This was the highlight of our trip. If you're in the area please visit this alpaca farm. There is…read moreno cost to visit, but they do accept donations and they have a shop that they sell alpaca related goods. My family loved visiting and petting and feeding all the alpacas. The owner is very responsive on Ig so if you have any questions feel free to shoot him a message.

Such a neat place to get out in nature and get to hang out with some amazing animals. The…read moreowners/staff make you feel welcome and answer any and all questions you may have and give you a great history of the animals. The gift store is quaint and affordable. Absolutely a must visit if you're near the Des Moines area

I visited Rose Farm due to their partnership with the Polk County Master Gardeners. Just a short…read moredrive south of Des Moines, it's convenient to visit. I was able to get a peek at the flowers available for cut flower buckets. They have indoor meeting space including a kitchen area. I will definitely watch for events and classes.

What a charming place. I had never been out here before. I went for a cooking class. There was…read morea cute shopping area when you entered the building. The coffee that were for sale smelled delicious. I wish I had planned on being home that week, if so I would have purchased one of the beautiful flower bouquets. The woman that greeted us offered us her family lemonade, which was a family recipe (OMG! It was amazing!) I took a quick walk around the property before the cooking class. There was a chicken coup as well as chickens roaming around. A beautiful dog was hanging around outside as well a friendly cat. I definitely will come back out for another event

Excellent our selection - wow! This is the place for pies and fresh apples. Friendly and helpful…read morestaff. Easy parking.

Located in town. I didn't do any of the rides, but only entered market area for baked goods…read more Front of the house pumpkins for sale by weight. Plenty of pies, donuts, caramel apples and etc for purchase. 6 pack of apple cinnamon donuts will run you $7. I also picked up single serving baked apple oatmeal. Not very large facility, but enough parking spots.

I was able to attend a small event recently at Speckled Hen Farm encompassing Speckled Hen and a…read morecouple of businesses they closely partner with. Lone Oaks Farms and Covered Bridges Winery. Until a few days ago I'd never heard of Speckled Hen Farm. Kris was our host at Speckled Hen along with Luann from Lone Oaks and Kevin from Covered Bridges winery. I guess they are kind of little hidden gems in nearby Madison country... The Speckled Hen store features a lot of fun, farm-inspired merchandise, handmade baked goods and artisan bread, farm fresh eggs, local honey, gourmet food products, and fresh seasonal produce. Kris and Luann were wonderful hosts filling us in on their history, how they select the people they bring into their businesses as vendors and for their events. And setting up an al fresco table of some small plates for us...! To Speckled Hen Farm it was a 32 min drive from where I live in Clive. A trip to the Northern part of Ankeny or to the South side can take me just as long...so it's really not far away at all and it's a nice drive. If you're like me and you enjoy a little bit of a day trip to find new things... It's worth the short drive from the metro! Check out upcoming events at Speckled Hen on their Facebook page and site (as well as those for Lone Oaks and Covered Bridges Winery on their respective pages). Everything from scratch pizza nights with dough handmade by Kris and cooked on the open pizza ovens in the patio area behind the store... Live music, prairie walks, photography workshops, etc. And if you have friends coming into town Speckled Hen also has a four bed two bath airbnb on site. The Roost! https://www.speckledhenfarmsiowa.com/ https://www.facebook.com/peacelovechickens

This property is absolutely beautiful! A hidden gem in Winterset Iowa. I got invited out through…read moreYelp & I'm so happy we went! The little farm shop had so many fun funky finds to choose from. We took home a homemade dip mix, garlic & chive! We can't wait to try it. This place has so many events to fill your summer bucket list. Be sure to check out their website! The owners were so sweet & informational. Spend an afternoon here wine tasting & you will have a weekend well spent.

I do enjoy new opportunities to support local vendors. This…read morewas my first trip here and so happy I got the chance to do so. I ment to write as soon as I got home from the event but I was in a sugar coma from the delicious ice cream from The Outside Scoop. I lucky got to go down Friday evening. Parking is marked on the opposite side of the street of the venue. As we walked up the food trucks were feeding the masses. We entered the main door, here you purchase the entrance fee as make your way in. Right inside is a couple vendors and a bar where you can wet your whistle. From here you climb a couple flights of steps and enter a room full of magic. Here the magic is made by multiple vendors that are all local. There was everything you can imagine. Beautiful hand made jewellery, soaps, music, clothes, food, coffee, wood products and more and more. The vendors change a little bit with talking with a few I can see they all like the inside venue. It had great light add even a sky light. I think I'll be visiting this market again.

Saturday was my first Legit Local Market, and I loved it…read more. It was also my first time at the Barnum Factory which is an incredible space for an event like this! Lots of local hand made and crafty type vendors, selling goods and have a good time.. Records playing, free coffee brewing, and artist talking shop.. I rolled in with my son who is 2 and he loved running around seeing all booths full of unique and local items from local businesses that might not have a store front! There was a bar, there was a food truck, there was plenty to buy and to see! Awesome bi-annual local event that truly shows the local love!

I won a gift card from a local business and came here on a Sunday morning with my family. My sister…read moreand hubby had fun going through the maze, even though they were rebels and didn't go through in the correct numbered order. There was a scavenger hunt that you could do as you went along as well. There was a small shop that had cider, cocoa, popcorn, hot dogs, nachos, and sweets. It was really a nice feature because sadly I didn't get the make it through the maze due to a recent injury. We had fun watching them feed bad pumpkins to the cows, which are right by the store and we picked out a few pumpkins to take home. There are a few other activities that are scattered throughout the property to do.

Of the Asian festivals in Iowa, this one definitely blows the competition out of the water…read more Celebrasian is a 2-day event hosted by the Iowa Asian Alliance that takes place in downtown Des Moines at Western Gateway Park at the end of May. There is free admission to the event as well as free parking. It features many food and product vendors, a variety of free entertainment, and activities for kids. The event space is divided into different 'villages' that feature food and cultural activities from various Asian cultures including Filipino, Tai Dam, Hmong, Karen, Nepalese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Cambodian, and more. Entertainment featured everything from live music, traditional cultural dances, strolling by an Asian American Greek organization, scholarship pageant, and open karaoke. Aside from entertainment, the event also boasts a table tennis tournament as well as a takraw tournament and demonstrations. Takraw is a sport popular in SE Asia that uses a rattan ball and is somewhat similar to volleyball except you use your feet to play. One con about the food vendors this year is that a lot of the vendors seemed to have very similar food (every other booth had crab rangoons, I swear) and there weren't a lot of vegetarian friendly options. Prices for food varied and so did sizes. A lot of the things there were more 'snacky' but there were some meal sized options as well. Basically food and drinks ranged anywhere from $1 - $10, but I thought I got my money's worth in terms of what I ate. Over the course of the two days I ate: pork adobo with rice ($5), Hmong sausage with sticky rice ($8), turon ($1/ea), lumpia ($1/ea), sugar cane juice ($5), and durian boba ($5). The Hmong sausage with sticky rice was a close second for my favorite food I ate, but my favorite was definitely the turon -- when are we ever getting a Filipino restaurant in Iowa!? Despite the heat and the rain I had a good time this year. Overall, I love this event and will continue to come back and support it every year as long as I'm in Iowa.

A festival I look forward to every year but this year, I was rather bored. Came Friday after work…read morewith a huge appetite due to the variety of food options. The entertainment was screeching and nothing like the previous years. Even the festival goers seemed bored. Normally, the green grass is full of families enjoying the entertainment while eating but the grass seemed empty. Not sure if it was the heat or the rain that kept people away but I wasn't too impressed with the festivities. Hopefully, next year, there will be some freshness to keep it alive and strong.

This is a small children's museum located within the Valley West Mall. We visited on a Saturday…read moremorning and the shopping mall had very little foot traffic. In fact, it looked like there were several empty stores. The children's museum has play areas with different themes. There was a fishing boat, pizza company, house, ice cream parlor, farmer's market, and chicken coop. It is ideal for children under 7 years old and a good option for a rainy day.

We opted for the DSM children's museum as a road trip break a few weekends ago. It was a great spot…read moreto stop and get our wiggles out. I appreciate that they have a designated snack area where we were able to enjoy some lunches we'd packed. They had plenty of differing play spaces for the kids - a cute little ice cream truck, a parachute/wind experiment , light play, climbing areas, post office and libraries for pretend play, etc. Overall, for our 2&3 y/o it was plenty of activity and excitement for an hour or two. But I gotta say, when you hold it up against the Omaha Children's Museum, it falls a little short. For starters, it's just one large room divided up into little sections along the walls and in the middle of varying types of play. In addition, there's a decent amount of the supplies and props that just seem to be lower quality. Again, my toddlers certainly did not mind any of these changes but sure how well it would hold an older child's attention.