A quick trip with the family to Des Moines, Iowa, included a skate park, amusement rides at Adventureland Amusement Park, and wild animals at Blank Park Zoo.

Our drive to Des Moines went through rural parts of Iowa with lots of cornfields in the distance and small towns.

Dinner was in Oskaloosa. The downtown had historic sites and surprisingly even a skate park where Andrew and his cousin watched skateboarders do tricks.

Near Des Moines, we stayed the night by Adventureland where we’ll be going on our second day here.

The first big day we headed to wander the Iowa State Capitol grounds and marveled at the 135 foot Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument that is decorated with many sculptures all around.

Then went to the nearby Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. Here, Andrew and his cousin enjoyed the waterfalls, the desert plants, and the water gardens. Although, my sister was right, it was way to hot to be inside a tropical dome. I think this place would be better on a cold winter’s day.

Next was the Blank Park Zoo with 800 animals to see.

The highlight was the recently born rhino along with feeding the giraffe.

The zoo also had a small aquarium and the kids watched the stingray swim right up to the glass. You could really see its mouth close-up.

In the evening we went to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines.

Here they saw a large bunny on a rock thinking, although Andrew didn’t agree it was a bunny. He said the ears were too big.

We saw a sculpture of letters that form a person and I would have Andrew point out letters of his name.

Their favorite was a prism sculpture. Colors would bounce all over the place and if you were on the other side the person would be a different color. The kids really loved this.

Nearby we found a brick warehouse with lots of classic cars, American Dream Machines, worth a gander just to peer through the windows.

Next day was the fun day. We headed to Adventureland. I didn’t get a lot of photos of where we spent most of our time, which was the waterpark section. The phone kept getting hot and it was more trouble than it was worth in the water area.

In the theme park section I got it out and took a few shots of the happy kid. His favorite ride was driving his own boat.

Then, he liked taking the sky ride across the park. This was similar to the gondolas we took in Europe.

We ended our time here on the park’s train, which the boys had to do before we headed on back.

On the way home we stopped briefly in Pella, Iowa, the Dutch settled town. Sadly, the historic village and many shops were closed, but we were able to wander around and at least take some photos.

We also did not have time to see the figurines below the clock do their klokkenspel show. I hope to do this on another trip to Iowa in the future!