We went on a long trip over Christmas. I kept notes each day, and am just getting around to posting it.
Wednesday, December 21st
Drove from Greenville, SC to West Monroe, LA. Stayed a unicorn hotel with awesome internet.
Thursday, December 22nd
Drove from West Monroe, LA to Denton, TX. Adalyn loved all the stacked interchanges in Dallas and the big buildings. We hung out with my sister and brother-in-law and had a wonderful Christmas dinner. It was nice enough outside to have an afternoon full of football. Ella had a really rough night.
Friday, December 23rd
Spent more time with Carrie and Daniel, went to a sweet park and awesome outdoor art space. We left Denton at 8:00 PM for Hutchinson, KS. It was not quite a 6 hour drive. More pictures from Denton here.
Saturday, December 24th
Christmas Eve started out with not enough sleep and too much coffee. We played football and Ben took a header to the face. It was great to see family and the kids had a blast opening presents. Ben and Landon had a really hard time falling asleep. So much coughing.
Sunday, December 25th
Landon woke up at 5 AM Christmas morning with an awful cough and difficulty breathing. After being unable to get his breathing under control, we took him to the emergency room. The doctors measured his stats and took x-rays, but were unable to come up with any sort of reason. We figure it was all the dogs, but who knows. After a few breathing treatments and a dose of steroids we were discharged. Rather hurriedly, I might add. When we declined the antibiotics, they took a bit of a hostile attitude towards us. After getting back to the house, we packed up and headed to Topeka, KS.
Monday, December 26th
Originally, the plan was to leave Topeka, stay in Kansas City for a day, then head to Pella, IA to see my parents for a few days. After talking to my Dad, and considering Landon’s ER trip, we decided it would be better to travel less. So instead of going to Pella, my parents came to KC. We found a good deal on two rooms in the business district of downtown KC and headed there after lunch. We met up with friends at Union Station and ogled at trains for a few hours.
Tuesday, December 27th
We went to K-Macho in Olathe for the EnGraph Christmas lunch. Then a quick stop at Caribou Coffee because they don’t have of that in The South. Once we got back to the hotel, we hopped on the streetcar and wandered around River Market for a bit.
Wednesday, December 28th
My parents took Ben and Adalyn to Science City, I took Landon and Ella to Columbus Park and Chelsea went to visit a friend. That afternoon we wandered around downtown KC and ended up at Ilus Davis park. It was a neat greenspace in the block between City Hall and a US District Court. I liked the juxtaposition of city punk skateboarders occupying the space between so much stuffy government activity. I’d love to go back when the fountains are on. (Picture of Ben and Adalyn at the park) The plan was Jason’s Deli for supper because that is one of the restaurants that Landon can eat at, but they apparently close at 3:00 PM (yeah, seriously!). We tried to find a different place, but we were right by the convention center (sunset over said convention center) which was hosting a conference for 20,000 people (yeah, seriously) and they had just let out for supper. Competing for sidewalk space resembled a running of the bulls and finding allergy friendly food was out of the question. So we headed back to the hotel and feed Landon and Ella leftover chicken, then my Dad and I went and got Minsky’s for the rest of us.
Thursday, December 29th
We packed up and left KC around 9:00 AM. It was a slow start, but we made it the whole way home. It took 16 hours and we ran into a little snowstorm in the NC mountains, but we still made it.