Iconic Iowa

For the past 2 years, Matt has marked the date of May 23rd on the calendar as a special day.

May 23, 2018, God performed a miracle in Matt's life and he never wants to forget it! To celebrate this year, we drove to Geode State Park in Iowa.

While at the park, Matt blew his shofar, read some of God's promises to His people and we prayed. Thanking Him for the chains that have been released from our lives!

We left Geode State Park and headed to Eldon, IA - home of the Iconic House in the painting "American Gothic".

I think I prefer the original couple. These two were a bit strange! Reminded us of Men in Black or X-Files for some reason!

Further up the road, we toured the town of Pella. Pella is a quaint town in central Iowa, known for its Dutch heritage. It was so fun to walk through the town and enjoy the windmills, canal, store fronts and Klokkenspel. Our only regret is not getting to taste any Dutch pastries. With some Covid restrictions still in place, most stores were taking online orders or customers had to wait in a long, social distancing line. We knew we didn't have time to wait in the long line for the pastries, so we sadly passed the shop(s).

We left Pella and headed to Des Moines to see the Capitol Building and the Shattering Silence Monument. The weather was temping a bit warm and we were all pretty hungry. Because of this, we were dragging a bit. We loved looking at the capitol building from the steps below and enjoying the beautiful gardens with the Suessical type of purple flowers!

We went over to the Judicial side of the capitol building to see the monument. We were sad to see that it was quite a walk (down a steep hill, across a busy street and back up a steep hill) and knew that we didn't have the energy or time to see the monument up close. Even from a ways away, it was impressive.

While Matt went to snap a few pictures, Kaitee commented about the large hill and how fun it would be to roll down. I told her to go for it! The other 3 quickly followed and all 4 were rolling down the hill!

After rolling and climbing the hill 3 times, we walked back to the van and started to head north to find dinner and make our way to our last stop. We took a few more pictures of the capitol building as we headed out.

Our last stop for the day was at the Madrid Trestle Bridge. Matt came across a picture of this a few weeks ago and knew immediately that this was a place that we needed to visit. We arrived at the parking area just as the sun was on the horizon. Being a holiday weekend, beautiful weather AND looser restrictions from Covid quarantine, the parking lot was full! We weren't the only ones who had the idea that day.

We set out on foot to see the bridge. What a beautiful evening! 

The walk is just shy of a mile. It is a nice paved path (we took the gravel walkway from the parking area, but you can also take the paved path all the way to the road and walk back to the parking area from there. This is how we walked back since it was dark). If you have bikes, this is a super nice trail to ride on!

We got to the bridge and enjoyed the breathtaking view as the sun hovered on the horizon, casting off beautiful colors!

The lights were on too!

After walking across the bridge, we stopped at the overlook and enjoyed the view from that perspective.

We headed back to the van and settled in for a long drive home (3 hours). Leaving the bridge, it was almost 10:00 pm and we knew that it would be a late night - but so worth it! We had contemplated visiting the bridge during the day, on our way home from out west this summer. We wanted to visit during the day to see the view and at night to see it lit up. We were blessed to visit the bridge when we did because we saw it with the sun shining and at night!

This day of visiting some iconic spots in Iowa has been something we've wanted to do for a long time. Matt & I have had Pella on our bucket list since we were married. Maybe next time we will visit during Tulip Days! It was wonderful to get out and explore Iowa in areas that we haven't explored before. We have already discussed heading back to Des Moines to make a weekend of it - touring the city and playing at Adventureland. We will see what the rest of the year holds.