Polar Bear Plunge - Saturday 31st January

Today started with breakfast at home, oats for me of course because what better way is there to start the day!? ;-)

We consulted Google Maps for directions to Lees Summit where the Polar Bear Plunge was to be held, and found some thrift stores along the way as we would be getting there early. Into the car we hopped, and out to Lees Summit which is about half an hours drive south east of Liberty. We found a large thrift store that had heaps of clothes, children's toys and furniture but the prices seemed somewhat high. We fished through, picked out a few toys for the dogs, some books, some jewellery and headed to the counter whereupon we found that the prices were wrong and instead of our loot costing us $20 or $30, we paid well under $10. By this stage we were out of time, but if we'd known in advance that the prices were wrong, we'd have loaded up some more.

Our Google Map directions guided us directionally, i.e. 'head south...'. If I've not mentioned it before, roads and streets here rely on the driver having a pretty good sense of navigational direction. You need to know where you are on the compass (without having a compass) or be able to look at the sun and figure it out from there. Put simply, if I moved here I'd be navigationally screwed the first day I set out on my own in a car. *lol*

We left the thrift store and headed in what we hoped was the right direction, it turned out not to be. Em figured it out pretty quickly while I uselessly clutched the paper with the directions on it and stared at signs and directions that made no sense.

After driving around for a while, we found the lake -- a large expanse of water around the size of Kow Swamp (for those of you who know the Pyramid Hill area), but we were not on the right side of it. Nope, despite all our efforts, we were on the wrong side of this big wet sucker and could see the large striped carnival tent in the distance where the polar bear plunge was starting.

So, simply solved, we just drive around the lake... right!?

Ha! Yeah, well that's what we thought. Around we started, only to come to dead end after dead end. Lakeside drives, in fact almost anything nature related are closed off for winter. We headed into suburbia, away from the lake and into housing estates built right up to the lake edge, but still we could find no way around to the big stripy tent.

At the point of giving up, we happened across a road that was on the google maps directions and managed to find our way to another part of the lake -- closer to the stripy tent, but still not quite there. It wasn't too difficult then to find our way as we were back in country side and away from the maze like roads of housing developments. It seems that developers here are similarly smoking crack when planning roads. I hope emergency service vehicles have GPS otherwise all those residents are screwed! ;-)

Finally, we arrived at the polar bear plunge and found half of Kansas City was already there.
So, just what is this polar bear plunge, you might ask? It's basically crazy people jumping into freezing cold water in the name of charity. Anyone can do it. It costs $50 (which goes to charity) and you can go in as part of a team or on your own. They run thirty or so plunges throughout the afternoon and most people come to see their friends or family members turn blue, then once the teeth chattering experience is over they head on home again. Here are some crazy people heading out to the turn around point.
It's all very safe, with emergency rescue and resuscitation crews on hand in case someone should succumb to the freezing conditions. In case you think it doesn't look that cold (because in fact it was a lovely 'warm' day), here's a photo showing the ice ledge upon which two of the emergency rescue crew are standing.
The water in which the plungees are wading is a pool that has been cut out of the ice, and the photo above gives an indication of how thick the ice is -- those white chunks are ice. It made me cold just looking at it.

Needless to say, we did not head into the water, we watched instead. I did buy a sweater though, so at least I can say I was there. :-)

They had portable toilets on site, all connected together. I must never have used one because these were an experience. Basically, it was a metal box with a door and a toilet seat affixed upon a cylinder. There was no premise of civility, and the sides of the cylinder were not tapered to reduce the view below the seat. I don't think I need to say anything more, but I bet Kenny does it differently.

Before we left, I had to take a photo of the big red rescue truck:
And then the hog on a bike with the flag on his back.
This next photo is for Chris, assuming he reads this.
It's a blurry shot because we were moving. The question for Chris is what kind of car is it?

We lunched at Atlanta Bread, like Panera Bread in almost every way except with some slight menu changes. I had brocolli and cheese soup, my new favourite thing, and a panini sandwich, my second new favourite thing.

We stopped by another thrift store, because yes I am addicted to those places, and then headed home with the distant intention of getting the dogs and coming all the way back out again to the Bark Park, a fenced in area for dogs. It was too late though and heading toward dark so Em phoned one of her friends and we met up with her at a local sporting field so Crash and Lucky could play with Paula's dogs. They all had a ball!

This is Crash sucking on his baby doll on the way to the park. He is such an adorable dog. He's nervous in the car and has to have something to suck on to calm himself down.
At the park, the sun was setting, planes were flying overhead leaving contrails in the sky, and the dogs were racing around like crazy. It was great!
These are Paula's two Australian Shepherds, Bailey and Keena. Despite the name, these dogs are not Australian.

The name, it seems, comes from a connection with Basque (Spanish) sheep herders who emigrated to Australia with their 'little blue dogs' which they used to herd sheep. When the Basque's went to America in the 1800's, from Australia, their dogs gained popularity and recognition and though there was similarity with English Shepherds, the breed could not be called the same. Interestingly, English Shepherds are not an English breed, just as the Aussies are not an Australian breed. Confused yet?

The facts of this story are vague but it seems that although the breed did not originate in Australia, these dogs are present there. Maybe I've seen them and though they were something else. Regardless, they are delightful dogs and remind me of Paddy with the mickey mouse face patterning and the tipped forward ears... though these dogs are larger and a little more rambuctious. Though, Paddy can be a handful when given half a chance. :-)
Here's Crash investigating a puddle that held ice.
I have no idea how I got this next shot without having a whole lot of dog in my face, but I got it. It's my favourite photo from the evening, because I'd snapped off heaps of photos in the hope of getting a good action shot. That's a bit hard to do right on sunset. :-)
From there we dropped the dogs at home and went to the Mexican restaurant. There was a short wait so we strolled around outside and I took a photo looking back across the street to the restaurant.
Back inside, we waited for our name to be called so we could get a table. On one wall is a functional montage, of sorts, featuring hardware items. The photo doesn't show it well, but it goes floor to ceiling and has lots of various sized drawers with harder items affixed to the front. Em says that before the building was a Mexican restaurant it was a hardware themed cafe. Maybe they put this in and because it is so large and heavy, the Mexican restaurant decided to keep it there although it contradicts their theme. Or maybe it preceded even the hardware cafe and had some functional purpose prior to that. It's impressive, whatever it is.

Once we got a table, Em started on her beer...and I ogled my mango margarita. I had enchiladas, of course, and Em had soup.

Once appropriately stonkered, we went to Tonya's to watch Supernatural. I'm typing this blog some time after the event so I can't recall what episode it was, but I'm sure it was good. :-)

Overland Park Arboratum

After having oats for breakfast, we stopped by the post office so I could mail off some postcards and Chris' birthday package... it's only going to arrive a week late, but better late than never. ;-)

While I was waiting for the woman to finish serving me, I had the box sitting on the counter with the address label facing outwards. A guy behind noticed and started chatting about where the parcel was going. I admitted that it was for my brother's birthday which was tomorrow... then I thought about it and corrected myself and said, 'well, actually, it's today because they're 17 hours ahead and so over there, it's already his birthday'. The guy was surprised and then said, 'oh, but that will get there in a day'. I had to keep a straight face as I corrected him and said it'd take at least a week.

He was lovely though, because the box needed some additional tape which the post office couldn't give me, so he went out to his truck and got some duct tape for me to use. He was a regular MacGyver, and so friendly too.

Em and I then hit the road to the Overland Park Arboratum and Botanical Gardens. As with a lot of outdoor places during the winter, we had this place all to ourselves with just the staff as distant company. Have I said how much I love winter in Missouri!!?? :-D

The signs at the entrance advertise the place as being a winter wonderland, with the cardinal as their bird of choice. It was a wonderland, but I didn't see a single cardinal. *grumbles*

I *will* get me a photo of one of those birds before I leave, I'm determined!
The lake is all iced over. Though it was cold, below freezing (celcius) the wind was mild and the sun warm so as long as we stayed rugged up with multiple layers, it was quite nice being outdoors.
I wonder where the oyster shell came from? It seemed out of place, but made a nice still life shot.
I will never tire of leaves trapped in ice.
Aha, finally a winter berries photo that I'm satisfied with. You would not believe the number of photos I took before I got this one.
Here's lichen on a tree branch. In small ways there is evidence of winter giving away to spring -- or of nature being fooled by the unseasonally warm weather. Is this another indication of climate change? I didn't think too hard about that, I'm on holidays afterall.
Around the botanical gardens are plaques and commemorative tokens in recognition of people who have passed away, or families who have donated their time or money toward the gardens. This one caught my eye because of the wording and the truth in it, and the young age of the man it remembers.
Em does such a great job carrying this lugging great tripod around with us. I keep making her bring it, though we rarely use it. Maybe one of these days we'll realise that it does little more than build upper body strength and decide we get more than enough of that kind of exercise at the gym. ;-)I loved the rope and metal fixings for the bridge. It seems like it could be a hand with fingers clasped around the ring and the forearm receding into the distance... or maybe not. *lol*Because I was down at ground level, I looked at what other things might make interesting still life subjects. Though, still life may not have been the right word because the wind had picked up a little and was making macro photography a bit of a challenge.
On the water (ice) I found a couple of things to capture.
I didn't expect to find running water, but here it is.
We stopped for a banana break. By this time it had gone lunch and I could have eaten a horse, except there were none around... thankfully. We had a banana instead and I set about cleaning my camera lens. Big mistake, the more I cleaned the worse it became. Em finally saved the day by undoing the mess I had made and I vowed not to touch it again after that.

This is the view looking across the frozen lake toward the entrance. The little blue shed is for storage.
I love the colours and curves in the ice.
Here's Em, almost invisible behind the shrubbery. There were some beautiful, towering grass plants on display. They would be considered weeds in Australia, but they are just gorgeous here, and a nice distraction from the greys and dulled greens of winter.
Here are some of those grass plants I mentioned earlier.A frozen creek. This one is unique in that the moss and aquatic plants that live in the water have snap frozen and retained their brilliant greens. The ice forms a layer above with air in between. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Here this is an optical illusion, is the green band above or below the ice? I see it both ways, even though I know the green was below.
This has to be my favourite trapped-leaf in ice picture.
Further along, we happened across some birds. These shots have been improved just a little so that you can see the birds, not a tiny blob in a tree. I don't know what species this is.
This photo below is a Black-capped Chickadee in flight, and the one below that is the same species, but perched.
Here we have a Downy Woodpecker. *tee hee* Woodpeckers are so cool. Our Treecreepers are woodpeckers in training, they scale the trees the same way but never get down to the tap-tapping.
There's a metal bell in the garden which apparently rings out in the warmer months. I'm not sure why it made no sound now if it makes sound at other times of the year. Maybe someone stands and bangs on it or something.
We left the botanical gardens side of the property and moved toward the woodlands. A large stone gateway separates the two sections. By this stage though it was getting late in the day, we had missed lunch (banana break excluded), it was clouding over and Em had run out of battery power in her camera so we decided to just have a quick look then call it quits and come back another day.
Up above is a crow of some kind. I haven't verified the species.
Just past the gateway is an enclosed arch. We stopped there, intending to turn around and leave when we saw something that made us stay just a little longer....This is America's version of a possum. It's called an Opossum and it's pretty damned ugly. Look at those mean little eyes. ;-) Apparently these little beggars are hard to come across and usually move around of a night-time. Here we almost walked right into this one. It was chowing down on some seed that we think must have been left out for the birds. People are encouraged to feed birds during the winter and into the spring because of the harsh conditions and damage that's been done to the environment. I wonder if we'll get like that in Australia, because at the moment bird feeding is not encouraged.
I got heaps of shots of this little guy, even if he did creep me out when he looked straight at me. Then he toddled off down the slope to the stream, nosed around there for a couple of minutes then came back up a little ways before disappearing into the brush.
Not to miss out on having his photo taken, here's another Downy Woodpecker.
We left the arboratum with hundreds of photos and a great feeling, discussing when we would come back to do the woodland walks. There are three of those, covering different terrain, and each path is a mile long. That could take us all day. Next time we'll pack ourselves a lunch. :-)

Along the highway we saw a sign for an upcoming motor show that looks really good! We stopped for a late lunch at Panera Bread and while eating we spied an owl on the roof of a nearby building. So excited, we (me) rushed off dozens of photos before it flew away, then we scoffed down our food so we could get outside to see it as it was only about half an hour or so off the sun going down.
This is our 'owl'. Looks a bit plastic, huh!? The funniest thing is that we saw its head moving. Uh huh, maybe we left lunch go a little too late today. *lol*We dropped into the Hallmark store and browsed around and came out to this stunning sunset.
On the drive to the supermarket, which was our next stop, we saw a 4WD with a 'truck scrotum' on the back, otherwise known as Bulls Balls. My God, what will they think of next!?
Here's the supermarket. Yes, I will take a photo of anything!! :-)
Once we were fully stocked up on goodies, we headed to the gym for our workout, then from there went home and had a light dinner given that we'd had such a late lunch. We intended to watch some tv on the internet, but the internet had other plans so we browsed our photos instead -- a much better way to spend the evening anyway. :-)

Now we just have to decide what day to go back to the Arboretum for the woodland walks.