Des Moines Day

We are on October break at my school. One of our days was to go to the Science Center of Iowa and then eat sushi. We went to the Science Center because my brother Bo went there with his old school on a different break and he liked it and wanted to go back.

We went to Gateway Market for breakfast. I ordered Juevos Muneulos -- it was an egg with a tortilla with cheese on it, under it there was beans, ham and picante sauce. It was good but it was too big for me to eat all of it.

Juevos Munelos at Gateway Market

Bo: I ordered a Snicker Doodle cookie -- it had cinnamon and sugar, and it was big and it tasted good. I had already eaten two bananas and some Takis tortilla chips. So I didn't order a big breakfast. 

After Gateway, we went to the Science Center. There's a new dinosaur exhibit there. After we got our tickets we went straight to the Dinosaur Exhibit. There were dinosaur skeletons there. There was a sucomimus, an orinosaurus, and another one I can't remember. There was also a stamp machine where you put a piece of paper under it and pressed down on the stamp and it made an imprint of the dinosaur. In another room, they had more dinosaurs. There was giganotasurus, masaikasaurus, rapatasaurus, and some others. After we got all six of our stamps, we took a picture with them. Unfortunately, my mom lost them so we don't have them.

After we went to the dinosaurs, we went to an area with a conveyor belt where you could put food on, fake food of course. They had lots of kinds. One part was you dumped the food off onto the conveyor belt, it dropped onto another conveyor belt and then it goes on the last conveyor belt where it dumps in a tub and gets sorted.

I was on the most dangerous job. A lot of the time I had to dodge plastic apples, pears, etc., coming down at me.

There were more exhibits in the room -- a bubble exhibit, which we didn't stay at long. And there was also a whiffle ball track with pipes and pieces on magnets so you could make a track. There was one more exhibit in the area that I went to. It was a big frame with red and grey pegs that you could push your hands into and it made an imprint on the other side.

What we did next was an area about movement. One of the exhibits was to make a dam. You had these rubber blocks that you had to put together to make a dam. There was another exhibit where you could race tennis balls down three different tracks. At another exhibit you could make Lego cars and have them roll down a track, racing other cars. My brother built one that had four wheels and about 10 blocks of rows stacked on top. My car kept running into the wall and falling over. It could barely even start because I made the wheels too far down. 

There was also a paper rocket exhibit that I didn't pay attention to. There was also an arch making exhibit, it was almost impossible. You needed at least two grownups to help. Another exhibit was these plastic balls that went through tubes with air. My favorite exhibit in that room was the egg-dropping contest. They were fake eggs made of hard rubber. You had to put plastic wrap around a rubber egg and tie it together with black ropes. Then you sent it up a chute where it fell from 20 feet and you saw what score you got. Five means your egg got smashed and one means that your egg was not smashed and you did a good job. I tried sending an unwrapped egg up the chute once and it made a very loud sound when it hit. My brother did a plain egg too, and it also made a loud sound. 

I made a very puffy egg with lots of plastic wrap and I got No. 1 -- which is "good job." We tried it one last time and we got "good job" again. 

After that, we went to a space room. There was a ball inside that had an electric force where if you touch it, electricity would attract to your finger. There was also an exhibit about a temple where in the Egyptian times that they used to tell time. Light moved from one side to another on each solstice. There was a lot of other space stuff. One of them was a game where you could find planets in other areas and you could look at them through a few different waves -- radio, microwave, infrared, visible, gamma, x-ray, ultraviolet. 

There was one other very cool exhibit in the space room. It was a big dome where you could make your own movie and play it like a movie on the big screen. It seemed like you were in space because it looked so close up and real. 

There was one more section -- the reptile section. It has tons of animals in it -- mostly snakes and a few turtles, lizards and toads. There was also a bat cave where you walk in and it has bat sounds. There was also the Channel 13 weatherman doing the weather from that room. I had a chance to be on TV at noon but I didn't want to. 

After that we went to the gift shop. My brother got a painting kit with four different dinosaurs in it. It came with colors of paint and two brushes.

After that, we ate lunch at a restaurant named Wasabi Tao. It had a very good sushi roll there -- Angry Tuna. The tuna tasted a little bit like salmon and looked like salmon too. It had my favorite sauce -- orange mayo. It also had some other toppings that I can't remember, including avocado. For my drink, I got ice tea. My brother got cherry Coke and my mom got ice tea too. 

We all got bento boxes. Mine was the strangest. Bento boxes are a tray with different kinds of foods in different sections. My main entree was beef negamaki -- it was different than what I thought. It had a thin layer of beef around the outside and green onion on the inside. I could not even taste the beef. I wasn't a huge fan of it. I liked the sauce on the salad -- it tasted like trees. It was ginger dressing. I also liked these little dumplings or rolls that had fish inside. It tasted good. They also had plain white rice that I liked a lot. There was also four California rolls. I ate seven pieces of those -- all of mine and most of my brothers. I was stuffed after eating all that. My brother's salmon was terriyaki. It tasted oceany and just tasted like good salmon. It also had terriyaki sauce that made it more sweet. My mom got shrimp. 

Overall, I liked the Wasabi Tao restaurant. Next time I want to get only sushi rolls instead of a bento box. 

After lunch, we walked around the skywalks and then went to the State Historical Building. I think kids would enjoy the Science Center a lot. Not all kids would enjoy Wasabi Tao, but I am one who does. Most kids would enjoy the State Historical Building. I think they would like the interactive displays. I'm the guy who actually likes to look at stuff in the museum. My favorite exhibit was the Midwest Hollywood display because it showed the movie, The Field of Dreams.

Tomorrow we are going to Boone to ride the Scenic Valley Train. We're going on the basic excursion ride and maybe on the trolley, if it's open. I think we will be on the yellow diesel engine. It's a Union Pacific. I know a lot about trains.

The World Food Fest

We went to the World Food and Music Festival in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. There is lots of food from different countries. We got a lot of food there. We are going to talk about the foods we got and how they tasted.

Here, this is my brother Bo talking about his food:

"I ate the alligator bite. It was on a stick in a box with frog legs. I didn't eat any of those. The alligator tasted good and chewy, like meat and it had a crust around it.

I ate pizza. It was pepperoni with cheese and a hard crust. It tasted like cheese and pepperoni. Then I ate some Hawaiian chicken on a stick. It was sweet and good with a little chewy inside. Then I had two marshmallows on a stick. They burned them first. When I touched them with my tongue first, it was hot. Then it got sticky. And that is done."

OK, back to me. I ate alligator bites -- it was a little sour and fishy. It's breaded and fried. It was from a stand called Fat Tuesdays -- the food is from New Orleans. I also ate three frog legs from there. They tasted very much like fish. I really liked them. They were moist and breaded. The bone was very thin, the size of a small chicken bone.

After the frog legs I had some of my mom's food from Ecuador. It was a potato tortilla. My mom said it was the best food she ever had. Next, we went to the Hawaiian stand for Hawaiian chicken with terriyaki sauce and rice. The rice was plain and the chicken was tangy, so was the terriyaki sauce. I ate most of it until it got too sweet and then I traded with my dad. He had some Korean food -- a spicy pork bowl. It was pretty spicy. They had a red sauce in it. It had lots of vegetables and it was pretty meaty.

After that we were about to leave so we had some marshmallows. My sister got strawberry, my brother got raspberry and I got kahlua -- it's a type of alcohol. The marshmallows were on a stick. They roasted them over a little fire. They were burning hot. They were sweet. The marshmallows are from Beaverdale Confections from Iowa.

It was very crowded at the festival. It was on the bridges. 

This is me using an ear swab and that is the gunk out of my ear! Just kidding, that's my alcoholmallows!

We're eating our marshmallow. 

They are toasting the marshmallows. 

That is me eating my spicy Korean pork with rice. 

This is me eating my Hawaiian grill chicken. 

That's the thing that I just said in the thing above. 

That is not mine. It was my mom's. It was a taco that I wanted to get but I didn't.

That is Bo eating his Hawaiian chicken on a stick. 

That is the potato tortilla from Ecuador that my mom said was the best thing in the world. 

That is Bo eating his pizza from the Ecuador stand. 

I'm having a serious look. I'm a professor. Professor of Food.

That is my yummy frog legs that I will not share with anybody. Not even if they asked and gave me $100. 

Those are flags from around the world. My favorite flag: I don't know. I'd have to look at them later. 

Budget Hot Sauce Review

                Budget hot sauce review
First up, the reason we got hot sauces today was because of football and hotwings . we (me and my dad sometimes my little brother) like to watch the nfl, we also watch college but not as much. 

Now let's get started with the hot sauce types. They were all pretty cheap sauces (all under one dollar) we just wanted to see which was the best hot wing sauce. There was texas pete, louisiana original hot sauce, and trappeys ulltimate cayenne pepper sauce. 

The ingredients for texaspete were: peppers, vinegar, and salt. It tasted tangy, salty and had more taste than the Louisiana hot sauce, it was very bold also. 

The louisiana hot sauce was the hottest sauce of them all. It was bold like the texaspete sauce, and vinegary also. 

I saved the best for last. Trappeys hot sauce was bold, salty, and vinegary, notice a pattern in the tastes?! But it was the right amount of spice, and it was the boldest sauce. 

All of the sauces were almost the same, but the trappeys sauce just tasted better. Well that's all for this one, guys, and a heads up, dont put to much sauce on one peice of chicken!!!!!!

The Outlet Mall Hulabaloo!!!!!!!

On saturday the 15th of march, I decided to go to the outlet mall, which is near Williamsburg, Iowa. It's about 2 hours from Des Moines. Drive east.

I got way more clothes then expected. About 11 shirts, 6 pairs of pants, 3 shorts and new shoes. An outlet mall is a chain of stores -- like clothes stores basically. My favorite stores were Reebok, Nike, Under Armour, Gap, Old Navy and that's all. I liked the last store that we went to because it was a caramel apple store! I picked out a toffee caramel apple, but I never got to eat it. We forgot it at Grandma's house. 

If you're going to the outlet mall, expect a lot of clothes and looking for clothes for your baby sister. It will be a little boring at times, especially looking for your mom's clothes, but when you get to look for your own clothes it's more fun. 

We shopped for about 3 hours. Then we went across the street to the Landmark Restaurant.

We forgot to take a photo of the restaurant, but we found this on the computer. There's no green grass in Iowa yet.

After all that shopping, you could guess that we were all pretty hungry.

To start it off I got spicy chicken soup, boy that stuff was spicy.

The soups were all homemade. My grandma got a soup with cabbage and sausage in it. She said it was good. 

 Then for my entree I got a bacon cheese burger and fries. I also saw steak that looked good and tenderloin sandwiches.

 I ate almost all of my bacon cheese burger but almost none of my fries [as usual].

 I was full.

They have homemade pies for dessert. I sort of wanted one but I was too full. 

If you're on the road, on Interstate 80, you should go to the Landmark Restaurant. And you should go to the outlet mall if you're running out of clean clothes or if your clothes don't fit you. 

Iowa Energy Game

On my birthday, I got to go to a iowa energy game. Iowa energy is a basketball team that plays in des moines. They play in wells fargo arena. I went to the season opener game where it was energy vs. the rio grande vipers.

It was snowy and icy on my birthday. It was pretty cold, too. We had to put sand in the back of our van to make traction.

It was not a packed house at the wells fargo arena. There was a lot of empty seats. I did not know that my best friend was coming to the game, too. I figured it out when they drove by us as we were walking in and they yelled my name. I was excited!

So we went inside and our seats were in the second row! I thought those were good seats, except we were kind of in the corner. It's fun to go to a basketball game because you can see the people playing right in front of you. It's a fun treat.

This is me eating my birthday donut cake.

In this picture I am waiting for my best friend to arrive.

I am trying make him a bunny with my two fingers as ears.

Another good part of the game is the food! We had lots of hotdogs because they only cost one dollar that night, so my parents said to eat up. We also had popcorn, which was good because I like popcorn. And I had nachos, too. I liked the nachos. They tasted good. 

Bo's going slap happy.

I'm just making a random face here as I eat my nachos.

That is a big and rubbery seal.

The halftime show was funny because they had mascots that were in big suits and they were jumping around and doing crazy stuff. They were called the Zooperstars. They were all good. People laughed a lot at them. 

Big seal along with his friends big bull and big fly.

The energy mascot surge.

Surge signing a little booklet.

This is a good family event because it's fun. Kids will like the half time show and the action. I recommend the nachos and hotdogs and popcorn. Surge is a fun mascot and he will sign something for you if you ask him. 

Next I want to try hockey game. I think we will go to the Des Moines Buccaneers. Do you recommend going to the Buccaneers or the Iowa Wild? 

Good Deal's Orchard

Well sadly it was our last day at our grandma's house. But on our last day there we decided to go to a orchard -- Deal's Orchard. I was wondering what the place looked like so I was getting a little anxious to see what the place looked like. But right before I could check the place out, my mom stopped me right before I could see much stuff. So instead of thinking what I should do first I had to stop and get my picture taken.

Well finally I got to check the place out.

And now I have to get my picture taken again! What's wrong with these people!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????

Air mattress football! 99 yard touch down run! By number almost 9! But by number 8.

And a great catch by number 5.

And he needs to pull up his pants after the tackle.[p.s. he always needs to pull up his pants]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the cheer leader's come on for half time.

Game has been canceled due to boringness. 

Sorry little girl you have to be bigger than 1 foot 9 to ride by your self.

Poor little kid. Only got candy corn for halloween.

Another death in the corn yard. There has been ten already today.

Look on this collision with a red thing-a-majig and a pink thing-a-majig.

Grandma and the donkeys

Well that guy is taking a little bit of a risk. He may not come out alive.

Well now we are checking out the national duck racing. Our new champion is mazy hanson due to bo hanson getting disqualified because of whining after a loss.

Well now you have a news report on the stuff in the deal's orchard.

We went into the shop market. We could pick out a free apple from ones in a little crate at the door. I chose a Red Delicious because I liked the name. The Red Delicious apples you buy at the grocery store looks almost black purple or maroonish, and they taste bland. The ones at the orchard are brighter and they taste sweeter and juicier.

You can buy cider, slush, honey, apple pies and a lot of other stuff. I got a cider slush. It tasted good -- sweet. We bought creamed honey and regular honey. Creamed honey is honey but it's almost like a honey paste. I eat it on bread. It's sweeter than some other kinds. The last thing we bought was apple cider. Cider is different than apple juice. For the cider, they put apples inside of a barrel and then they push down and crush the apples. Then they separate all the juice and the seeds and skin and stem away and leave the apple meat, and then they crush the apple meat more and it makes cider that gets put into bottles. I prefer to drink apple cider.

If you go to Jefferson to Deal's Orchard you could go to the Pizza Ranch afterward for lunch, like we did.