Iowa – Day 1

Our flight arrived late a little after 5pm and I was excited about being back in Iowa. I had missed all my new blogging friends as well as the farmers and and everyone I had met.

Our hotel reservations where at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott. (Photo from Marriott site)

Overall we enjoyed our stay here. The rooms where nice and spacious, but my only complaint was the walls are really thin. There was a wedding at the hotel and both nights we where woken up around 2:30am by slamming doors and loud drunk people. A quick phone call to the front desk resulted in security knocking on doors within 5 minutes and silence after that.

After a quick freshen up we headed to meet everyone down at the lobby and head to dinner.

They had arranged dinner at Dos Rios. I was so excited to be around other bloggers again so I wouldn’t be the only person at the table photographing my food!

We where in a private room and had a buffet style food, so I can’t speak much for the menu except for the pulled roasted chicken and pulled pork are really good. We also had the meatballs which are not pictured, but they where good as well.

The restaurant makes their own flavored chips and fresh guacamole. We also had three salsas – traditional tomato salsa, sweet verde and pico de gallo. Everything is really yummy!

For dessert we tried the DULCE DE LECHE CHEESECAKE (Sweet caramel cheesecake in a graham cracker crust, topped with whipped cream). I really loved this rich dessert!

I did have a margarita which I didn’t get a picture of, and several other people had tried some of their cocktails. We all agreed that they make them strong here.

After catching up with everyone and eating a fabulous meal we headed back to our hotel and hit the sack with great excitement of the day ahead of us.