History and High Life

Yesterday turned out to be quite a dreary and gray day so I decided not to take a walk through the Pappajohn Scuplture park. Instead we spent the better part of the afternoon at The Historical Building in downtown Des Moines. I cannot remember what grade I was in when we took a field trip there, but I was sure I would remember what it looked like inside once we got there.

Nope, I had no recollection of this place at all. My teachers sure got through to me, huh? :/

I took a friend and we browsed several of the exhibits. For class I had to spend time reflecting on the exhibit "On The Road Again" which was part of the temporary exhibit "You Gotta Know The Territory" that examined Iowa's early years before statehood. There was an actual covered wagon on display, which was something I had to reflect on for my paper. Have you ever seen a covered wagon in person? No? I hadn't either...

Source

It's massive! This obviously isn't the one on display, because I forgot my camera! :( But, this wagon looks very much like the one displayed.

I expected it to be big, but not that big! It was pretty cool! There were displays of the items that the settlers chose to bring with them and examples of items that they probably had to leave behind. My favorite part was a video that narrates the diary of a girl traveling west through Iowa in the covered wagon.

It was hard not to ponder over the thought of what might be on display in 200 years about us! ;)

After leaving the Historical Building my friend and I were hungry so we started looking for somewhere to eat. We didn't want to spend a lot of money so we were trying to think of something cheap... We ended up here :


The High Life Lounge!

High Life is a retro 60s bar that has shag carpet, vintage wallpaper and wood paneled walls. They serve High Life beer (the champagne of beers!) and other great contemporaries such as PBR and Schlitz. It's classy, let me tell ya! ;)

I love it though! They serve food as well. Some of the items that grace their menu is goulash, tuna casserole and tater tots. Yes, tater tots. I was really craving some tots, so I ordered a 1/4 lb cheeseburger with a side of tots and a pint of Miller Lite (yeah, I declined the PBR, Schlitz or High life beer...). All of this for only $6.95! I don't think we could have gotten anything cheaper. :)

It was a great afternoon! I'm looking forward to visiting other events in the area to meet my arts requirement. I don't think High Life counted... :P

I'm studying special education and am currently working on a huge paper due at the end of the semester that examines the benefits of arts integration with special needs students. The research has been interesting so far, I'm loving it!

What museum in your area is your favorite? Favorite museum of all time? When you were a kid and first learning about history were you genuinely interested?