Over Labor Day weekend Mark and I spent a 3 night/4 day trip in Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

We started our trip by flying into Minneapolis and driving the three hours to Des Moines, Iowa.

We stayed at an AirBnb in the Civic Center Historic District of Des Moines. Des Moines has a lot of cool bars, restaurants, boutique shops, and breweries. We had lunch at Zombie Burger (a zombie-themed restaurant) followed by a beer at both 1717 Brewing Co and Peace Tree Brewing Co which are across the street from each other. On our way to an improv comedy show we had booked at Tee Hee’s Comedy Club, we went for a walk around Pappajohn’s Sculpture Park.

The next morning we started our day with breakfast at a café called St. Kilda. We then started our journey to head to Minneapolis, and stopped at the town of Clear Lake, Iowa for lunch at the Lakeside Landing Kitchen + Bar. The town of Clear Lake, Iowa is known for being where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, after playing a show in town, had their airplane crash as they were leaving town. This plane crash later inspired the song “American Pie” by Don McLean.

In Minneapolis, we stayed at the Canopy by Hilton Mill District (highly recommend) and walked over to Mill Ruins Park, which is where Minneapolis’ flour industry used to be based. We ate dinner at Aster Café which is a popular restaurant in town.

The next day we went to have lunch at a Somali restaurant called Baarakallah. Minneapolis is home to a large Somali population so that is why we were interested in trying their ethnicities’ cuisine. After, we went on a boat cruise on the Minneapolis Queen, which left from Bohemian Flats Park, an area where many flour industry workers used to live. Our last stop of the day was an escape game at Escape the Room Minneapolis.

Overall we were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked Des Moines and how easy it was to travel between the two cities.

Would you like to visit Des Moines or Minneapolis?