Des Moines Attractions | estherburgeson

A few weeks ago I ambitiously decided to cross 3 things off of my bucketlist between my shifts at Fox 17 and Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Company – walk Des Moines’s entire downtown skywalk, ride the downtown shuttle, and visit the East Village.

Sans printer, I drew a rough map of the skywalk and the route I wanted to take.

(Not to scale)

This skywalk is 4 miles long, some walks being private.

Downtown Skywalk

It connects hotels, restaurants, parking garages, and other downtown attractions. It’s a popular safe haven from the eat, rain, and cold year-round. It’s usually crowded when fans are hurrying to shows at the Civic Center or Wells Fargo Arena. I traveled the tunnels just after the weekday lunch break. It was basically deserted aside from pairs of women speed walking and gossiping during their lunch break.

After attempting to break into the locked Wells Fargo Arena to start my walk, I began across the street at the massive Hy-Vee Hall.

Then I walked south, weaving through the skywalk system. I tried to not to stop at the many lunch locations that filled the skywalk with delicious scents. Here’s some pictures from my trip. If you’ve never seen Des Moines, this is a quick, third-story view of the streets of our downtown.

A view of the Principle building, the tallest skyscraper in Iowa. Impressed? I thought so.

I totally creeped on this window with makeshift spiderman curtains made from bedsheets.

Towards the end of my journey I found a wall with a timeline about the development of downtown Des Moines. Since I’ve been promising you fun facts since the beginning of this blog I thought I’d share a couple.

1856: First Des Moines public school is built, located in downtown Des Moies
1926: First parking meters installed. Personal note: I’ve contributed more than $100 to the Iowa government thanks to multiple parking tickets.
2009: The $40 million John and Marry Pappajohn Sculpture Park is installed between Grand Ave. and Locust St.

After my skywalk walk, I found a D-line shuttle stop. The D-line shuttle runs from the State Capitol to Central Campus along Grand Ave. and Locust St.

D-Line Schedule

It’s an adorable, old-fashioned shuttle with wood floors and wooden benches (not the most comfortable, but manageable for the short ride). It’s free transportation between downtown Des Moines and the East Village. It’s extremely convenient, running every 10 minutes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The East Village is a neighborhood east of downtown Des Moines. It features a great collection of more than 40 little stores owned by men and women passionate about their trades. The stores feature eclectic vintage, vintage inspired, hippie-friendly, hand-made goods and things that make you say, “I hope I’m rich some day so I can spend all my money here!”

There’s some great restaurants (more than 20). I’ve frequented Alba, Lucca, Olympic Flame, and Zombie Burger + Drink Lab.

East Village is also home to some bars and beautiful historic streets to walk on a nice day.

Home

I visited a bundle of stores, but here were some of my favorites.

Raygun – the self-proclaimed “Greatest Store in the Universe.” It’s a quirky shop that specializes in Iowa-themed clothing sporting sassy logos and shirts for troubled suburban adolescents. One of my favorites: “Des Moines, let us exceed your already low expectations!”

http://raygunsite.com/

Green Goods – featuring recycled goods and eco-friendly products. Owned by Sharon Hicks, a people and earth-friendly woman. I couldn’t help but buy a bracelet made from recycled scrabble letters that reads, “Peace.”