things you see when you walk in.

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Don't ask what's on tap. That's just rude.

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It's kitschy and cool at the same time.

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The whole building in a 2 shot pano

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We put almost 400 miles on these 2 bikes Saturday.

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I thought Des Moines looked great since my last visit in '92. It was super clean and riding around downtown and seeing how well everything was put together, it looked like a real progressive place.

I had a hard time believing it was the real downtown. No parking lots, just mixed use garages in the core of it. Also no half-collapsed buildings, not even decrepit and rundown buildings. The streets were smooth with no plates or the cuts and holes we have here from every contractor in town digging their own holes every other day.  I thought they were faking us out so I asked someone where all the loiterers, bums, vagrants and highway off ramp beggars were at. They looked at me like I was crazy. Bums, what bums?

There's a  huge public sculpture park downtown that is made up of pieces by a guy who donated all of it to the city. It was beautiful and it was being used and enjoyed by the citizens up there. It made me sad. Sad because I doubt if we could have such a lovely place here in K.C. All I could think about was how it would be decimated and carted off piece by piece for scrap by the plethora of low-rent criminals here in K.C.

 

I would move there in a heartbeat if it was just a little bit closer to heat in the winter.



LED sculpture wall in the Davis Brown Tower in downtown Des Moines.

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Davis Brown Tower

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Views outside the DBT

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Taken down by The High Life Lounge/El Bait Shop on SW 2nd and Market St.

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There's nothing wrong with shooting as long as the right people get shot.   Harry Callahan

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.  Hunter S. Thompson
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Roanoker
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Re: Went to Des Moines for Lunch last Saturday

Post by Roanoker »

Very nice pics. Thank you for posting.
“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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