Susan and I went on a date to the State Fair Grandstand to see Ben Harper and The Chicks. It was a hot date.

https://youtu.be/LJiS9JSDI1Q – Ready to Run – Copyright issues.
Susan and I went on a date to the State Fair Grandstand to see Ben Harper and The Chicks. It was a hot date.
https://youtu.be/LJiS9JSDI1Q – Ready to Run – Copyright issues.
The Lieslands love the Iowa State Fair – or at least Rose, Lucia and I do. Susan likes it, too, but for a few fewer hours than us. Mari went to the fair 2 or 3 times, but never with us.
This evening we headed to the Des Moines Arts Festival to see some art and lovelytheband. The band just has one big hit, but we all had fun at the live concert.
This morning there were some storms moving through. I didn’t think much of it, but as we stood on the front porch it started to get really windy and the sky was definitely funky. It turned out to be a derecho – straight line winds across the state from 70-120 mph. We mostly just lost some small limbs around our yard, there are plenty of branches down across the city, and corn has been knocked down in many places across the state.
After Fair Food Friday earlier in the day, we met the Reagens in Altoona for a fireworks show. Normally on this evening we would be on top of a parking garage in downtown, waiting for the Yankee Doodle Pops fireworks show to start, but that was canceled this year. The scene in Altoona was great and the fireworks show was good, but it was overcast by the bad news of N’s dad not doing well. He has been battling cancer for a little over a year and we got news during the fireworks show that he was in the hospital and they thought he might not survive the night. There were many tears shed during the evening and at one point someone did say, “This is the saddest fireworks show ever.” [note: I have the benefit of writing this post a few weeks after the event, and luckily N’s dad pulled through and continues to do well.]
It was decided earlier in the summer to cancel the Iowa State Fair. This was sad news for us because attending the fair has been a tradition in our family for the past few years. Luckily, all is not list because some of the fair’s food vendors set up a drive-through on Friday nights. We stopped by this evening to enjoy some of our favorite treats from the fair before heading to see some fireworks.
This afternoon we attended a Black Lives Matter march and rally in downtown Des Moines. We met downtown and marched to the capitol, with a stop at city hall. When we stopped at city hall we had to lie face-down on the ground for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while they had speakers and others reading some of the things that George Floyd said while he was being held down. At the capitol there were a variety of speakers sharing their experiences and changes they would like to see.
This evening Lucia, Rose and I headed to the Father/Daughter dance. Mari was invited, but opted not to attend this year. 🙁
We had dinner at Blaze Pizza and then headed to the Science Center for the dance. The girls always have fun dancing, exploring the science center, and eating some desserts.
This evening we went to an Amy Klobuchar event in Johnston. It was in an old barn. We were relegated to the overflow room, but we snuck upstairs for some views and pictures. Amy is running for president and we decided to go check her out because she was still on the debate stage.