A glimpse at the Pella town square
I’ve been meaning to write something about our new town for a few months now—we moved from Des Moines to Pella, which is a town of about 10,000 located about an hour to the southeast of the big city, in May. The town is known for its Dutch ancestry (it was settled in 1847 by 800 Dutch immigrants), Tulip Time (a yearly festival celebrating the flowers and all things Dutch), Dutch letters (an “S”-shaped pastry filled with almond paste), and the immaculately kept, and quaint, town square. And while I never expected to live in a small town again, I have to admit that I am really liking this place.
Here are some highlights of life here now.
Exploring the sprinklers in the garden next door
We live next to the immaculate and well-tended Scholte Gardens. Henry Peter Scholte was one of the founders of the town and the garden is filled to the brim with tulips during May (and annuals during the rest of the year). Everyone knows exactly where our house is when we mention that we live next to the garden. It’s pretty amazing to have so much green space behind our house—especially since we don’t have to take care of it!
It is immensely better to live 5 minutes from my husband’s office than an hour from it as we used to. Our home life feels more balanced and sane. Linden sees her dad all the time. We actually get to be part of the college community and go to events (we recently included a party in the college garden where we got to watch, and taste, honey being harvested!). Weekends feel like weekends.
Running around the town square
I forgot how nice it is to be able to walk places. We are only a block (or maybe technically it’s only a half a block) from the town square. Which means that we can walk to the hardware store, the bank, two coffee shops, an ice cream place, two bakeries, two meat markets, and all sorts of specialty shops. It’s old-fashioned and charming, and the town square is a really fun place for a toddler to explore.
A favorite trail at Lake Red Rock
We’re close to Lake Red Rock, which has bike trails which are nice for walking with the stroller, and to Big Rock Park, a town park that has possibly the most poorly marked trail system of any park I’ve been in lately. Still, it’s close by, very woodsy, and not really big enough that I could ever get really lost. (If you go too far in any direction you either hit houses or cornfields:)
Spice cookies from Jaarsma
I was very worried about the transition to liberal Des Moines to a town that is known for being religious and conservative, but everyone has been super friendly and welcoming. Plus, we’re in Des Moines at least once a week (if not more) for a music class and for errands, so big city amenities are not too hard to come by. Overall, I find the day-to-day pace of life now to fit us so very well.
Isn’t it amazing how quickly a new place can feel like home?