Day Five -- Topeka and Wichita

We woke up in Topeka and went right out to check out our next state capitol...
The capitol building in Topeka is under construction but is a great place because there are a lot of outdoor plaques and monuments to explain the building, the history of Kansas and the Kansa tribe and much more. It was a lovely day too.


The kids have been getting a lot of opportunities to climb on statues of long-ago presidents!



After the capitol, we went over to a park near the Topeka zoo and the kids had a blast climbing, swinging and running free. Five days in a car causes a bunch of pent up energy. The park was really nice too -- a train and carosel but also a lot of concrete animals to climb on!

After Topeka, we had the first of our long drives across Kansas. This time, we actually detoured about 2 1/2 hours south to Wichita to visit "Cowtown" -- an old time Western Town. We arrived in time to have a fun swim in the indoor pool then clean up for dinner. We went to an old Western chuckwagon dinner. It was a good meal -- brisket, corn bread, baked beans, etc. and then we watched a great singing group called the Diamond W Wranglers. They sang all cowboys tunes and it was not half as corny as it sounds. They were really talented musicians. The kids enjoyed it even though it was a late night.

Day Four -- St. Louis to Topeka - with a stop in Jefferson City, MO

We woke up at the lovely Westin St. Louis, directly across from the St. Louis Cardinals ball park. There's no free breakfast at fancy hotels so we headed out to check out the arch and of course, found a Starbucks!

Since we had Sadie with us, we had to split up our trips to the top so Emily and I went first while Lance, Henry and Sadie hung out on the ground 630 feet below. The pod to the top was a little claustrophobic at first but turned out ok in the end. It was tiny in there but there was a window to look at the stairs as you went up. Once on top, there is plenty of space to walk around and look out all the windows.

Here's Emily and I in the pod.

That is Henry, Lance and Sadie taken fromt the top of the arch. We called down and told them to look up!

Here's Henry on the top at exactly the 630 foot mark!

Emily, Sadie and I hanging out down below.

The arch is really cool -- a very interesting structure. Taller than the Washington Monument.

So we had to get a little artsy -- the kids had a ball taking this photo.

Lance shot this cool photo into the sun! It was really lovely day!

But we had to keep going. We had about 2 1/2 hours to go to get to our next capitol city -- Jefferson City, MO. This was a really cool detour. The capitol building is really pretty and they have a lot of statues and parks dedicated to Thomas Jefferson (because he was the president who sent Lewis and Clark up the Missouri River looking for trade/communication routes). We had fun walking around the capitol and then having dinner at a cafe sitting out on the sidewalk of the town.

This is a life size Lewis and Clark statue and we decided to be explorers like them and try to blend in. :)

Emily and Henry at the big huge Jefferson statue in front of the capitol building.

Another family photo at another state capitol!

Day Three -- Frankfort to St. Louis

Frankfort, KY... Capitol #2 on our capitol tour. Very nice place... governer's mansion is really big and mansion-like. The kids loved that the governer has a fountain in his front yard.

Hilarious moment of our trip...

We pull up to this famous candy store and the kids and I get ready to get out to see the store. Then suddenly we hear Sadie growling... now, I'm sure you have never heard Sadie growl before but she was. Low and behold, she was growling at this bronze statue of a horse and rider. Lance let her out to sniff it to show her it was not real. We were all completely cracking up!!

So from Kentucky, we drove straight across the southern part of Indiana. It was a rough drive -- rained the whole time. Lance is a great driver, thank goodness!

Thought you'd be interested in seeing the setup in the car. Sadie has the way back with her bed on the seat and things stuffed beneath the foot-holds. Emily and Henry are in the middle row with a bucket between them with all sorts of goodies (movies, candy, workbooks, etc.)

After Indiana, came rainy Illinois. We did not even stop there...

Then finally Missouri with the Saint Louis arch in the photo. We have better arch pictures to come.

The Westin in St. Louis was the most expensive hotel we chose... but it was the half way point and a much deserved relaxing reprieve. The kids and Lance and I were happy to be pampered a bit by good service.

Finally a dinner at a table... room service in our room and I even had a glass of wine!!

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Here's my pre-photos post...

We made it half way! We got to St. Louis around 7 pm after a long drive in the rain thru Indiana and Illinois. But we are here at the mid-point of the trip and the nicest hotel of the trip. I tried to convince Lance to let us stay a 2nd night. :)
We are at the Westin right across from the Cardinals baseball stadium. The room is big and nice. They even gave Sadie a bed. We ate room service (at a table which is better than last night when we ate
in our car) and it was delightful. Tomorrow we see the arch and sights before heading to Jefferson City to continue our state capitol tour, then on to Topeka!!!
The kids are doing really well and we have not had any major meltdowns. I'm pleasantly surprised !
I'll post photos as soon as I can...I'm on the iPod tonight!
I'm bumming that I missed Glee and Gray's. I'll have to watch them online at our next stop.
Hope you all are well.
Beth

Day Two.... Charlottesville to Frankfort

Started off the day in Charlottesville where we walked around the grounds and visited a few of Lance's favorite places. Went to Bodo's for bagels and Mincer's for t-shirts. I was happy to get Henry a UVA Lax t-shirt. He'll play for them one day!

Followed Route 64 out to the West Virginia line. I have not been out that way before and it sure is lovely. Lance gave the kids and I a geology lesson when he explained why the Rocky Mountains look so different from the Allegheny Mountains.... something about tectonic plates... I'm not sure, I was reading US magazine. :)

This is our state capitol tour so our first stop was Charleston, WV to see the state capitol there. We enjoyed burning off some of our pent up energy on the capitol lawn while getting eaten alive by mosquitos. We enjoyed a great take-out dinner from a cute little soda fountain in Charleston.. it would have been much nicer to eat it in the restaurant rather than in our car.

A blurry photo... not so much because of the photographer but because of the fog going over this bridge. Can you make out what it says? It says "Welcome to Ohio".... we needed gas so we got off just at the WVA/OH/KY border. We went to look for ice cream too but the only place in OH that was close was already closed! So we were in OH today for all of about 10 minutes, just to get gas.

Two minutes later, on Route 64, we cross into Kentucky. Better shot, same photographer... See what I mean about how foggy it was?

That's it for now. The kids and Sadie are conked out. We have a shorter day tomorrow. Only 5 hours in the car. Today was 8 hours. I have to say I'm happily impressed with the entire thing. It went very smoothly. The kids were great, Sadie handled it well, Lance is a tirelessly good driver and I'm navigating/organizing/planning as I do best.

So Long Hill Street

The movers arrived right at 9am.

They had almost everything from our house outside on the driveway by about 1pm. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would not rain. We have a LOT of stuff. And I was so proud of myself for ditching so much of it.

We asked our neighbor to come over and snap a photo of us out front. It was about 9:30 at night. The movers were at our house for almost 12 hours. Unfortunately, while the truck itself was big enough, there was another full household worth of stuff on the truck too... going to Fort Collins, CO. And our stuff just did not fit. So, the movers ended up putting a bunch of our stuff in the garage and they picked it up today. Needless to say, that added an edget to an already emotional and stressful day. So this photo is late because of all that. But it is the last picture of the five of us taken at our house (our old house) on Hill Street.

We did not leave Fairfax until almost 10pm. We got to Charlottesville very late and finally got to bed at about 1am. The kids slept in the car on the way down too and were able to fall quickly back to sleep. Sadie did great on the ride and seemed to like the hotel.

2 days and counting...

This is what my house looks like....

It's insanity... the movers will be here tomorrow and hopefully they can help make it better. I'm sick of packing...