If There's Treasure Here, We'll Find it!

We've been exploring, exploring and exploring. Hence no blogging. Here's the highlights (the bold headings will bring you to the websites of those places...they didn't underline like before):

A Pampered Chef Friend!
I ventured out on the many KC interstates by myself for the first time to visit a new friend and talk PC at her house. It was great to visit with another consultant and I'm really looking forward to getting to know Chandra better. So thankful that we've found a "couple" friend this early - that was one thing I told Jordan when we got down here: "Try to make friends with people who have a wife so I can have friends, too!"

Nelson-Atkins Museum
This is a free museum in KC and it really is wonderful. We were there for only a few hours, but knew we could come back and explore again, so we didn't feel we had to see absolutely everything this time. The coolest thing we saw was this backpack:

Leather, right? Nope - it's clay! Amazing, eh?

Here's us outside the museum...it was so bright, I couldn't even keep my eyes open! For real!

Bear's BBQ

Amazing little hole-in-the-wall bbq joint we found about 5-10 mins from our apartment. It's owned by a tall, big, biker-looking older dude (with a long grey beard and a bald head...whose nickname is, of course, Bear) and they just opened 15 months ago. The food was delicious, and NOW if you come to KC, we're definitely taking you here for bbq instead of Oklahoma Joe's (unless you want to drive 30mins and then wait in line for an hour). We ordered the Little Bears Toothpicks ($14.99), which was a 1/2 slab of ribs and two sides. It was advertised as enough for two people, and they weren't kidding. There was no fat on these bones. And there was TONS of meat. (Okay, not literally, but you get the picture. So. Much. Meat.) They use a dry rub and have sauce at the table for you to add to your liking - Jordan prefers lots, I prefer little...he prefers hot hot hot, I prefer mild...so this was perfect for us. We ordered steak fries and Bears smoked beans for our sides. I'm not much for baked beans, but Jordan thought they were delicious. Instead of being made with pork, they use beef brisket with their beans. I'm a big fan of fries and these didn't disappoint - they were the large style...almost wedge-like (but not potato wedges) and came with a big bottle of Bear's own jalapeno ranch sauce. I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't spicy and was great with the fries. Overall, it was fab. We'll be returning here for sure.

Puzzle!
We started working on a puzzle...and we opted not to use the picture. It came in a big box with 10 or so other puzzles, so we're not even sure which one we're working on. Here's our progress:

City Market
I'd been told how wonderful the Saturday and Sunday Farmer's Market at City Market was, but you have to see it to believe it. They start at 6am on Saturday morning, and we heard that the crowd gets amazingly big, so we left our apartment at 6:30am and at 6:45 there was already a big crowd there! Unlike SF farmer's markets, where the prices are way higher than the grocery store, this was all SUPER cheap. Here's what we walked away with for $15:

• huge bag of carrots - $1
• 3 mangos, the size of my hand - $1
• 2 lemons
• 3 organges
• bunch of cilantro - $0.50
• bunch of mint - $1
• box of strawberries
• 4 smallish onions
• head of broccoli
• head of cabbage
• 4 plums
• 1 large tomato
• 1 1/2 cup scoop of chili powder

Glore Psychiatric Museum
Their website summarizes this museum as "The Glore Psychiatric Museum chronicles the 130-year history of what was once known as the “State Lunatic Asylum No. 2.”" It was interesting and creepy - they had life-size old mannequins in different scenes. There were boxes that they kept people locked up in, a boxed in "hamster wheel", "prison" cells and other remedies that they used to try to bring people back to sanity. It was really sad, thinking about how scared everyone was of people with mental illness and disabilities and the different things they tried to do. Must have been very frightening for both parties....it makes me super thankful for places like SD Achieve and the vast steps we've made in understand those illnesses/disabilities since that time.

KC Command Game
Free tickets? Yes, please. We're not much for sports, but give us something free and we're there. It was a one-point game (we lost, ugh), so it was fun to watch...although we saw a lot of this during the game:

These teenage boys were VERY passionate about arena football.

Our apartment is the "home" of the KC Command team and coaches (literally, they live here) and last week we met one of the Command players. Get this: his last team was...the SF Storm. Small world - even here in KC.

Power & Light District: Nightlife with KCUMB Students
Saturday night we met up with a bunch of other med students again for drinks - it is WILD in downtown KC at night. I'd never seen anything like this before. Between a cluster of bars there's an outdoor courtyard that connects them all, the music is blaring inside and outside, there's a HUGE flatscreen TV (playing sports at the time), outside there's stairs that take you up to the next level that has more bars. It was interesting to see, but the spendy drinks, loud music (couldn't even talk to the person across the table without leaning towards each other and yelling), and...interesting...outfit choices told us this wasn't really our scene. (at least not Jordan's and mine, a bunch of the students went out again on Sunday night.)

Fellowship of Grace
Another wonderful, little church. There were about 30-35 people at this church, and they were so friendly. Lots of people made a point to welcome us and thank us for coming and invite us back again - it was nice to be noticed and welcomed. The music was very similar to E. Free and I knew all the songs, so that was great little reminder of home. We enjoyed the sermon, but it wasn't as deep/thought-provoking/challenging as we'd like.

A Family Afternoon
We spent Sunday lunch and afternoon on base with my aunt, uncle and cousin. My uncle Pat made us a fabulous chicken curry for lunch and the followed it up with a berry cobbler. Fan-tastic. We were so spoiled. Jordan, cousin Greta and Pat played Empire Builder (twice...Jordan lost by ONE POINT the second game) and aunt Kathy and I looked at her scrapbooks (she makes digital scrapbooks and has the printed up and has 9 done so far of different trips from the past few years...I think I'm feeling inspired!), sat outside and talked, and watered plants. It was a wonderful, restful afternoon.