DAY 8

Our first appointment today was with a professor in the political science department at the University of Iowa. We had a great conversation with him covering topics that ranged from the Iowa Caucuses to the Electoral College. At one point during the interview, he mentioned that one of his colleagues in the computer science department has been doing a lot of research on the prospects and pitfalls of electronic voting. So, after our first interview, we walked over to the computer science department to see if we could speak with the electronic voting specialist. Not only did he agree to meet with us, we ended up interviewing him for nearly an hour!

Following our morning of successful interviews, we made a quick visit to the Prairie Lights Bookstore and then to the Atlas Café for lunch. We needed to catch up on some research, so we spent some time at Java House where the Wi-Fi is free and the graffiti in the women’s restroom reads like one continuous political debate.

After a few more man-on-the-street interviews, we decided to head for Chicago. We made a hotel reservation at a Hampton Inn in Skokie – close enough for convenience but half the price of downtown – and then started talking about dinner. That’s when we remembered Green Zebra, a new vegetarian restaurant that received a rave review in The New York Times a few months ago. Lila called to make a reservation – and to ask for directions from Iowa. Owner Sue Kim-Drohomyrecky not only gave us perfect directions, she also called us shortly before our arrival time to make sure that we didn’t get lost in the city. The restaurant was packed when we arrived at 9:30. I don’t know whether it was our long-distance reservation that made the difference, but we were treated like honored guests the whole evening. The food was delectable. We shared several tapas-style plates. Each dish possessed a distinct personality: apparently simple compositions effusing intense flavors. Our favorite was the mezze luna ravioli, which were filled with white corn and mascarpone and dressed with white beets and a riesling reduction.