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:
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.
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