Kansas, 2023

Here we goooo.

Side note: my goal was to finish 2023 stuff by the end of January, but I didn’t quite make it (still have at least one more post to go besides this one). But you know what: I almost made it. And for me, given the amount of responsibilities I have on the daily while also living in a country in accelerated decline: I think “almost” is good enough 🙂

So! Time to knock out the annual Kansas Trip post. As a precursor, I’m presenting a picture of my little budding photographer. I got the family (as a whole) a little cheap instant camera in 2022 and by November 2023, Linus claimed it as his own and started taking it along with him. Like on this little errand run to Target before we hit the road to Kansas. He is always framing up shots in the viewfinder but saves his film for important stuff. A very mindful, careful photographer.

So! As usual, life was a whirlwind before we left – I was in St. Louis for a work meeting for a week, we were dealing with all the usual pre-holiday school events, then out the door we went. Hello, Kansas.

I mean… but first, Iowa. A good chunk of our drive is through Iowa. When the boys were very smol and we were weary and strapped for cash because all our money was going to daycare, about half the time we would drink lots and lots of gas station coffee and do it in a day. It usually meant 12-14 hours in the car, by the time you accounted for all the stops for little kids to use the bathroom or run off energy or feed them, etc. It made for a long, tiring day and an exhausting start to an entire week of visiting with people.

Those days, thankfully, are well behind us. Now we just boogie out of work a little early on Friday, leaving right after the kids get out of school, and knock out about the first 5 hours. Then we celebrate by staying the night in Des Moines, which we love. Cute downtown, great museums, surprising little food scene, and easy to drive around. And the parks: they have a fantastic sculpture park! I went from thinking of Des Moines as a small flat town in the middle of corn country to realizing it’s actually a cool little gem.

I mean, sure: it’s surrounded by wind-powered forests. But Des Moines, we love!

We stayed at a downtown suite hotel, can’t remember the name (definitely a Marriott, because I know we used our Marriott Rewards there, they gave us a cute little gift basket of bottled waters and treats at check-in). Anyway! A roomy suite, with a living area pull-out couch situation that Pete claimed, and Linus begged to sleep in the King-sized bedroom with Scott and I. THE LAST TIME I SWEAR. He was a little too old for this and took up a big chunk of the bed, us grown-ups didn’t sleep well.

One of our favorite spots in Des Moines is El Bait Shop, and it was a quick walk from our hotel. SCORE. Always solid food, and an insane beer list. They had Fistmas in stock that year, my favorite obscure holiday beer! They always have liver and onions on their menu and I order it 90% of the time, because it’s honestly consistently delicious. Tender liver (never rubbery or tough), perfectly grilled onions, so dreamy. Almost (almost) as good as my dad makes.

We had a nice, relaxing dinner to start off our long trip, then walked back to the hotel and watched some Food Theory videos (learned a lot about bottled water…) and then tucked in for the night.

Once Linus settled down, anyway. So excited, so full of energy. PACE YOURSELF AND SAVE SOME FOR THE REST OF THE TRIP, KID.

Eventually, he settled down and went to sleep and we all good a bit of shut eye. Then in the morning: up and at ’em, off again, and on to Missouri.

So beautiful, that Missouri.

And of course: time for some BBQ.

Tried a new place this time, Harp. Good bbq, great sides (as you know I’m a brat about sides). Mom approved.

We stopped to see my brother Paulo and fam while in the KC area, then on to Lawrence.

Linus brought his camera and he was ready. Much film used this day.

We walked all over downtown.

Lawrence was getting ready for Christmas while we were there, always get an old homey feeling seeing the behind-the-scenes view of the businesses prepping.

Oh, Waxmans. I fell in love with their ceramics this trip. Also, listen: Buff was always my ultimate scent jam, I burned it almost exclusively when we lived in Lawrence, but now I stock up on Lawrence and House scents when we’re back. They always smell like the homes of all my friends in Lawrence to me.

After Waxmans we always have to hit up Java Break. Always dig the vibes and the playlists as well as the coffee.

Then time to leave downtown and find our airbnb for the night.

This year, I got an airbnb. For a refresher: we used to rent airbnbs in Lawrence years ago, but then switched to hotels because they became cheaper, however: on this trip we boomeranged back to an airbnb, because I found a super cheap one, it was like $100. Insanely cheap.

But here’s why – it was not a house or apartment, but actually a little insulated shed behind some dude’s house. So: we had parking privileges on his driveway, but were staying in a literal shed thing in the backyard. And he mentioned that he had a little wagon for us to use to drag our stuff back to the shed area. Cool.

Woohoo, here we go.

Listen: it was small, okay? But it was also only for one night, and to be real: it was actually bigger and nicer than your usual hotel room. It also had a loft with a small sitting area, its own TV, and two beds for the boys, which was perfect.

(The loft did have like, the lowest of ceilings, it’s truly meant for kids and thankfully we did this before Pete’s big growth spurt.)

We pulled all our stuff back to the shed, settled in, and then walked down the street (literally, a block down the street!) to one of our old favorite strip malls for dinner.

Back in the early 2000s, this was a familiar stop for us. Scott and I used to head here regularly on Friday nights. There was a Hastings, where on any given Friday night we could be found perusing the aisles to rent a movie or two for the weekend (sometimes also snag some snacks or a book/magazine or some little pop culture related tchotchke). We’d then grab a bottle of wine at this great wine shop next door, and head home to make a nice fancy grownup dinner (likely a recipe from Food Network, think creamy cajun chicken pasta or honey garlic shrimp stir fry, those recipes sure bring back memories lol), after which we’d settle in to unwind after what was likely a long, stressful week of early 2000s cubicle hell from our respective jobs.

Now, there’s no more Hastings and no more fancy wine store. Instead, it’s mostly bars and restaurants, including the very lovely Lucky Seb’s.

What a gem.

It’s housed in what used to a be a basic Chinese buffet place, with florescent lighting. Now it’s dark with moody lighting. And the food! The dumplings, Korean chicken sandwiches, and fried rice were DIVINE. Top tier, Chicago level casual Korean. And the cocktails were cute too.

We dragged ourselves back to the airbnb, where we all zonked out but then I got up bright and early to run some errands and then meet a friend for a coffee. This is the sunrise I caught from the airbnb driveway before I headed out. Lord almighty, but nothing beats a Kansas sunrise.

Siiiigh, that sun.

Anyway. I ran off to get the fam some Munchers to squirrel away in the car before meeting up with Fuger. Also stopped at the Merc for supplies.

Fuger and I had coffees and treats at 1900 Barker, and spent way too long talking which took us a bit off schedule (whoops!).

I headed back to the airbnb, where the fam annihilated the donuts. They got ready, we wagon-ed all our stuff back to the car, then away we went to Pittsburg. Home of Fried Chicken.

Hello, Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s. By the time we hit Pitt it was late afternoon, so they were ready to tuck in to their fried chicken and seemingly neverending array of side dishes.

Southeast Kansas has been famous for its fried chicken since the 1930s, and while everyone has their favorites (cough cough Barto’s for us, but it’s usually closed when we are in town), all of the stops are worth a stop. And Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s did not disappoint.

Linus offered to take a rare picture of his parents, with my camera. It was… well, as to be expected.

Food food food.

So I didn’t take any pictures of our area airbnb this time, but if you were around last year: we stayed at the same spot. Here’s a picture from my phone:

Three bedrooms and two baths, very clean and roomy, loved it, only negative is that it’s in Joplin which at this point: kinda far from all family members. Womp, womp. Ended up being the last time we stayed there actually, because thankfully there are now a few more options in Pittsburg.

ANYWAY. While in Joplin, my dearest friend Nikki drove over to meet me up there yet again, so we did a lot of shopping, a lot of car talk-shop time, a long breakfast, and some afternoon final meet-up at Joplin Greenhouse. Some good coffee and brunch and I miss her so much, I do. Never enough time.

I got the Bee’s Knees latte. SO GOOD. Grabbed a bottle of the syrup too, thank the lord (more on that later).

Back to the Joplin airbnb! Beah et al. showed up, we made a fancy baked brie (see below), made bracelets, opened gifts, watched the Barbie movie, and overall the time went way too fast as usual.

Before heading out west the next morning, I insisted on one last stop at Joplin Greenhouse. Coffee shop + Greenhouse, this place was my dream.

I perused the plants, while the guys got puffles and coffees. Picked up a few new-to-me Hoyas, and they are still kicking (even after the culture shock of not only being dragged up to Wisconsin, but then having a big move to northern Minnesota this year).

Photoshoot in the Christmas tree lot in front of the store, then off we went.

Helloo, Great Plains.

Stopped for lunch at Spangles. Listen: I loved a good Spangles, but gotta say: I think this chain has seen better days.

But we still had a good time! Despite being the only ones in the entire restaurant, and the good wasn’t the best.

Next stop: Alfie and Kris’ house. They are full-on cat people now in retirement, and we are here for it.

Linus stole my phone and caught this moment of me in complete cat adoration.

After that: to the south-central KS airbnb. Again: the huge one.

Last time, the boys were so freaked out by the sheer size of this massive airbnb, that they insisted on sleeping on a pull-out couch together. This time, they each accepted having their own bedroom. Baby steps, y’all.

Sad news: I thought I was fighting a sinus infection before we got here, but by this point it was pretty clear that I had a nasty case of the flu. Totally moved to my chest, lots of pain and short of breath with a high fever. No fun, no fun at all. But! In true middle-aged boss girl fashion: I still woke up before everyone in the house and wrapped/packed all in-law gifts, and also logged on to a 2-hour work webinar (because dammit, my office paid $100 for me to attend and I wasn’t going to waste it). Kill me. Adulting is a trap.

This is where the blog gets boring and shortened. I missed all sorts of family stuff. Scottie took the kids while I labored away trying not to die in our airbnb master bedroom. And I thank the LORD that I picked up that bees-knees syrup, a honey blend, which I ended up busting out to stir into all my many cups of chamomile tea. I did my best to rally so I could meet up with family for the holiday that we TRAVELED ALL THIS WAY TO CELEBRATE.

Here’s my convalescing room.

Not the worst! Also there was a nice jacuzzi in the adjorning bathroom, that I thought about using but never really had the strength to get it going.

Hal was my nurse. Even with the extra room here, Scott still slept in this bed with my diseased self.

Lovely sunset light from the room right off my deathbed bedroom:

ANYWAY. That was my life for two days. I was sick like that for DAYS. My chest hurt, my back throbbed in pain, my head hurt. My mom always got really sick when she’d contract the flu and I always worry about being the same as I got older. Unfortunately I’ve had the same sort of terrible flu already again in 2023, so totally freaked out this may be my future for the rest of my life. Great. GREAT. GETTING OLD IS SO FUN.

Thanksgiving day, Scott took the kids to his aunt’s house. Mid-day, he brought Linus back to spend the afternoon with me as he was overwhelmed and missing mom. He smuggled me a plate of Thanksgiving goodies (insert heart eyes), then headed back to spend the day with family. He promised to come back and take us to the bonfire in the evening, so we tried to get some relax-y time before the night descended.

Spot the overstimulated Linus, disassociating on the floor while he tried to rally himself.

Scott came back. We rally-ed. Away we went.

Such a gorgeous sunset.

Yay, made it for bonfire!

We hung out, until my diseased, fevered ass needed some warmth – shortly after the photo below Linus and I fled to our car, blasted the heat, and he ate some twizzlers.

It was our last night, so after the bonfire we headed to the in-laws for Christmas gift exchange.

Then back to our airbnb, did a crap-ton of laundry and packed, then fell into bed exhausted because: we’re off the next morning.

I still felt like shit, but hello: coffee. May she bring me back to life.

Stopped for some candy at Nifty Nuthouse, then right up to Lawrence so I could hide and rest in our hotel room.

It is a terribly flat drive. Great for sunrise/sunset! But a struggle for long daytime driving.

We got to the hotel, rested, and I demanded some Tom Kha for dinner. Tom Kha heals all. Hello: Zen Zero.

OMG the most healing of soups. I added lots of chili sauce to clean out the sinuses.

After shivering through a lovely dinner of the best soup: we walked on back to our room.

After a few hours of convalescing, I offered to take the kids to the hotel’s natural saltwater pool, thinking it would be good for my lungs. Ha. Haha. No, it was just like any pool room, truly a humidity bomb to the face and that soggy air didn’t do anything for my wellbeing. Womp, womp. At least the kids had a good time.

Went back to the room, had a terrible night of sleep, then headed back to Madison. But hey, I felt a bit less like death, and the fever was gone (!!). Stopped at our favorite hidden gem of Des Moines, a BBQ mecca in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cornfields:

SO GOOD SO HEALING. The best BBQ sides you guys.

And that’s it, fam. We made it, I didn’t die or need to be hospitalized (… this time). We always love a Kansas trip. And thankfully (spoiler alert): I wasn’t sick on the next visit.

On to the next one…