When we crossed the border, we stopped at a welcome center that sold lots of Amish goods. I found these unintentionally-vegan snacks, that were quite delicious:
After we made it to our crash site, dropped our bags, and quickly outlined a plan for our evening, we picked up dinner at Thai Flavors.
I ordered the Panang curry with tofu with "0" on the hot pepper scale.
Panang curry is my favorite. I'm a sucker for a good peanut sauce.
The only thing that could have made it better would have been more vegetables. This only came with bell peppers. Some broccoli would have been lovely.
Straight from dinner, we headed to Veteran's Auditorium for...
ROLLER DERBY!
This was the first time for all of us to attend a roller derby bout. Once it got started, it was quite fun! I wish I had the guts and toughness to be a roller derby girl. It looks like a terrific way to stay in shape and release stress. At halftime, we moved down to the "suicide seats," which is on the floor, just a couple of feet away from the track.
Mid-Iowa Rollergirls, ready for action.
All of my action-shots are blurry.
MIR WON! WOO HOO!
Another fun part of roller derby: the bad ass stage names.
After roller derby, we wandered around Des Moines, hoping to get a taste of their nightlife. We couldn't find much. Eventually, we found a karaoke lounge, and all was right in the world again. Billy Joe's had a PHENOMENAL song book, but because we arrived so late in the evening, we were at the bottom of a very long list to sing. Still, it was a good time, especially for people-watching.
The panang tofu looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteI admit, I've never gone to Iowa specifically to go to Iowa (only on my way to and from other places, like Chicago), but it's not a bad place.
-Amber @Almost Vegan