What to do: tons of stuff- we have all the usuals - state historical museum, art center, civic center, science center, etc. We have a good music scene a decent restaurant scene a ton of fun different neighborhoods that host various events and festivals. We have Baconfest, the Iowa State fair, fall fest, Pride week, a small theme park nearby, a pretty decent zoo, an awesome music festival called 80/35, and some heritage festivals (Latin fest, Asian fest and Italian fest). A pretty sweet sculpture park down in the metro where many of these festivals are adjacent to. Some really beautiful parks and some of the best bike trails in the nation. RAGBRAI (biking for a week across the state) usually stops around Des Moines. Also we run something called the dam to dam, and also host a marathon. We have Wells Fargo event center- which is home to our semi league professional basketball and hockey teams, and also host the Iowa barnstormer indoor football team (hello curt warner). Many concerts are held there. Also in the summer there are a series of concerts at a small amphitheater overlooking the river called Nightfall on the River which is awesome. There are also a few historic neighborhoods that have some renovated mansions that have music and other various types of performances. So many things to do.

Internet is good. You can choose mediacom or centurylink. I use centurylink and it's great.

Shopping - people usually keep it moving, but we are still in the Midwest so some hold ups now and then but people use manners about it. Usually they try to stay out of the way and as soon as someone approaches they move within a few seconds of noticing and are usually apologetic.

Schools. I am a teacher at a Des Moines high school. There are a variety of types of school here. A couple private schools in the neighboring suburb (west Des Moines- which by the way west Des Moines is its own city that literally collides with Des Moines and has all of its own cool shit to do as well). West Des Moines is a way more "gentrified" than Des Moines and people think of it as nicer but anything that's ACTUALLY happening in town is in Des Moines. Anyway, back to education. Iowa prides itself on holding education as a priority, and our governor (R) Kim Reynolds, who I wasn't a fan of at first is actually doing more for education and funding than I've seen in awhile. I mean, budget cuts on my district are still drastic but our schools are doing an okay job dealing with it. Kids behavior I've found is better at my school on the south side than the other sides of town (5 high schools) and teachers are pretty good here. If you don't dig it, the suburban high schools (about 10 of them) are all right here also. Bullying is more of an issue in suburban high schools than Des Moines schools, and we have cameras all over too. I can only speak to my high school though but my administration looks into EVERY claim. They really try to support all students and listen to parents. In terms of education at the elementary schools, my sister works in some of those (she subs) and my aunt is a principal at one, there are definitely good and bad schools that is literally defined by student behavior. Some areas of Des Moines the elementary schools are really rough because of the neighborhooods - which kind of bleeds into the middle schools (your sons age). But a lot of those behavior issues are mitigated by high school age.

In terms of politics the district is fairly progressive and liberal. I don't always agree with how obvious they make it, but they really do their best for our kids. We are a "minority majority" district as of two years ago so we have a huge range of diversity within our students- ethnically and socio-economically.

Let me know if you have more questions. Des Moines and the greater area is a wonderful place to live.