When Paul and I moved to the DSM area, one of my goals was to try to enjoy life more during the week. It's tough in the winter - all I want to do is hunker down in our place when we get home. But now that it's starting to get nicer out...we're doing more! Weather didn't cooperate for outdoors activities (except for a few lunch walks), so our activities were indoors. I don't like to be cold.
We were watching the nightly news on Wednesday when I got a text from my pal Robyn in Orlando. "Hey Pal! Turn on Food Channel...Triple D is featuring (George the) Chili King...I want to go there when all of us do the Iowa reunion!"
I reported the text to Paul. We switched channels and watched George finish up making a yummy pork tenderloin.
Hmmm. We'd never been there. Sure sounded better than the leftover salmon and green beans I planned to zap in the microwave. Google location - and we were off - to Hickman and Merle Hay. We sat at the counter by a nice couple a bit older than we are. They had rushed over after the show too and were Chili King virgins, despite being from the neighborhood.
Service was, um, interesting. We saw four staffers - all busy, none was George of TV fame ( George looked to be about 80 years old). None of them was interested in taking our order, but we just sat and watched the show. One cooked loins, the others shuffled around (one big guy had some low-rider jeans with a view, ugh). There is an outside area - for car-side service - I'm not sure how many were serving those customers.
We enjoyed sharing stories with the couple next to us as we awaited our pork loins. Their daughter had been with Cirque Du Soleil for a while, but has "aged out" and is using her degree from ISU to do something with biochemistry. The man is an architect whose firm has looked at the locking system at the Wallace Building. We bragged about our children. As you can tell - it was a fairly long wait...but the loins were very good. I saved half of my sannie for lunch Thursday. Not gristly. Good breading. It was a fun outing!
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| RoCa - craft beverage |
After another long day of work Thursday, we deserved a break at Team Building at a new place called RoCa on Court Avenue with federal retirees and Jim G. from the Department of Ag. Paul has fun talking hunting with Jim (a Creston native), and we even discussed where all those dead chickens and turkeys from the flu outbreak. How will they be disposed of? Hey...what a fun convo! We did eat the leftover salmon that night.
Friday Paul took the morning off to hunt turkeys near Creston. His decoy - Suzi Snood, was quite seductive once again. He double dipped by having a filling re-done at Buck Dentistry and was back in time to work half the day. Meanwhile, I got to go to the dermo for my annual skin check. They zapped one place on my leg - but I'm so proud of the job I did protecting my skin while I was in Florida. Sadly...the skin damage I have is from years ago - before sunscreen.
That night, we tried out DSM's only brew pub theater - Flix Brewhouse. It's located at Merle Hay Mall. We saw The Age of Adaline - a movie about a woman who experiences an accident that prevents her from aging for 100+ years. It was kinda sappy, but we enjoyed it and the Flix experience - burgers, brews. Next time we'll buy our tickets earlier so we aren't seated so close to the screen.
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| Merle Hay Plaza - pic thanks to Lost Des Moines Facebook webpage |
Being at Merle Hay Mall brings back memories. While the Bullocks did most of our shopping in Omaha when I was growing up. Downtown and Crossroads first - and then Westroads. We did go to DSM occasionally. I remember Merle Hay when it was a shopping plaza - not even covered. Mom had promised me a new turtle as a pet, but when we stopped at the store - there were none available. As a substitute, I ended up with some type of pink foam goop from a toy store. (I was gypped - not as good as a turtle!). I'm sure we went to Bishops Buffet while we were there too - and I got chocolate pie and a balloon with feet.
Now today I was watching a moving there and sipping suds. Go figure. My pal Jennifer said I'd likely sipped beer at a movie before - only it was from cans snuck in. Righto! The Atlantic Drive-In was the site of many beers and movies. In college we took beer to the Indian Hills theater in DSM to watch Sound of Music when it came back out again. That empty bottle made a lot of noise when it rolled to the front of the theater during the movie...legal movie beers aren't quite the same....
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