Des Moines forum meet

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:41 pm

Lou (OmahaCowboy) and I attended absolutedsm's first annual forum meet this part Saturday. They had arranged for tours of the Wells Fargo Arena (which I missed) and the 111 City Lofts residential development (an interesting condo conversion of a circa 50's office building... something we'll probably have to turn our attention towards in the future). Downtown Des Moines is indeed very impressive. It's funny that they're spending millions on their 'River Walk' improvements... because their existing riverfront is beautiful already. I wish the Missouri were as narrow and relatively tame as the Des Moines river, as there'd likely be many more things we could do with it in terms of walls/bridges/etc. As for activity... I was very impressed with the number of people at their Saturday morning Farmer's Market... many more people than what ours draws. However, later in the afternoon, after the the market had closed... the place was almost entirely absent of humanity. Des Moines benefits from businesses spread throughout downtown... but it is still looking for an area/district which has a continuous amount of street activity like that of Old Market (truly an asset we take for granted... something even KC is in the process of spending millions trying to create from the ground up in the form of it's KC Live district). I didn't take any photos... but their I235 expansion includes numerous new bridges which are unlike anything Omaha has in terms of visual appeal. I can only hope that NDOR will take notice at some point. Anyway, overall... Des Moines is a wonderful city with a downtown full of at least as much potential as our own.

Click on the thumbnails...

The participants...

Our accomodations...

Misc. downtown shots...

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:16 am

Huh I though I heard there was a bigger turn out. I noticed some eOmaha members where there (traders). Hey Jeff do you think we can get some females at our next meet?

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:34 am

pkiphd wrote:Hey Jeff do you think we can get some females at our next meet?

That would be the Glenwood forum meet. ;)

Great fountain in the picture, btw.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:47 am

I enjoyed meeting our friends from Des Moines..

The arena/convention center tour was very informative..Our tour guide was particularly gracious..We toured just about every nook and cranny..This facility will serve central Iowa well for years to come..

Overall, the meet was motivation for me to visit this city more than once a year .. We had a great time..My only regret is that I had to leave at 2:00PM and missed 111 City Lofts tour..A big thank you to all

..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:02 pm

jhuston wrote:I was very impressed with the number of people at their Saturday morning Farmer's Market... many more people than what ours draws. However, later in the afternoon, after the the market had closed... the place was almost entirely absent of humanity.

Well that's what Des Moines is. A bunch of farmers. ;)

I was going to go but I had to go to Lincoln that day.

Zephyr · Post by **Zephyr** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:17 pm

Thanx 4 the report. Good times.

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