After playing catch up on my sleep last night, I awoke feeling pretty refreshed. Ten hours of sleep will do that to a person.
I headed out just before 8 to grab some coffee from Fair Grounds Coffeehouse (http://fairgroundscoffeehouse.com/) which my couchsurfing host, Lauren, had told me about. If I hadnt already been crazy thankful for Lauren’s hospitality, Fair Grounds wouldve done it. As it is, I felt like the tip to get my coffee there was the best departure gift she could’ve given me.
Fair Grounds is this big roomy coffeehouse serving fantastic coffee and comfort food that just happens to be vegetarian. They also serve vegan baked goods. Thier seperate kitchen area is viewable from the front of the store and I enjoyed watching them put together batches of delectable food. I ordered up my soy latte, a berry spinach smoothie and banana muffins for the road. Everything was excellent. I’ve added Fair Grounds to the long list of reasons I need to return to Iowa City for a longer visit.
I headed to Riverside, the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk from there. Unfortunately, Riverside was a bit of a disapointment. The storefronts ‘downtown’ were all empty, the USS Riverside had been removed from the park and put on display at the town museum, which wasnt going to be open for another hour. I couldnt find any signs for the plaque about Kirk, so I decided to maybe come back during their yearly Trek Fest when things would be more active.
My next stop was Sioux City where my next couchsurfing host, Laura, had informed me there would be a large art festival going on. The drive stunk due to the unending rain, but the skies cleared in Sioux City- hooray!
Laura, her boyfriend and I met up at the art festival where we looked at tons of amazing art of all kinds. I was especially taken with the moving metal wall sculptures by an artist whose name I can’t recall (if anyone was there and remembers, please let me know!). There were a couple of good bands playing onstage and we ran into a lot of Laura’s friends and friends’ families. They were a friendly, entertaining bunch and the hours passed quickly.
We’re back at Laura’s, making food and chatting away. We’ve both got an early morning planned. I’ll likely be entering tomorrow’s update from my phone, so don’t expect anything too lengthy…though I might make up for it by posting photos the following day. 😉