Kansas City, March 2008

We've been encouraged by family members and friends to take time to enjoy life as a married couple without kids (and the freedom that goes with that) before May when we become parents for good, and there's no going back. One way we decided to follow their advice was by taking a weekend trip over my spring break. Thursday evening we had no plans other than a rough destination: Kansas City. Friday morning we woke up (without an alarm--yet another thing we're going to enjoy while we can), packed, and started driving.

Our Spring Break trip this year started off with some great Vietnamese food. To break up the drive, we stopped at A Dong, which is in downtown Des Moines, for lunch. I had read about the restaurant recently, and we found it's location with the help of a friend's trusty GPS unit. A Dong's has authentic food and great service. It's a restaurant that makes me wish we had real Asian food in Cedar Rapids.

By mid-afternoon, we had checked into our hotel in Kansas City, which we had reserved late the previous night using our goldpointsplus program. (We don't remember how we earned the points, since we haven't stayed in any hotels by this chain in the past year, and we thought we had used all our points last year...but hey! We'll take a free hotel room!) By the way, the hotel was brand new, and therefore, clean and quiet. It also had the best continental breakfast I've ever seen at a hotel. Friday evening we splurged and went to The Majestic Steakhouse in downtown Kansas City. The building is touted as a historic landmark--I think it used to be a bordello or speakeasy in the 30s...don't tell Mom. :) Gotta love history.

After dinner, we hit one of the top spots on our list of things to see: The American Jazz Museum/ The Blue Room. I loved seeing pictures of jazz giants (and not so giants) line the walls--everyone from Dizzy to Duke. The atmosphere was fun and clean. Have you ever heard of a non-smoking jazz spot? The music was lively and fun. Ida McBeth was the main attraction for the evening. And the company was pleasant. I could have stayed longer...if I wasn't pregnant and used to a teacher's early alarm clock. Overall, it was an enjoyable evening of good food, good music, and good company.

Saturday we again woke up without an alarm, ate a fantastic continental breakfast (Are you getting the sense that food is very important to this pregnant lady right now?) , and headed out for a day at the museums. We started out at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. While Luke was more excited about this museum than I was going into the day, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed touring the museum. I found out how much I remembered from high school history and how much I learned by preparing for several units I teach now. I was amazed by all the interconnected politics during this time as well as the magnitude of the number of people, cultures, nations, and government philosophies involved. While WWI raged in Europe, Americans were making waves in areas of civil rights, jazz music, baseball, birth control, and entertainment. While the world was focused on the Western Front in Europe, Turkey was massacring Armenians. While the Allies denounced Germany for its imperialism, they were quick to divy up and claim nations they gained by winning the war and to award German colonies to Japan (who was seeking to increase its land size, resources and power during this time--just like Germany). While America allied itself with Russia, they also fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. These are some brief, and rough, thoughts, so please pardon broad generalizations and inaccuracies for the time being. Maybe I'll write a separate post about the WWI museum sometime.

After touring the museum itself, we were able to see a good view of the Kansas City skyline and Union Station, where we headed next. While we didn't actually see any of the "pay per view" attractions at Union Station (Science City, IMAX, etc.), we did see a gigantic model train station and a bisection of life in Kansas City. Union Station serves as an Amtrak station, post office, and tourist attraction all at once.

Saturday evening we enjoyed Kansas City BBQ at Arthur Bryant's, a local Kansas City BBQ chain, gawked at (real) stuffed animals in Cabela's (which Luke was excited about), and took the opportunity to remember some ways that God has blessed us this past year (getting pregnant, traveling to Czech Republic, backpacking in the Rockies, providing ways for me to stay physically active during the winter, participating in our church's capital campaign, enjoying my job a lot, making the decision not to teach school next year...). Sunday we drove home in time to enjoy our church's evening Easter service. On the way, we were able to add one more way that God has provided abundantly more than we deserve. Just after we passed a semi on northbound I-35, we saw the truck swerve, tip, slide, and block both lanes. What if we had been one second behind that semi, instead of one second ahead? Lord, thanks for this day of life that you've given us. You have blessed us abundantly.