Life in pictures

We started the day with breakfast at Burger King with Em's family. Over burgers, yoghurt and muesli (Em and I took our own breakfast), we chatted about the weather, thrift stores, wildlife and whatever else took our fancy. It was a great way to start the day.

From there we drove straight to Hodge Park in search of the Shoal Creek Living Museum. After some geese sightings and a drive past a local drug buying parking spot which Em told me she had inadvertently found one day (*shudder*), we found the right place.

Aside from people walking their dogs, we had the park to ourselves which was lovely because it allowed us to get some great people-less shots. We think we might have even seen another bald eagle, one in full adult plumage, but it was so high up that we couldn't be sure and despite keeping our necks cranked to the heavens for the remainder of our stay, we didn't see it again.

The first thing we saw upon entering the museum (which is set up like a park, and costs nothing to visit. Australia, take note) were Buffalo (Bison). They kept all the way to the back of their field, but were good to see anyway. The photo below shows one of their feeding stations through the wire and mesh that enclose them.Near the old red barn were some farm machinery, which of course provided photographic opportunities.
This is the first house we came across. Despite the appearance of you being able to go inside, the doors are all securely padlocked. Maybe on festival days they allow people inside.
No tourist attraction would be complete without the American flag.As we walked deeper into the property we came across this house. Do you think it's the first design of a house with an attached carport -- as a covered through-way built into its centre? Em and I weren't too sure.
This next photo is of the city jail. Tiny, isn't it? I'm sure I could escape that.... ;-)
I loved that the Blacksmith's huge red barn sat right at the rear of the property. It had perfect placement to catch the eye from many viewpoints.
The church and fence enclosed graveyard at the back.
This one's self explanatory. :-)Inside the Blacksmith's shop. It wasn't possible to go inside. This photo was captured by poking the camera over the door, clicking and hoping for the best.
Fenced in vegetable garden. I imagine this must look spectacular in the warmer months, makes me long for my own vegetable garden....On the other side of this building was a motion sensor with an attached security camera and loudspeaker. Whenever anyone walked around that side of the building (or even when they didn't), a male voice would announce "Your photograph has been taken and downloaded for security purposes. Have a nice day." or something to that effect. I guess with no on-grounds staff they need some form of security measure, but when the stupid thing goes off when no-ones even around it reduces the impact somewhat. And this is the school house.
We returned home to have turkey burgers (home made) then waited for Em's mum to drop by so we could all go thrift shopping. After talking about thrift stores this morning over breakfast, the idea appealed to her so much that we decided to all go together.

We drove to North Oak and went to a large Good Will store where I bought (amongst other things) a real US flag for $2. It's still in its box and everything!! I have great decorating plans for that little baby! :-)

A couple of hours later we returned home where we found that all that running last night had worn holes in Crash's front paws. Poor baby. It's a good thing that we have a quiet couple of days planned for him so he can recover.

Because today is Superbowl Sunday, Em's family put on a Superbowl dinner. We didn't have to bring or do anything but show up. First, we stopped by Em's work then headed out to her mum's place. The sun was just setting and as we reached the fields with cows, we stopped to take in the amazing sunset!
I used the flash for the following photo. Don't the gleaming cows eyes add an eerie touch!? *lol*
Em's mum put on a great meal with a variety of 'traditional' superbowl foods including chilli which wasn't hot at all. I'm fast becoming a real chilli fan. She even had superbowl cake, a large cake in the shape of a football, and napkins and glasses with the superbowl theme. It was neat!

After dinner, Mike showed me his expansive stein (beer mug) collection. He has dozens in various sizes and decorations, all beautifully housed in glass doored cabinets. I've seen these before but never knew there were so many or that they were so impressive! I found a few favourites, one being an elaborate designed stein featuring a bald eagle, and he has mini steins as well. He told us about the antique/vintage/recycled warehouse that they go to where he finds many of the pieces for his collection. It's a place called the Brass Armadillo, and as soon as he told me about it, I knew we'd have to go there!

Myka is keeping the tradition of collecting going and she has an incredible collection of beanie babies. Of course, I had to see them and we girls, Em, Myka and I spent a joyous hour or two fossicking through what seemed like hundreds of beanie babies. I never knew so many types existed, or which ones are more collectable and rare than others. I promised her I would keep an eye out for any that I thought she didn't have, and I am now on the look out for a beanie baby bald eagle, the one with the stars and stripes on his wings. Apparently they are hard to find.

We returned upstairs to watch the end of the Superbowl, a three minute play that lasted thirty minutes. It seemed that one team would win, but in the final play the other advanced and won. I don't understand all the technicalities of the game, but it was fantastic to watch it on a big screen with people who understand and care about it. I couldn't have imagined a more American night than with my 'adopted' family. It's going to be pure torture to leave here... it really is.

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. :-)