Last month I visited family in the Bay Area of California – plenty of time to see some differences between Polk County in Central Iowa and San Mateo County just south of San Francisco. In the earlier post, more objective, quantifiable data were compared.

While some of the differences can be easily compared, it is harder to quantify other differences, such as

• food, gardening
• travel, commuting
• baseball, activities
• stress

Grocery shopping? California may have a big edge here.

• CA has New Leaf, Whole Foods, and Andronico’s, natural food stores where you can get everything you need; while the prices are a little higher on some items (especially the meat), the produce is ripe and fresh – likely because it doesn’t travel far.
• The only places like that in IA are the farmers’ markets: Des Moines Farmer’s Market, and other local markets; Iowa City’s New Pioneer Food Coop; Ames’ Wheatsfield Grocery. In contrast to CA, Des Moines-based New City Market and Campbell’s Nutrition are quite small by comparison.
• When it comes to the commercial chains (except for the produce) IA’s Hy-Vee and Dahl’s compare favorably with Safeway in CA.

Home gardening? This will get your attention! There is a wait of 4 to 7 years to get a 100 sq ft garden plot in the Fort Mason Community Garden. That is a plot about the size of a very small bedroom. We’ve had picnics at Fort Mason more than once, and it is a beautiful spot as you can see on the right; but it’s easier to find a spot to garden in Iowa.

Food, in general? My impression is that

• Iowa wins on beef and pork
• California wins on fruits and vegetables

Driving? I find it easier to drive in the Bay Area, but enough said about that.

Cars? This is a strange experience. I drove my sister’s hot rod Lincoln for 4 weeks, and you wouldn’t believe what I have seen and have not seen.

• I saw only ten 2009 Chevrolet Impalas in 20 days
• instead? Toyota, Mercedes, Lexus, Hyundai, BMW, Acura, Honda, Volvo and a few Ford cars and Chevy trucks

Public Transit? The Purple Wren and I stayed in a coastal California community about the size of Grinnell, Iowa and took lots of public transit too.

• twice to San Francisco and back (SamTrans bus and CalTrain)
• once to Oakland and part way back (walked a block to SamTrans buses then BART right to the Coliseum)
• around San Francisco (Muni)

Baseball? Definitely a lot of winners here! Whether you live in the Bay Area or Des Moines, you can see good professional baseball: San Francisco Giants; Oakland A’s; Iowa Cubs. I saw the A’s and the Tigers and my favorite Tiger Curtis Granderson (shown left), but the best part was spending the afternoon with my nephew John who rode BART from Berkeley. We had great seats, but you know, it’s hard to beat an afternoon in Principal Park right here in Des Moines!

Activities? There is more to do in both places than I can ever get to.

Stress? I am not sure that stress is the right word – intensity might be better. The pace is faster, and the crowd is larger in CA. It is a line-up kind of place, and longer lines – at the movies, banks, grocery stores, restaurants, traffic, bus/CalTrain/BART stops. It’s all exciting and intense, but it creates a little more stress. When the Purple Wren and I moved back after a year in CA 10 years ago, I said, “I could live in CA, but I wouldn’t live as long.” I’ll stand by that.

Well, you win some, you lose some, and sometimes you tie. I’m happy to be here; I was happy to be there.

With lilacs, timing is important. They bloom in spring and early summer, and they are just beginning.

When I got home on Friday, I saw that our lilacs were beginning to bloom in the backyard, and I knew that it was the perfect weekend to go out to Ewing Park and the Lilac Arboretum. I have been there many times.

From downtown drive out Indianola Road to the southeast; continue southeast past SE 14th St until you reach Easter Lake Drive then turn right (between the Ewing Park pillars) then park. (map) You will immediately see the lilacs and smell them too. You will see a few crab apples too (but not as many as in Water Works Park).

The Lilac Arboretum in Ewing Park is a welcoming place.

• it’s open and expansive
• it’s a good place for a picnic
• dogs are welcome
• kids can run
• grandma can walk
• Jim’s Johns are available

For Ewing Park the Lilac Arboretum is just one event. More happens throughout the year.

• frisbee golf
• the soap box derby
• BMX racing
• shelters and grills
• playground equipment
• playground

Des Moines is a great city. You will get to know another piece of Des Moines when you visit Ewing Park. The timing is right; the lilacs are just starting.

photos by James G. Lindberg

I love the fall. It’s a great time to take a hike in Central Iowa, even a short one. I was in Minnetonka over the weekend for a celebration of my nephew’s 50th birthday, and some of us spent an hour on a city trail where these pictures were taken. We have similar trails in Central Iowa.

You can hike in and near Des Moines in

• Gray’s Lake Park with its picnic facilities, the Lake, open spaces, and hiking trail
• Water Works Park with ponds, the Raccoon River, bike and walking trails,
• Greenwood Park with the Rose Garden, the pond, and the trail to Water Works
• Ewing Park with open spaces, lilac bushes, picnic facilities
• other parks in Des Moines

or just west of 63rd in West Des Moines

• Brown’s Woods with forest trails, a creek, and quiet
• Walnut Woods just west of Brown’s Woods with roads, picnic areas, the Raccoon River, and trails

or North and West in the Saylorville Lake area with

• Jester Park on the western shore of Saylorville Lake
• the Ledges State Park with many trails, grand vistas, and creeks
• Saylorville Lake and the area near the Visitor Center
• Big Creek State Park

or West toward and beyond Waukee

• Raccoon River Valley Trail
• other trails in Central Iowa

Better get out there before it’s too late. There is no excuse good enough to miss these days!

photos by the Purple Wren

Will Presidential hopeful John McCain announce plans for a new Presidential retreat? Camp David located in Maryland has been used as a Presidential retreat for decades. Its history is rich.

Even though Camp David is a Naval facility, I am going out on a limb and suggest that if old Navy man John McCain is elected President, he will reject Camp David and opt for new location for his Presidential retreat: Golden Pond (Just kidding.)

What? Did you think his multimillionaire wife Cindy McCain might hold out for Busch Gardens?

photos by flickr by CaptPiper

If you missed the previous 37, you still have a chance to attend the 38th Annual Octagon Art Festival.

• Ames, Iowa
• Sunday, September 28
• 10 am until 5 pm
• downtown in the Ames Main Street Cultural District
• sponsored by the Octagon Center for the Arts
• and it looks like good weather.

Julie Kelly told me about the show. She crafts stained glass birdfeeders, and she’ll be coming down to Ames from Minnesota to display and sell them. We have one of her feeders in our backyard that we bought at the Des Moines ArtFest Midwest.

It’s always fun to go to Ames. While you’re there you could check out Reiman Gardens (the butterfly wing and gardens). The fall hours for the butterfly wing are 9 am to 4:30 daily through the end of the year, and the grounds are always open.

photo by flickr by lizalou42

The 2008 Salisbury Automobile Classic was spectacular! An unusual treat this year was the 1933 Nash in the Salisbury House Courtyard; it is part of the film Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale scheduled for release in July, 2009. Check out the movie trailer on YouTube and you will catch a glimpse of the Nash.

This 9th Annual Classic included everything from a Model T to a Ferrari, but the featured cars of Billy Durant were the highlight: a Little, a Durant Star Huckster Truck, a Flint Jr., and a series of (Durant) Locomobiles and Chevrolets.

It was a great afternoon to visit with the owners, listen to the music, eat lunch, meet friends and make new ones.

What a great community!

photos by Sandra Renshaw and Jim Lindberg

If you love authentic restorations and car history, the annual Salisbury Automobile Classic is the best of Des Moines, and the event will be held Sunday, September 7 from 12 pm until 5 on the Salisbury House grounds. Ninety vintage cars and hundreds of visitors are expected.

The special interest this year is William Crapo Durant whose life history reads like an out of control comet: son of Michigan’s governor; high school drop out; manager then buyer of Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac (then called Oakland) and Cadillac; came close to buying Ford; founded General Motors; lost them all; co-founded Chevrolet Motors then bought out his partner; rejoined GM and led a huge expansion of the business including the purchase of Fisher Body and formation of GMAC; lost enormous wealth in the 1920s; fired at GM; founded another auto company only to go bankrupt during the Great Depression; managed a bowling alley in Flint; collected a pension from GM. He was a genius who at several wrong times, ran his businesses and his life a little too close to the edge of insolvency.

You can read his story in

• Flint Journal
• the Flint library website
• encyclopedia.com
• GM next

I have gone the last three years. To me the Salisbury Automobile Classic was well worth the time.

photos by Jim Lindberg

Meet Mark Johnson. You may find him working at his home business (Chairman of the Board), showing his hand-crafted furniture around town, working at Dahl’s on Ingersoll, showing and selling plants with his wife in the spring (from their garden), or even driving his vintage 1937 Packard.

As Chairman of the Board Mark Johnson crafts wooden leisure chairs for the garden and porch. The Adirondacks or Mackinac Island might come to mind when you see his work. Mark works from home, often outside in the driveway or garden. If you want to see his pieces, he will be

• at the Des Moines Botanical Center for Jazz in July on Tuesday July 22nd with the jazz starting at 6 pm,
• at Beaverdale Park at 34th and Adams for Jazz in July on Saturday  July 26 also at 6 pm, and
• on the lawn at Hoyt Sherman Place on Sunday July 27 for the Art Affair from 10-4. You can expect 30 artists and vendors there.

Mark’s family, Swedish on both sides, moved to Des Moines from Minnesota; his father served as minister at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church starting in 1947. Mark was born and raised in Des Moines, graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1966 and earning two degrees in Education at Drake where his favorite prof was the late Keach Johnson. One of his hobbies is reading and historical fiction has special appeal. Three of his recommendations are Water for Elephants, Pillars of the Earth, and A World without End.

What advice would he offer a grandchild? education, education, education.

Mark is a Navy veteran who served on an LSD (Landing Ship, Dock) with stops in Hawaii, Australia, Singapore, and Japan with one in Vietnam.

Look for Mark around Des Moines.

photos by James G. Lindberg

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

(Des Moines, IA, June 3, 2008) During an evening walk last night I saw the light of several fireflies. It was the first time I saw that sight this year. What I have not seen many of, however, are bees. I saw one in early May and one while I was at the Clare & Miles Mills Rose Garden in Greenwood Park a couple days ago. Maybe I have been in the wrong places at the wrong times, but a friend who has a decent-sized garden told me she hasn’t seen bees this year, either.

Three days ago, on May 31st, I first saw cottonwood seeds floating through the air. It seems early for cottonwoods to be dropping seeds. In contrast, tulips were among the flowers that took their time emerging; although, they were strong and long lasting once they did start to bloom. Irises also were slow to grow but have been adding beautiful colors to the landscape for about a month. Buds can be seen on roses throughout the city now, as can the occasional full flower, such as I found at the state fairgrounds on June 1st.

Last year I visited the Rose Garden on May 25th. The Fire Meldland rose tree displayed several clusters of red flowers. This year the plant, which is taken indoors during the colder months, showed only green on June 1st. In the middle part of the garden, a single yellow Sun Sprite brought out a smile.

Sunday, June 1st was a delightful day to be outside. Temperatures continued to be in the low 80′s but the humidity had dropped into the 30-percent range. I have never seen so many people walking, bicycling, and driving their cars along 45th Street on their way to Ashworth Pool, to the Bill Riley Trail, or to the lake in the park. I discovered that the city-owned Ashworth swimming pool, that includes lap lanes and lockers for rent, is open on Sundays. I also learned that bow hunting of deer is allowed in the wood around the Bill Riley Trail from mid-September through mid-January.

Looking at pictures I took of flooding along the bicycle trail last year and comparing them to pictures I took this year, the flooding appeared to be more extensive last year. However, the Raccoon River, into which Walnut Creek flows just a short distance from where the trail was flooded, is not expected to crest during this year’s spring flooding until later this week. Reading the article I wrote for AroundDesMoines.com last year I also confirmed that last year there were plenty of mosquitos out already, another difference with this year.

This morning I had to delay writing this post because one of the seemingly daily thunderstorms was rolling through the area. Des Moines has been spared much of this past week’s storm activity, though. Unfortunately, Parkersburg, which is about 115 miles northeast of Des Moines was not spared from the fury of an EF5 tornado over Memorial Day weekend.

M.R. Field is a fan of nature, a trait she shares with several readers of AroundDesMoines.com.

As I got into my car and noticed the spot on my windshield, I was reminded of that famous old country song:
There was bird poop on my window and my dog just up and died.

But once I got to the Arie den Boer Arboretum at Des Moines Water Works Park, I cheered up. What a beautiful day in Des Moines – about 60 degrees with a nice breeze – and a perfect day to be outside. The Purple Wren and I spent about an hour wandering through the crab apple trees appreciating all of the colors and shapes. The DMWW website tells us there are 300 varieties and that we are at the peak of the flowering season.

Try to find a few minutes to spend time there this week. Take your lunch.

The floods of 1993 put the Arboretum underwater for long enough that most of the crabapples were destroyed and needed to be replaced. At the time I was working in the Drake University Chemistry Department with Carolyn Trepka (now Walling) a Grinnell College graduate. Carolyn suggested that our department chip in and buy a replacement tree so we did. The tree is still there, and it’s tagged with the department’s name.

Anyone can buy and dedicate a tree in honor or memory of whomever or whatever you like. It’s less painful to chip in with a big group since the cost is $200, but you can still be proud to give back to community. Most people honor the memory of a loved one.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.
[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Water Works Park[/tags]