I’m Going To Wichita

About two months ago, I volunteered to take a trip to Kansas. One of my bucket list items is to visit all 50 states. I’ve been stuck at 41 states for over a decade, so I jumped at the chance to visit Kansas and bump that number up to 42. Even better, I could tell people that “I’m going to Wichita” and have The White Stripes’ song “Seven Nation Army” in my head constantly.

Fun fact: If you’re in Wichita in the days after the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl, you’re going to hear a lot of discussion about the Chiefs. Since Kansas City is about 3 hours from Wichita, this was not a shocker. Now this is a shocker!

I had a few hours of free time, so I decided to explore Wichita before flying out. First, I stopped by the Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot-tall sculpture where the Big Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers meet. Apparently, there’s a nightly ring of fire ceremony around the sculpture, but I didn’t see it.

Then, I visited the Wichita Art Museum. While I’m used to free museums in Washington DC, I didn’t expect one in Wichita. They have some really neat (technical art term) works and exhibits. I love anything made by Dale Chihuly, so seeing his chandelier and the Chihuly bridge was really neat. (I’m available if anyone needs an art critic!)

Here are some other favorites: 

You can tell that "Chess Game" by Will Barnet is a painting, since in real life, most cats would probably go after the chess pieces!

My kids would absolutely love The Living Room. This looks like so much fun!

I learned that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Allen House is in Wichita, but there weren’t any tours available when I looked into visiting. I guess I’ll just need to take another trip to Fallingwater to make up for this. I did, however, stop by the Ulrich Museum of Art on the campus Wichita State University. Again, free! This was probably my favorite work. 

A bar with some weights on it next to a black and yellow painting. No big deal, right? Check out the portion of the video though. 

The artist painted while lifting weights. So cool! I just wish I wrote down her name and the title of her work. Here are a two other pictures I took from the Ulrich:

As I was writing this post, I learned that The Original Pizza Hut Museum is also at Wichita State. Although I didn’t plan on visiting, the fact that I was less than a mile away is somewhat devastating. If I realized I was so close, I definitely would have checked it out.

I had a bizarre restaurant experience. When I arrived for dinner, I was asked if I had a reservation. When I said no, I was told there would be a 30-minute wait. I said that would be fine since I needed to run to Walmart to get a lint brush since some of my clothes managed to have hair from Ziggy on them. I returned and was seated…in a fairly empty restaurant. In the time I was there, I counted 8 other tables with customers and triple the amount of empty tables. My guess is that they were short staffed as there were only two servers. I was told I could only order wine or beer since the bartender called out. The restaurant was also out of bread and baked potatoes. The food was good, but not good enough to deal with slow service and a limited menu. 

I get that the news station’s call letter’s are KAKE, but KAKEland? 

I’m home now, so I guess I can say/write that I have a feeling I’m not in Kansas anymore.