I know I am starting to sound like a travel blog with all my posts about Kansas City. This is, however, where I currently reside after moving hither and yon for the last forty years. Over the long Labor Day weekend we stayed in town and had a KC vacation.
Kansas City is known for a lot of different things. Usually out-of-towners bring up the barbecue (KC style not to be confused with Texas style). There is a history of jazz and blues which is still visible in the area of town around 18th and Vine. While New Orleans is considered the birthplace of jazz, it is said that it grew up in KC when in 1929 Count Basie signed on with Benie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra.
As one of the inhabitants of KC, I will tell you one of the prettiest areas of town is the area around the Country Club Plaza. This area was the first shopping center that was created to allow for people to come by automobile. JC Nichols started acquiring the land for the Plaza in 1907. The construction started in 1922 patterned after the architechture of Seville, Spain. The 55 acre Plaza houses retail stores, offices, apartments, condos, churches, entertainment venues and upper scale houses.
We decided to stay in town over the Labor Day weekend. As you know we went to the KC Zoo on Thursday and on Friday checked into the Raphael Hotel on the Country Club Plaza. (Note: Grandboys weren't invited on this part of the vacation)
Going in...later there was a string quartet set up here playing
music.
The Raphael is a historic boutique hotel that overlooks Brush Creek. It was built in 1927 as apartments before becoming a hotel in 1975.
The Lobby
There were flowers waiting for us in our suite. Very nice!!!
Our room overlooked the Plaza
Walking out of the hotel over to the shops/restaurants
I just thought she was cute.
The JC Nichols Fountain
Leaving the fountain, heading for the restaurant
Do you notice that I am usually lollygagging behind Mr. Longlegs
McCormick and Schmicks restaurant
This is the way up to the restaurant
Heading back to the hotel
Thought #2 Who said it wouldn't last?
Forty years ago on September 4th 1971, two teenagers decided to get married. Not spur of the moment or anything as they got engaged a year and a half before that. Still it took parents to sign papers as teens need permission to get married if you were under the age of twenty-one.
Yes, husband and I got engaged while he was in the Army and I was still in high school. A year and half later we got married. Two and a half years after that we could legally drink.
Happy 40th Anniversary to US!!!
The Good for the Day....Proved all the nay sayers wrong. We are still going strong.
The Bad for the Day...Husband's mom signed for us to get married but is no longer around to appreciate that we are still together.
The Weird for the Day....After we were married a couple of years and I was approaching 21...it was not so very far off.... but not there yet. We got kicked out of a bar. I wasn't even drinking as we were expecting our first baby, but still I got carded and ousted.
Come Join Top Sites Tuesday and be #1 on BlogDumps!
The purpose of this Meme is to encourage
Networking between bloggers and to have fun while doing it!
Make sure to visit all the other participants and leave comments
I don't think the zoo that Dr. Suess was talking about in his book "If I Ran the Zoo" was the Kansas City Zoo but who am I to say....maybe it was.
It's a pretty good Zoo, Said young Gerald McGrew, And the Fellow that runs it, Seems proud of it too.
by Dr. Seuss
As well, he should be!!!
Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer or so the Kansas City news stations keep reminding us. It doesn't feel like summer is winding down as it is 102 degrees today but none the less we are off to see the zoo before the colder (ahhh that sounds good) sets in.
Last Thursday, husband and I decided to take our two grandsons out of school (these used to be called daycares until the powers-that-be decided parents were more willing to be charged more for "education")
for the day and go on an outing to the zoo.
First stop is the Aquatic animals...hello Mr. Polar Bear.
He is heading our way to say hi.
He is coming right over to the glass to get a good look at us.
Mr. Turtle is talking to Grandboy #1. At one point Mr.Turtle
stuck his tongue out at us. How very rude.
Grandpa and Grandson #1 get on the African Sky Safari
Going up and away to look down on the rest of us lowly
zoo goers.
After coming back down to earth we needed to ride on the back
of the giraffe.
Grandson #2 had a plan of his own.
Lunch Time and cooling off in a air conditioned
restaurant. Aaaaahhhhh so nice.
My bottle is yummy. See what a big boy I am
getting to be.
After lunch we are off toward the jungle.
Over the lake....
Now, we are off to the Kid's Zone
Entering the kid's area, it is a treat for kids because of the slides and
a treat for Grandma and Grandpa because of the
air conditioner.
Can't show you the top because it is upstairs.
Coming out of one of the slides.
There is a big slide outside as well.
Inside there is a huge ant....eeeekkkkk
Grandboy #1 didn't mind the spider at all.
The Meerkat is focused on us. He thinks we look odd.
We are heading toward the front gate. It is nearly nap time.
(for Grandpa)
Let's act like the animals.....
nap time for the little bobcat
Nap time for the lion
Nap time for Grandboy #1
Nap time for Grandboy #2
The Good for the Day...Kansas City has a great zoo and it is a fun place to spend time with family.
That Bad for the Day....Still over a hundred degrees.
Interesting week in the news. Most of the news was related to Hurricane Irene and the enormous problem of flooding along the Eastern Seaboard. There were other events that made national headlines such as the Puerto Rican Representative Tweeting his naked self and surprise, surprise he resigned in disgrace. Isn't this a re-run. Honestly, didn't he see how that turned out for the other guys that tried that.
Your Couch My Bed
A young guy from Alabama, Wade Cothran, placed the most interesting and creative ad on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago saying that he had a job offer in San Francisco and was needing a place to live. He created an on-line ad to summarize why he would be the BEST EVER ROOMMATE. The ad, did in fact, land him not only offers of places stay but offers of free drinks, jobs, and even sex. He also, has picked up over 13,000 Twitter followers in the last couple of weeks.
His Craiglist post is being described as colorful by some, vulgar by others, definitely unique. He has taken all the stereotypical "bad roommate" traits and addressed why he is the total opposite of that guy....and would be the most perfect roommate.
Here is an portion of the ad.
I own almost nothing! I'm driving my car from Alabama to California in which I'll be transporting two duffelbags of clothes, one laptop computer, one guitar, one cell-phone with charger, 8 pairs of shoes, one picture frame, probably some condoms and a sh**load of beef jerky and Pringles for the trip. Though, you can expect the jerky to be gone upon my arrival. Unless you'd like me to pick up some on my way into the city. See?! I'm the most considerate person you've ever met. I'm offering to buy you sh** already!
For the entire ad you can click here. Warning to those that find certain four letter words offensive though. DON'T CLICK HERE if your aren't totally comfortable with the f word. BRE seems to like it a lot. Best Roommate Ever
Aside from the pervasive use of certain words, the ad did what it was designed to do...it is getting Wade a whole lot of attention. The guy knows how to "market". Looks like the marketing degree he got at Auburn is paying off.
A Clown on the Town
A Massachusetts man whose colorful golf attire was briefly mistaken for a clown outfit has been charged in New York with driving a golf cart while drunk.
The Genesee County sheriff says his department received a report that someone dressed as a clown was operating a stolen golf cart on the streets of the western New York town of Batavia on Sunday night. Deputies eventually found 37-year-old James Straub of Stoneham, Mass., at a home in Batavia, The Batavian newspaper reported.
He wasn't dressed as a clown — just wearing some colorful clothing after an outing at Terry Hills Golf Course, the origin of the cart. But deputies say he was intoxicated.
I wonder which upset him more being hauled in for the DUI or being mistaken for a clown?
Seriously Green Garden
A man in northern Illinois found a valuable surprise in his backyard Tuesday afternoon: A duffel bag filled with stacks of $20 bills.
As Wayne Sabaj, a 49-year-old unemployed carpenter living in Johnsburg, explained to WGN, he had beenlooking for broccoli in his garden when he saw the duffel bag. After Sabaj showed the bag to his father, with whom he lives, they decided to alert police.
When the McHenry Sheriff's Department arrived, they discovered a second bag. All told, the bags contained $150,000.
Sabaj told the Northwest Herald that he briefly considered keeping the money for himself, but he feared notonly where the money had come from, but who might be coming back to retrieve it. "I went and spent my last $10 on cigarettes yesterday, but I turned in $150,000," Sabaj said. "I haven't worked in two years. Yeah, I was like, I could really use this money," the man told ABC7. "With my luck, it would be bank robbery and I'd get caught and say I'd robbed a bank."
The bags are now in the custody of police, who are processing them for fingerprints and any other evidence, according to the Northwest Herald. There are currently no suspects. In the bags' place, investigators left a business card listing a phone number and a "please call" note. If an owner is not identified, police indicated they may assist Sabaj in determining whether he can claim the money.
Last ten dollars on some cigarettes??? Maybe tomorrow he will be regretting turning in the cash.
High End Electronics at McDonalds
In a new variation on the “brick in a box” scam, a South Carolina woman who thought she purchased an iPad from two men in a McDonald’s parking lot discovered yesterday that the purported tablet was actually “a piece of wood painted black with an Apple logo.”
Wonder why the scam artists bothered doctoring up the board to have
an Apple logo? Did they think that would convince someone
that is was a real Apple product?
According to a Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office report, Ashley McDowell, 22, told deputies that she was approached by two black males who claimed to have purchased iPads in bulk and were selling them for $300 apiece. After McDowell explained that she only had $180, the duo agreed to sell her the device at a cut rate.
But when McDowell drove home and opened the FedEx box containing the iPad, she instead discovered the wood with the Apple logo. The “screen”--which was framed with black tape--included replicas of iPad icons for Safari, mail, photos, and an iPod. It also had what cops described as a “Best Buy sales ticket.”
The phony iPad is pictured above in police evidence photos.
Usually, “brick in a box” scammers don’t concern themselves with creating a replica of the item they are peddling (beyond trying to make sure that it approximates the weight of the authentic object).
Deputies have dusted the phony iPad for fingerprints. McDowell told police that the swindlers were driving “a white Impala with no rims and no tint.” One of the men, she noted, “had a gold tooth.”
What made someone comfortable with buying an IPad off of a parking lot at McDonalds from a guy with a gold tooth? Did she think that had the same level of product reliability as going to the Apple Store?
The Good for the Day- On the Tuesday evening NBC news, the program ended saying that there was some good news for a change. After all the bad weather, all the bad politicians, all the bad economy stories...at last there is some good news. Beyonce is going to have a baby. Is this the good news???? OR
The Bad for the Day....Really, Beyonce having a baby is supposed to be my good news????
The Weird for the Day....Where's Waldo?
On music producer John Mosley's back, apparently.
Tattoo artist Rytch Soddy decided to create the intricate scene free of charge if he could raise a minimum of about $820 for the charity, according to Norwich Evening News 24.
Middle-aged (if I become a centenarian) living a middle-class life in the very middle of the country and continually struggling with the pros and cons of every topic. Seriously, conflicted.
Posts
