my brother is one of those people who likes to research new and different restaurants. if he picks the place to eat you never know what you are going to get ... if i pick ... welp it's one of three choices that we've all eaten at a million times. awhile ago he took my parents to a german restaurant in downtown des moines for lunch.
how i got to a bar ...
my parents gave me a call and wondered if i wanted to join them in des moines sat night. they were planning to go out to eat with two other couples who had been family friends for a long time ... one had moved away and the other was still in harlan. that sounded fun so i agreed. i was planning to go home friday and come back to ames sat night which would have me go straight though des moines anyway.
the reason we are all hoarse ...
we ended up going to the same german restaurant they had been to once before. it's called the hessen haus .... central iowa's only authentic german beer hall. we get there at 6:30 and find the only open table ... right under the loudest speaker in the place. it was pretty funny but we found ourselves yelling the whole night and cracking jokes about why the old people have to sit under the loudest speaker in the place.
conversations in the bathroom ...
they are famous for this huge boot shaped mug of beer. when my dad went to the bathroom he came back with a story of all the young guys in the bathroom were trying to get him to take the boot drinking challenge .... he simply said he was too old. i think one beer was enough for my dad since he probably drinks 2 a year (it is only feb).
well then i went to the bathroom (it's probably 8:30-9:00 by now)... and you have to walk the whole length of the restaurant to get there. when i came out of the stall i started washing my hands and this woman who was in her upper 20s kept staring at me and didn't go into the open stall i had just vacated. seemed a bit odd, but just keep washing your hands and then get out no prob. she looked at me and said "i actually came in here to talk to you." i'm in trouble now. what did i do? she pulls out a business card and said she was from the des moines women's rugby team and they saw me walk by and thought i would be good at running and hitting people. i asked a few questions and she took me out to meet the captain or something who when she saw me she said "that's our girl!" they asked me to hang out, but i said my party was probably about ready to leave (little did i know we were going to be there another hour).
so i made it back to the old people's table by the door and shared my story ... the guys decided i needed to bulk up (like 120 pounds which i thought would just be flabby not bulky) and the women thought it would have been super funny if i would have went to the bathroom with my mom or if the rugby girls would leave and see me sitting at a table with my parents and their friends and perhaps they would rethink their decision to invite me to play. it was interesting ... if it was in ames instead of des moines i think i would actually think about it.
all in all we had a blast. we all agreed 1. it was a bit quieter in that place when my bro took them there at noon 2. we should do this more often (and i reminded them not to forget the young one when they planned the next outing) 3. none of us had laughed that much in quite some time and we were due for a good laugh
