Much longer drive than I thought to get here from the far side of St. Louis, but driving through all the corn fields to get here was actually rather soothing...I could almost hear the whispers "If you build it, he will come" from the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner!
We had a beautiful day to visit the State Capital Building and take a tour that included going nearly to the top of the rotunda where you can whisper on one end and hear very clearly on the opposite side! The golden dome of the Capital is really made of gold...very thin gold leaf sheets are put down sheet-by-sheet to re-surface the dome every 15 years or so. I wonder who gets the "left over" materials from that job!
Lori was able to schedule a flight from Des Moines to Pennsylvania and then back to Omaha so she could join her family as they made the final arrangements for Mary (Lori's cousin) who passed away last weekend. Scheduling this trip on short notice and leaving from one place and returning to another took some doing, but Lori figured it all out. We'll split up her chores on the duty roster and we even got ahead on laundry today. We'll pick Lori up again this weekend when we get to Omaha, Nebraska.
After we dropped Lori at the airport, we explored the outdoor sculpture garden in town...was a little bit of a tough sell, but it wasn't too hot so we stopped for a brief visit. William was looking at the brochure for the sculpture garden while we were driving there and he definitely had the quote of the day: "oh...yeah...and this one looks like giant dinosaur poop!" I had to dig deep not to burst out belly-laughing while I was driving. The Science Center was DEFINITELY the best stop of our time in Des Moines! The chemistry demo amazed everyone with potions turning colors and fizzing all over the place, but the paper rocket station kept us all engaged for hours. The Center provided the template and all the materials to make paper rockets which could be launched from high-pressure air-launchers. William made the first rocket to actually clear the tall net enclosure intended to corral the rockets. Joseph and Morgan experimented a variety of flying-wing designs, but eventually got into full rocket mode and Joseph eventually assembled a rocket that also cleared the net walls. Mariana was in heaven getting to cut the tape herself for her rocket. What a wonderful afternoon using creative juices in the name of science.