North Dakota - Day 10 (Storm Lake, Sac City, Swinging Bridges, Ankeny)

Day 10 - We slept in a bit as this day was going to be a short driving day (4.5 hours). 

After checking out of our hotel in Le Mars, we drove just over an hour to our first stop, Storm Lake. 

Storm Lake is a city known for its lighthouses. There are 3 large lighthouses as well as multiple fiberglass statues to be found throughout the town. 

Our first stop was at Scout Park. We had to park at Buena Vista University due to construction at the park. 

The crown jewel (in our opinion) of Storm Lake, Awaysis Park. We stopped here and climbed to the top of the lighthouse, walked out to the end of the boat dock and then circled the green, so to speak (see overhead picture below)!

This walk absolutely terrified me...I would've preferred to stay on solid ground! However, I'm glad that Matt encouraged me to walk ALL the way out. It was great to say that I overcame this fear and enjoyed the view of the lighthouse from the water.

Back on dry land, we stopped to use the restroom before walking around the park a bit. I walked out of the bathroom and found Matt on this bench. There wasn't much room between the bench and garbage can, lol. 

On Hwy 71, as you come into town, there's another large lighthouse. This lighthouse includes the Storm Lake welcome sign at the base. 

We ended our time in Storm Lake at Buena Vista Memorial Park Cemetery to see the grave of Roger Peterson. Peterson was the pilot of the plane the "Day that the Music Died". 

Our next stop was Sac City. We were pretty excited to see the World's Largest Popcorn Ball!! We found the Popcorn Ball Pavilion right away but bypassed it to walk around the museum and village (behind the pavilion). 

And now for the most POP-ular attraction in Sac City . . . yeah, feeling a bit Corn-y right now. Ha! We took our time getting some pictures and reading about the history of the record breaking popcorn ball. 

After seeing the Popcorn Ball, we grabbed lunch and then headed to Riverside Park to find a letterbox. The area had been inundated with rain the previous few days (remember the storms we'd had back home (IL) while we were in ND...) and the North Raccoon River was flooded.

While Matt was looking for the box, I took a walk around the cemetery and then played at the playground for a bit.

We had picked up a brochure (at the Popcorn Pavilion) that listed other Points of Interest in Sac City. We decided to drive around town and find these spots - we are so glad that we did! Wow! This city takes pride in their city & artwork. It is beautiful and we were so glad that we took our time and enjoyed the stops!

We drove out to South Park to find the metal Dandelion sculpture(s). While there, we played for a bit. Sadly, the park was deserted! We couldn't believe that there wasn't ONE single kid there! It was rather sad.

Sac City is the county seat of Sac County. As we drove around, we found the County Courthouse as well as the county Freedom Rock.

From here, I walked across the bridge to Chautauqua Park (the metalwork on the bridge was impressive!) while Matt drove the car to meet me at the park. 

We continued heading east out of town, stopping to take pictures of the stone and metalwork along the road (Main St).

We were so thankful for the brochure at the Popcorn Ball! We would've passed through Sac City without a second glance (had we only seen what we came to see - the popcorn ball). We would've really missed out!

We made a quick detour off Hwy 20 into Fort Dodge, as we drove from Sac City to Iowa Falls. We wanted to see the Guido van Heiten Silo Mural. Very impressive!!

From Fort Dodge, we drove to Iowa Falls to stop at the swinging bridge (over the Des Moines River). As soon as we stepped on the bridge, we saw this mama dear with her 2 fawns. We watched them for a while, until they turned north and headed into the woods. 

We found ourselves in Assembly Park after crossing the bridge - then crossed back again to our car. 

We stood on the bridge for a bit - enjoying the quiet and beauty surrounding us. We weren't expecting the stone bluffs, nor the waterfall!

Leaving Iowa Falls, we backtracked to Interstate 35 and headed south to Story City to see their Swinging/Stone Bridge.

Look at the stone work on this bridge! Gorgeous! 

As we were leaving the park, we noticed this guy right next door...the high school mascot is the Norsemen. We pulled over to go look at this up close! Impressive!

We were (again) leaving and saw a sign for their historic Carousel (built in 1913) across the street. Unfortunately, it was closing time but the worker allowed us to walk through and snap a few pictures before she locked up for the night. 

We decided to continuing walking through the park - so glad that we did! We played on the playground for quite a while! Again, we had the park to ourselves the whole time! I don't understand it! It was a beautiful evening and a fun playground (judge for yourself from the pictures below)! The first picture doesn't capture the movement. Matt is spinning around so fast he couldn't stop (it just went faster with every rotation); I had to walk over to stop him.

I'm at the top, ready to go down the slide. No steps, only ropes to climb!

Leaving Story City, we finished our day of driving by grabbing dinner in Des Moines and then heading to our hotel - the last night of our vacation. Our hotel room - Wow! And better yet, it was free, thanks to our annual free night perk on the IHG Credit card!

In theory, we could've driven home today. At this point, we were only 3 hours away. However, we read about this Glow Trail and knew that would be something neat to experience. So we added Ankeny/Des Moines as our last overnight on the trip. Once it was dark, we headed out to the Ankeny Glow Trail - a newly paved section off the High Trestle Trail that glows in the dark. It was a fun way to end our day.

What a fun day! An easy day of driving, with lots of sightseeing along the way - lighthouses, swinging bridges, metal sculptures, some historical stops, a mural on a Silo, an a-MAIZE-ing popcorn ball and a walk along a glowing sidewalk!

Day 10 Favorites:

Matt: Sac City (unexpected)

Becki: Sac City

Day 11 would be a 3 hour drive home. We got an unexpected wake up when both of our phones Emergency Alerts went off at 6:30 a.m. We were under a Tornado Warning! Thankfully nothing bigger than thunder/lightning and rain happened since we didn't leave our room. The shelf cloud that came through was really impressive though! 

We hit the road a few hours later (after going back to sleep once the storm passed through) and stopped in Iowa City for lunch and a bit of shopping. It was nice to be home mid afternoon, reunited with the kids, laundry started, car unpacked and things put away! 

This trip was such a fun one for Matt & I. We truly enjoyed most of the stops that we made (planned and unplanned). We drove @ 3600 miles in 11 days, visited 6 states, 1 Canadian Providence, 5 border crossings, numerous parks, endless selfies and one friendly Officer of the Peace. I look forward to (Lord willing) many more trips over the coming years!

Matt: This was, unexpectantly, exactly what I needed as far as vacations go. Each and every day was relaxed and full of fun stops. We fell more and more in love with each other. I'm so thankful for all the past trips we made with the kids; I'm proud that we got them to the lower 48 and showed them so much of our Country. I did miss having them along, for sure, but now its time to slow down a bit and really explore our country in finer detail. I look forward, Lord willing, to what the future holds.