I’m lucky enough to work in a building connected to the skywalk in Des Moines and this week I’ve really used it. For 20-30 minutes a day I go and walk around downtown without ever having to go outside, which is great because it’s been really hot here and I don’t want to stink up my office!
The Des Moines skywalk connects several buildings downtown and has four miles of skywalk. I just walk from my office to Court Avenue and a little extra, which ends up being just over a mile. I also walk up and down the stairs from the 9th floor where my office is to the 2nd floor where the skywalk starts. By the time I run back up the stairs to my desk I’m pretty tuckered!
The skywalk means a lot to me, which might seem strange to some people but there is a reason. Growing up my mom worked downtown in Capital Square, which is a center for the skywalk. Whenever I got out of school early or had a day off my dad would bring me downtown to meet my mom for lunch. It was such a special thing for me. We would go to Carlton Cards, which used to have a ton of Hello Kitty stuff (I love Hello Kitty) and eat at the Kaleidoscope food court. Those are some of my favorite memories growing up as a kid and I thought the skywalk was so cool, even though they kind of made me nervous and sick.
My mom used to walk on her lunch break in the skywalk too, so when I’m walking I think a lot about her and what it means to work downtown. It’s weird to imagine that this little girl who used to be afraid to walk through the halls of the skywalk is now walking through them every day.
We all become our mothers in some respect, which is so great!