Vacation, all I ever wanted.....

and so the song goes by "The Go Gos" back in the 80's.

So far my vacation has been great! Saturday morning Fred, Connor and I got up extra early and went to the Downtown Farmer's Market on Court Ave. If you want to go to this, you MUST go early. Even then, it's packed with people. It's such a great time and Des Moines should be very proud of an event like this. I quit going for a couple of years because the crowds were getting bad but last year I made a point of going a couple of times and enjoyed it so this year I'm going to try and go at least once a month.

I took my camera this time to record some of the sights. Too bad I can't record the smells, because the food is amazing!





I bought a nice big bunch of rhubarb to make rhubarb crunch this week, I found some excellent looking tomatoes for BLT's this week and I had to have some strawberries because they looked so good.



I had been hearing about the breakfast burritos that you can get there but by the time I found the stand, the line waiting was outrageous and there were too many other good choices, so I went looking for something else.....Well, I found it...Cinnamon Apple Nut French Toast with powder sugar and syrup....Oh Baby..was it good! Big hunks of bread, just the right amout of cinnamon and apple with pecans in it. It was $4.00 and I couldn't believe how much I got. I couldn't even finish it all. I wanted to try a Pupusa also, but they're huge and after my french toast, there was no way I could even attempt to eat one. I try one the next time I go.

Another great thing about the Farmer's Market is all the people I see that I know. Saturday was no exception. We ran into Peg Smith and her mother and I hadn't seen Peg since our party almost a year ago. It was good to see her and we made plans to meet at the market in two weeks, this time...me without the boys and her without her mother. We thought Bloody Mary's might be in order.

Anyway, that was just Saturday morning at the market. Once we were done there, I coaxed Fred and Connor over to the Pappajohn Center for Higher Learning in the Western Gateway for a photo shoot. I've been wanted to get photos of Connor in the newest sculpture on the grounds and since we were going to be downtown for the market, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. I haven't had a chance to tweak the photos yet, but here's a sneak peek..



Saturday night brought dinner on the grill and family movie night. We watched "Fool's Gold" with Matthew McConenghy and Kate Hudson.

Sunday my Dad was back in town from Canada so we spent most of the day together and then Sunday night we took him to Pizza Ranch for dinner as a late Father's Day gift. I think this is the first time EVER that I have witnessed a certain fraility to my Dad that I haven't seen before. He is getting older....70 next January and until now never noticed. He just found out that he has Hepatitis A and he has some type of skin condition on his arms that he really need to have a doctor look at. I just so used to my Dad being this big strong cop/military guy that he always has been that I wasn't prepared to see him as vulnerable as I did this time.

Today I got together with my friend Cheri and we spent the day poking around the shops of the East Village in downtown Des Moines. We stopped and had lunch at the Grand Piano Bisto on Grand Avenue, which I've been wanting to try for some time. We were not disappointed. My grilled turkey and Cheri's grilled chicken sandwiches were very good and it's a cool place. We had a really good time!

I'm loving that I still have 6 days of vacation and lots of fun things planned.