One side effect of me switching to a smaller car without a third row is that trips like this can be problematic. Our girls bitch when they have to ride 10 minutes to dinner three-across in the back seat. Eight-ish hours was going to be a shitshow. We decided that the expense of renting a van was worth the reduction in bitching and increase in comfort for all. That was a good call. Plenty of room for our bags, the girls weren\u2019t on top of each other, and we got pretty solid fuel mileage.<\/p>\n
Speaking of fuel, it saddened us that the father we got from Indy, the more the price of gas fell. I mean, it was good for this trip. But sucks that it reinforced the reality that Indiana typically has some of the highest gas prices outside of California.[1]<\/a> Anyway, when I bought gas in Lawrence on Friday, I was paying a full dollar less per gallon than in Indy. Joy.<\/p>\n OK, onto the trip itself. Some of you know many of these details but I\u2019ll go ahead and act like no one knows nothing.<\/p>\n We mixed things up and stayed at the Hampton Inn near the Power & Light District rather than on the Plaza. We haven\u2019t ever checked out downtown on any of our trips other than driving through, so it was cool to see the many changes that have taken place down there in the 19 years since we moved to Indy. The streetcar stop was directly below our room. More on that later.<\/p>\n Thursday night we met my aunt and uncle for dinner at Parlor<\/a>. The food we sampled from the various vendors ranged from ok to very good. When I walked to the bar to order our first drinks, I scanned the QR code to pull up the drink menu. The bartender said that if I was a quick chooser I had two minutes to still get happy hour prices. I asked her if she had anything local. She began to rattle off the list and when she said \u201cBoulevard Unfiltered Wheat\u201d I said, \u201cTwo please!\u201d <\/p>\n As she poured them she commented how Boulevard really isn\u2019t local anymore since they got bought out awhile back. This very nice looking young woman sitting at the bar next to me shook her head and said, \u201cThey\u2019re sellouts.\u201d <\/p>\n Oh my! <\/p>\n I asked that they not hold it against me and took my beers and fled.<\/p>\n Friday was our KU campus visit. This was my first trip back to Lawrence in 12 years, and only my second in 19+ years. Which seems crazy. It\u2019s just hard to carve out a day in Lawrence when we have generally taken these quick trips to KC and are trying to see as many people as possible in a compressed time frame. <\/p>\n I honestly don\u2019t remember the last time I took I–70 to Lawrence. It\u2019s been well over 20 years, for sure. The girls were totally confused by the concept of toll roads.<\/p>\n We arrived on campus a little early, so I drove by a couple of my old apartments and then we hit the bookstore to scout out possible purchases for after the tour. M quickly piped up, \u201cKU has way better shirts than anywhere we\u2019ve been so far.\u201d Score one for the Jayhawks! She was right. I think the KU bookstore had more shirts than the IU and Purdue bookstores combined.<\/p>\n The KU admissions presentation was outstanding. M agreed with me that it was the best of the six we\u2019ve been to, so it wasn\u2019t just a biased KU alum\u2019s opinion. Most of that was because of the guy who was leading the presentation. He was great, funny and full of personality. He was a stark contrast to the lady who presented at IU last Monday, who basically read from a script and overused the word \u201cbeautiful.\u201d KU really hits hard on being an AAU accredited school, and that got M\u2019s attention. I told her IU and Purdue are also AAU schools, so that means KU has many of the academic benefits of those schools without the sheer size. In many ways it is the perfect blend of a Big 10 school and Miami, Ohio.<\/p>\n Between the shirts, our peeks at campus, the presentation, and the fat chunk of scholarship money M\u2019s grades qualify her for, she was professing some interest. I\u2019ll admit while I thought it was a long shot, I was getting excited about her at least applying.<\/p>\n Then we took the tour. <\/p>\n Listen, it was nasty hot and humid. It was a Friday late in the tour cycle. Our entire group seemed a little low energy. But the tour kind of sucked. Our guide wasn\u2019t very good, he skipped some of the best parts of campus, we didn\u2019t go inside a single building, and he did more telling than showing about the things that make KU an interesting option. <\/p>\n The tour walked out to a stopping point where families could grab a bus that would take them to stops at professional schools if they had appointments, dorm tours if scheduled, and eventually back to the Union where we started. We waited around for about five minutes and decided to hoof it back rather than wait, as everyone was getting hungry. I think the walk up the Hill in the heat extinguished any interest M had in KU. We were all dripping when we got back up to Wescoe beach.<\/p>\n On the way to the Union I walked us through the main part of campus the tour had missed. M said, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t he take us here? This is awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n Unbelievable. <\/p>\n I also corrected a few \u201cfacts\u201d our guide had wrong. He was a nice enough kid and I\u2019m hoping he was just off his game Friday.<\/p>\n In M\u2019s welcome bag was a 20% off the entire purchase<\/strong> at the KU Bookstore, so we did some shopping. I was in heaven, but only walked out with a couple stickers. They had some amazing gear but I have purchased like eight KU shirts already this year. The girls all got nice sweatshirts, though.<\/p>\n So I don\u2019t think M will be a Jayhawk. But L is interested so maybe we\u2019ll try again in four years!<\/p>\n My brain was literally cramping last week trying to come up with a place to eat lunch while in Lawrence. Which of my old favorites should I hit? I reached the point of mental paralysis and consulted with brother in Jayhawkdom E$, who suggested the Ladybird Diner<\/a>. This was a brilliant rec: the food and environment were fantastic. If you\u2019re ever in LFK, you should stop by.<\/p>\n After lunch we did some more driving around and then made the pilgrimage to Allen Fieldhouse. This was my only misstep of the day. I didn\u2019t research how to partake in all the new exhibits at the Fieldhouse. I figured you just walk into the building and you\u2019ll see everything. They do have the little museum display in the main entrance. But the main part of AFH was closed off, so the girls couldn\u2019t see the court. I assumed this meant the area with the original rules of basketball was also off limits for the day. It wasn\u2019t until that evening that I read those are in a whole other building that may well have been open. L was bummed she didn\u2019t see the court, but we did get to see the latest national championship trophy.<\/p>\n On our way out of town we swung by the house I lived in for two years, aka The Big Yellow House. Which is now brown. If you know, you know. Naturally there was an accident at 23rd and Mass when we were there. We used to call 911 at least once a week because of accidents there. Some things never change.<\/p>\n Friday night the Murray family graciously hosted many of you. It was great to see all of you who were able to make it.<\/p>\n Saturday morning we took the streetcar up to the River Market. I ate many lunches and dinners in the River Market in my adult KC years. But I don\u2019t think I had been to the farmers market since I was a little kid. It was fabulous! I remarked at how when I was a kid it was pretty much all local Italian vendors. I did hear one old lady speaking some Italian Saturday. I was amazed by how many world cultures were represented in the area now. A Vietnamese place. A Thai place. The spice store with all kinds of exotic, wonderful smelling spices on display. Vendors selling all kinds of Asian and Latin foods. Good for KC.<\/p>\n We took the streetcar back down to Union Station and walked around there a bit. I showed the girls the bullet holes that remain from the Kansas City Massacre<\/a>. I found that more interesting than they did.<\/p>\n A few weeks back M said it would be funny if we went to the Taco Bell I worked at in Raytown on our visit. That jogged my memory that I had read about a really good barbecue place that was right around the corner. We met the Nesbitt family and Stacey B at Harp Barbecue<\/a> for lunch. Sure enough, the old TB building was still there, although now it is a Chinese takeout place. M asked if that was the actual building I worked in. Hell yes, it was! All it had was a new coat of paint.<\/p>\n Harp\u2019s was terrific. I had the burnt ends which were top notch. The sides were solid. The rest of the family had pulled pork which they all approved of. The beer from Crane Brewery<\/a> was good, too. A little oasis of culture in a town not always known for that.<\/p>\n After lunch I drove the girls by the three houses we lived in, my old high and elementary schools, and numerous car washes I used. We popped into a CVS and the girls were disappointed I didn\u2019t buy any of the RHS swag they were selling.<\/p>\n After our Raytown sojourn, we headed to the Plaza for the obligatory shopping trip. It was sales tax free weekend in Missouri, which made the stores extra packed. Not the most fun on a day when the heat index was something like 107.<\/p>\n While on the Plaza I got stopped by a guy who was with Amnesty International trying to hit me up for a donation. I interrupted him and thanked him but said we were late to meet someone. That shut him down. I turned and there was a red light greeting me. So we just stood there awkwardly until it changed to green. The girls were trying to sustain their giggles the entire time.[2]<\/a> <\/p>\n For dinner Saturday we met the Vogel family. Our first choice was going to have trouble seating us so we bopped down the street and went to Carmen\u2019s<\/a>. It was a great meal with great friends. As much as I miss the Plaza, I think Brookside is the part of Kansas City I miss most. We just don\u2019t have an area like that in Indy. Everything that is similar is either just a couple notches bigger or smaller and lacks that special Brookside feel.<\/p>\n That was our weekend in Kansas City. Other than the heat and not getting into see Allen Fieldhouse, I have zero complaints. I think the girls all enjoyed it as well. <\/p>\n This is mostly due to our gas coming from refineries to the north, which increases the transportation cost to get that gas to us. Plus those refineries are old and both constantly shutting down for repairs and under some more significant environmental restrictions. ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\nThursday<\/h3>\n
Friday – KU<\/h3>\n
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