Dad and I have a tour of the Midwest going this week. We start in Naperville to see a friend of his. (OK, only dad stopped in to see his favorite high school teacher Jack Lane.) I walked around the Naperville Century Walk, a downtown riverwalk peppered with artworks. I’ll share a few pictures. The highlight was the big statue of Dick Tracy; well-place because the creator of the comic book hero is from Naperville.
We also checked out the Morton Arboretum. We have been there before. Sadly, the summer sculptures were not out yet. But we did get to see some gorgeous flowers. Even better, we got to smell them! I’ve always said the best thing about coming from Minnesota is that anywhere you go has better weather and that is doubly true this year. It was warm and spring had sprung and I could almost be tempted to move this year.
I had a work meeting in Bloomington (at the Illinois Soybean Association). Quick nod to best refurbishing of a former Gold’s Gym and nicest hospitality. I heard heartwarming stories of rural counties on the path to getting better broadband. But I’ll save those notes for my work report.
Springfield
After the meeting we set out to St Louis, but not without a stop to see historical sites in Springfield. We checked out Lincoln’s family home – by that I mean with Mary Todd and their kids. Here we were given a fantastic free map that pointed out just about anything and everything you might want to see in the areas related to Lincoln.
Based on new info from the new map, we also checked out Lincoln’s Tomb. It was cook. It is a big tomb, where he and his immediate family are buried. Apparently, someone tried to snatch his body in 1876, resulting in a bunch of new laws, an onsite groundskeeper and his body moving 10 feet below ground. There’s a bronze casting of Lincoln’s face. Apparently, it’s lucky to run his nose. (I’ll report back if good luck comes my way!) Fun to see the impact of a nose rub on the statue.
St Louis
We spent a couple days in St Louis and the whole family joined. We’re all here to see my niece, Betsy, do her senior dance at St Louis University. She has completed four years of her six-year program in Physical Therapy. But with the fourth-year completion, comes the end to her Dance Minor. So we all came to watch her. You can see why below; this is the dance she choregraphed. We’ll never forget the touching note that Grandma left on Emily’s dance poster – thinking it was Betsy’s. But it was very funny.
We also got to see a few of the sites, such as Forest Park, You can see the video Katie and I made in honor of the Kentucky Derby.
We checked out some nightlife and ate a ton!
… last minute addition: Dad and I stopped in Cedar Lake, Iowa. Dad was a huge Buddy Holly fan back in the day, and remembers the day the music died. Originally we weren’t going to go this way but fates intervened and once you’re getting on 35 near Mason City, you might as well stop by the sites!
Heather and I are on the road. Our mission is to deliver a car to Venice Beach, California. We have quite a few days to do it and only a loose itinerary of suggested stops. Admittedly our first goal is to get where it’s warmer as soon as possible and maybe hover once we get there.
We left early in the morning. First major stop the Buddy Holly Crash Site. Well, after being there we might call it a minor site. The glasses were much smaller than we anticipated but it was still sad and amazing at the same time. It was easy on a windy, cold day like today to think about how miserable that flight and end must have been – that day the music died. We also took a quick visit to the Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson played their last concert. What a strange story for the ballroom to have to hold – although it is just one chapter in a long book.
Next stop Des Moines and the Pappajohn Sculpture Garden, plunked right into town. It was a perfect recharger stop for us. We walked around and saw the sculptures – several looked very reminiscent of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden or other sculpture gardens I’ve visited. It was the perfect 30 minutes. It was super windy and chilly but brisk. A few of our favorites – the large body made of white words by Jaume Plensa, big stone faces with tons (perhaps literally) of personality by Ugo Rondinone and White Ghost by Yoshimoto Nara – like a spooked up Lucy from The Peanuts.
Mini stop was a quick drive by a bridge of Madison County, specifically the Imes Covered Bridge; it is the oldest of the remaining covered bridges, Imes was built in 1870 and is 81 feet in length. Absolutely worth the five minute detour. We thought about the birthplace of John Wayne but decided that wasn’t worth a 40 minute detour.
Props to Heather, the driver, she’s doing an amazing job. We had hoped to get more of a break in Kansas City, but a lot of things are closed. We did get to see the Shuttlecocks of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. (I love the inside of the museum too, but sadly closed on Tuesdays.) Folks from the Twin Cities will know Oldenburg’s Spoon and Cherry. They Shuttlecocks are as much of a splash – with several large scale shuttlecocks peppered around the yard of the museum. There are a few works. We also liked Rush Hour by George Segal (group of people) and what I assume is an iteration of Rodin’s The Thinker.
And now we’ve landed in Wichita. We may go work out. We may find a dive bar. Maybe I’ll report tomorrow!
Filed under: Missouri
Day Two of the road trip starts in Missouri. Turns out Independence is pretty close to Kansas City so we stopped to see President Truman’s home town. We saw his house, which is pretty posh. And we learned a lot about him – like he was a haberdasher before and after being President.
Also we talked about his big decision to “end the war decisively”. It was an interesting discussion about what we would do if we were in his shoes – and how glad we were not to be in them.
We also saw (from a distance) Independence Temple, which has one of the most interesting steeples I have ever seen. It was designed by Gyo Obata and was the headquarters of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
And we got our kicks briefly on Route 66. And landed in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Filed under: Missouri
OK it’s been more than a year since I posted anything – but we’re on the road again so I’m going to post.
The girls, Grandpa and I are on the road. We’re going to New Orleans, where we’ll be meeting with Grandma, Katie and her family and Billy. We just finished the first lag of the trip to Kansas City. I learned at a conference earlier this year that I love Kansas City.
We are staying near the Plaza, which I have to say is beautiful even through it’s really an upscale, outdoor shopping mall. The older girls spent the afternoon shopping there. Aine and I spent the afternoon at the Nelson Atkins Museum. We saw the amazing shuttlecocks and the touring The Four Seasons by Phillip Haas.
In the late afternoon Aine, Grandpa and I went on a quick tour of Kansas City Startup Village – an amazing community with Google Fiber. It’s in a working class neighborhood (mostly) in Kansas City, Kansas. Matthew Marcus gave us the tour. He is one of several instrumental entrepreneurs in the neighborhood who have worked at making the community fertile ground for other entrepreneurs. Several houses in neighborhood have been turned into homes for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial efforts. In the area they have about 54 startups in 15 local houses in about a square mile area. I’ll be writing more about it for work – but I will say the idea of a community bubbling up organically, starting with access to Google Fiber is so compelling to me.
We had yummy barbeque for dinner. After dinner, I walked around the University and the girls went swimming. Tomorrow we head to Little Rock.
Day two on the road to New Orleans. Not a ton to report. We had brunch at a place called Brother Juniper’s in Memphis. Monte Cristo with maple syrup – nonstandard, yet really good! Then we tried some car washes in Jackson. And we drove a lot. We saw snow until nearly Memphis – which was a little sad.
We arrived in New Orleans in time for dinner. We ate at a place called Mother’s. Apparently it was on Man v Food. Man tried to eat the giant Po’ Boy. We didn’t. The food was good. Poor Lily had nothing to eat with Mother’s does no specialize in vegetarian dishes.
OK I’ve been *terrible* about the blog and maybe I’ll go back and fill in the last few months – but today I’ll at least pick up to talk about our 2013 Spring Break. We drove down the New Orleans with Grandpa and back with Patrick.
The trip seemed a little ill fated at the onset. Poor Aine was sick – begging to stay home, which is very unlike Aine. I forgot my charger, so we had to go back. Grandpa forgot his sunglasses, so we had to go back. But after a series of false starts we were on the road. First stop – Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We had a fancy French lunch – well not really fancy, but pretty French.
Then we made a pit stop in Hannibal Missouri, boyhood home to Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens). We took some pictures at the commemorative lighthouse – which is kind of strange in that it way up on top of a hill. Kind of bad placing it seems for warding off ships on a stormy night. Seems like it might be more useful to low flying planes. It was fun to see the town. Most of us got an ice cream treat and Grandpa showed Aine how to play some brain teaser game at the ice cream parlor.
Three facts about Mark Twain:
- He was born in 1835 and the lighthouse was built 100 years later
- Twain was born and died during a visit from Halley’s comet.
- The name Mark Twain comes from his river boat days, it is the cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms
Next stop was St Louis. We had an old school Italian dinner on Italian Hill. We felt almost like interlopers when we were the only ones that the host didn’t know by name! Then we caught the big Arch as night was falling. It was cool – much more silvery than I expected.
Three facts about St Louis’ Gateway Arch:
- It is 630 feet tall
- It is 630 feet wide
- It was built from 1963-65
We spent the night in Cape Girardeau – a new town for us. Actually I think Missouri was a new state for the girls. So that’s always fun!
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