Headed north on the I-35 from Emporia, Kansas and crossed the border into Iowa. Arrived late in the afternoon in Des Moines, just in time for the Manager's Welcome Drinks at 5pm. We were staying in an area called Jordan Creek, an outer, newer suburb. Big shopping mall just down the road. We headed down to get dinner and found our favourite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. We had tempura prawns and a main (no cheesecake!) before retiring to our room.It was a shorter drive on Friday from Des Moines into Iowa City. It is a University town, the majority of the population are students, some 30 000 of them. Jeremy and Mary live there and we were visiting. I met Jeremy on my first trip to the US in 1986. In 2004 we caught up with them in Chicago and then in 2007, Jeremy and Mary came to Australia and we saw them for a day in Brisbane.
We had a great afternoon with them! They took us downtown and showed us around the University campus including a look at the Museum of Natural History. We then drove out to the Raptor Centre - a facility which cares for injured birds of prey and has some permanent housing for birds which can not be returned to the wild. We were lucky enough to see owls, falcons, hawks and of course, the bald eagle (pictured above).
As we were leaving, we decided to have a look at the 'Bird Blind' - a viewing enclosure. As we entered, in front of the enclosure were deer, a family of racoons and two chipmunks. Wow! I've never seen racoons up close before!
Next, we went to Cedar Ridge winery. Mary had been there once before, and on Fridays they have a live band (6-9pm) - it was 'Dogs on Skis' - playing covers but they were good! So we sampled some wines, decided on a bottle of Reserve Red, and settled in for a while.
We decided to have Mexican for dinner, so off we went to a restaurant called 'Azul' for fajitas and margaritas.... Delicioso!
Jeremy and Mary were great hosts and we fell in love with their two cats, especially Clara, simply adorable!
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