Red Sox Sitings in Kansas City!

This past week, Tim and I took an extended weekend (part of the pluses when you work where we work) and headed down south to Kansas City for two Red Sox/Royals games. We took a brief sidetrip into Urbana to meet up with Travis for a brunch at the Machine Shed, and then headed the several hours down south.

What I have apparently been oblivious to over the past lifetime, is that, as soon as you hit the Missouri/Iowa border, it really is like entering a new world. I knew that it was more sourthern, but I did not realize how much. We made a few stops (Tim loves his fireworks) and in dealing with the people down there, it is just crazy how different they are than up here. And its only a few hours away! Even the choice in restaurants in drastic. Southern cooking and barbecue are boasted every 50 feet. I also didnt know how "unkempt" Kansas City was. Its like the sprawled out over a huge plot of land, and then decided to only keep tabs on 1/4 of it. Empty run down building and plots of land were everywhere, only because there was just so many of the same businesses everywhere. Sad almost.

We got to the hotel, only a few blocks from the stadium (go priceline!) and it was like Red Sox haven. 4 out of every 5 people that we saw were donned in some sort of Red Sox gear. We quickly learned that most of them were all faux fans, not having ever even been to Boston, but it still tugged on my heart strings to see that much Sox pride. It made me long for the days at Kenmore station, fighting through to get up top only to be happily assaulted by vendors selling everything promoting the Sox, to brutally embarassing the Yankees (Jeter sucks...and swallows).

One thing I did enjoy about Kansas City was the Jack Stack restaurants. It is DELISH barbecue that we ate for two of the three meals that we ate there. We walked in and wanted to die a heavenly death from just the smell alone. I wont go in to our awesome food, cause thats even more boring than I can handle, but it was delish, with the perfect atmosphere and a not so hefty price. Tim was pretty much in heaven. And then I was in heaven the next day at a breakfast place called First Watch. Im thinking Cedar Falls needs one. I would be there ALL OF THE TIME. Enough about food.

The games were...baseball. On the first night it was well over 100 with the heat index and humidity. You walk outside, and no joke, an instant layer of sticky and sweat breaks out over your entire body of skin. But we had really good seats, and I took a ton of pictures to keep myself entertained and did my People crossword. The second night, we had even better seats, and there was a nice perfect breeze coming through, and we had a bar as a footrest right in front of us. Needless to say, the second night was a lot better.

We had planned to go to the zoo during the day on the second day, but one business we passed said the temperature was 108, so we forwent the zoo, slept in til noon, and then gave in to my latest addiction. National Park passport stamps. I did it a lot when I was little, and my mom found it this past year, and I have taken it on all my trips for the past few months to get as many stamps as I can. Its just a fun little thing to do and be able to look back at. So I got the Harry S Truman home site crossed off the list on this trip. Only nine million more to go!

Overall, the trip was relaxing and fun. As much as I am not a fan of watching baseball, my love of all things Red Sox and food made it that much more enjoyable. Good times. I rate the trip A- (and only because 108 is just way too hot to have a straight A). :)