Kansas City

Hello from Denver Colorado!!

I spent the last night here in the the mile high city.  What a place!  I haven't seen too much of it because we drove in after dark.  We spent the previous two nights in Kansas City, Kansas and what an experience it was!

I have flown over the country three times, once to San Francisco and twice to San Diego.  I was younger and petrified, as I still am, of flying.  I can't remember exactly what I was doing on those 5 or 6 hour flights, but I'm sure that most of it had to do with annoying my older sister and paying absolutely no attention to what we were flying over.  These past few days gave me a chance to explore and learn about a part of the country I had never thought about before.  

We stayed with Steph's aunt Trish and Uncle Keith.  Her aunt is retired from the Hallmark corporation and her uncle is a photo historian.  There home was in the suburbs, or "burbs" as I soon learned it was referred to, but was not too far from the city.  Filled with art and generosity, their home provided us a much needed rest stop.  It was such a big difference being in a nice residential home compared to a hotel room with a broken toilet in the outskirts of Chicago!

The first night we ate a great salad with some local greens and chicken with grilled asparagus.  Wonderful!  I especially liked the "slow food" atmosphere.  Even after we finished, we sat at the table for what seemed like an hour and talked.  That night I crashed and slept like a rock, much needed after 8 hours in the car.

The next day was a great day in Kansas City.  In the upper 80s with all blue sky, it was the perfect day to explore the city.  Trish and Keith took us to a museum exhibiting artifacts recovered from a steam boat, The Arabia, that was found in the late 80s in the Kansas City area.  It was a project conducted by 5 men who had no prior experience in Archaeology but had a high passion for adventure and preserving the community.  The museum had what seemed like thousands of artifacts from the pre civil war period.  The men and women who work at the museum even claimed that it had the most pre civil war artifacts in the world!  Either way, it was great to see.  

After the museum we walked briefly at an outdoor market filled with venders selling local produce, flowers, and crafts- very similar to a farmers market.  We then ate lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant that seemed like a hole in the wall but served delicious Vietnamese food that was authentic and filled with fantastic flavor.  After lunch and a short stop at a shoe store, we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  

Keith is a director of fine arts at the museum and it was great to have him there to explain the different pieces and point out works I might not otherwise pay attention to.  The museum is divided in a very tasteful manner between the old museum, created in the 30s, and the new part of the museum, created in 2007.  The museum was, quite simply, amazing.  I would not have had the same experience without Keith and Trish there to guide me and help me understand the significance of different works.  We also saw a photo exhibit of Homer Page which was created and organized by Keith.  Fascinating works and again, I had never heard of Homer Page before but was very happy to learn about a new artist from an authority.  

After the museum we went to an Irish Pub so I could taste some local beer.  I had the Boulevard Brewing Company's IPA and it was crisp, smooth, and full of well nurtured hopps.  It was a fantastic beer and wonderful pit stop in the middle of Kansas City's downtown area.  

That night we had another wonderful meal of salad and pasta.  The pasta had local garlic which I was happy to help Trish prepare.  Another slow food meal, with what I thought was an even longer conversation after the dinner.  Next was a nights rest, then a breakfast with Trish and Keith and a long drive to Denver, Colorado.  

I need to emphasize here at the end of this post the importance of generosity.  On this road trip, I've found that generosity has been the difference between a comfortable trip with little to worry about, and a road trip with nothing to worry about.  In Chicago we organized our own lodging, food, and transportation.  With Trish and Keith, I can't recall ever worrying about anything.  Everything was taken care of and it was this generosity that helped create a much more comfortable stay in Kansas City.  

Looking back on my preconceived notions of what Kansas City had to offer, I'm lucky to have been able to stay with Trish and Keith who showed me that despite what you think a place is about, or what it has to offer, generosity can help draw out the full potential of any place, or anything.  As we move forward on this road trip, generosity is one characteristic that I want to carry with me not only on this trip but for long after it is over as well.