Things to Do in Urbandale

At Nova Cinema, cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike nosh on popcorn while watching first-run movies projected on full-size silver screens. Nova Cinema’s selection of talkies changes weekly, with current high-octane thrillers, family flicks, and love stories showing seven days of the week. Recent selections include The Hunger Games, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, _ and _Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, as well as 21 Jump Street, a coming of age story about street signs learning to conquer their fear of heights.

Kris Larrison has been teaching fitness classes for more than 20 years, in addition to being an avid runner. "After years of running, and running competitively, your body starts breaking down a little bit," she says. "Yoga was good for me to get into."

And though there were only a few yoga studios in the area, there wasn't a single hot-yoga studio around—so she opened the first. Classes started out in the basement of a building, and often there were only one or two people. Kris didn't mind; she was doing it for fun. But, as she says, "word got out" and the business grew. As classes swelled to 30 people packed into the small space, she decided to open a larger storefront studio.

Today, she has a crew of certified instructors who lead classes in the hot-yoga studio, which runs from 95 to 104 degrees. Why the heat? In addition to increasing flexibility, helping detoxify the body through sweat, and helping home-brought dragon eggs to hatch, heat increases yoga's cardiovascular benefits. "You get that oxygen into the blood a lot better with the heat," Kris says. In addition to hot yoga, Kris has a studio dedicated to hot barre classes. Using a ballet barre to help everyone go higher and lower, classes do motions such as lunges and squats. The heat, she says, "kicks it up a little bit."

For Kris, the most rewarding thing has been seeing her studio foster relationships; because it's more of a boutique studio, rather than a large health club, people get to know one another. "It's very rewarding to see people come in after a year or so of practicing, and see how much they've accomplished, and how much stronger they are," she says.

Sticks sprung from humble origins when, in 1992, Sarah Grant began carving ornaments and candlesticks from birch, poplar, and driftwood in a small studio in Des Moines. As her work began to attract national interest and demand for it grew, Sarah enlisted the aid of other local artists and expanded her inventory to include handcrafted heirloom-quality furniture, whimsical sculptures, and intricate keepsakes.

Today, the artists’ work is showcased in more than 100 galleries across the country. Their installation projects have even decorated the walls of Blank Children’s Hospital, the Animal Rescue League of Central Iowa, and the student center at Iowa State University.

Sticks artists can often be spotted by the shores of local rivers, gathering driftwood for their work. They assemble the wood into custom-designed tables, beds, and armoires within their spacious, light-filled studio before painting them with colorful, whimsical designs, from smiling suns and moons to lush landscapes. The versatile artists even take their tools and paintbrushes to homes, businesses, and underground mad-scientist labs to craft custom art installations and interiors.

Brenton Skating Plaza's outdoor ice-skating rink is comprised of a 120'x60' sheet of ice that can hold up to 220 skaters. There, skaters—equipped with one of 450 pairs of skates available for rent—can cut lines through the ice in the open air, surrounded by all-glass boards. Throughout the season, which stretches from November to March, the rink hosts skating lessons, broomball games, and public skating.

Since 2007, foodies have flocked to Iowa's Premier Beer, Wine & Food Expo each year to check out food and drink booths, watch cooking demonstrations, and meet chefs. Guests explore more than 100 booths filled with samples of wines, food, and cheeses they may purchase and store at a complimentary drop-off location until they’re ready to leave. Expo-goers may also enjoy cooking demonstrations and meet-and-greet sessions with nationally recognized celebrity guests, including Food Network’s Dr. BBQ and Goose Island Beer Company–founder John Hall. Not to be outdone, local chefs share the secret techniques, ingredients, and facial expressions they use to make popular regional dishes.

"This is an art party—not an art class," cautions Glazed Expressions on its canvas-class page. The classes' genial atmosphere, upbeat music, and frequent BYOB options aren't the only things that turn these educational courses into rollicking celebrations, either. Rather than teaching the dry topics of theory and composition, instructors at each art-filled get-together simply guide painters through the steps required to re-create the image chosen for the session. Though all of the paintings end up looking essentially the same, each painter's individual creativity still comes through, whether in the shape of a tree branch, the hue of an ocean wave, or the size of Anne Boleyn's neck tattoo.