Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Come

I spent the weekend in Kansas City with my girlfriend and her family. It was a ton of fun. The whole city lights up for Christmas, with more cheer than a college football stadium full of drunken students. We took a horse drawn carriage ride which took us around Crown Plaza, where the majority of the lights are located. Literally every building was outlined in lights, most with other architectural features accentuated. To the right is an example of one such building.

There are few things I enjoy more than spending time in the water, so I was in heaven with the hotel pool. The pool is almost entirely outdoor, with only entry stairs indoors. I can't imagine what it costs to heat the thing year round, but there is something about outdoor swimming in December that seems to make it seem justified. You swimmers out there may be asking yourself right now how the guy in lane 3 can do his flip turn on the far wall with the tunnel there. Excellent question.

Like myself at that age, my girlfriend's nieces love escalators. Sunday morning we had to have gone up and down them twenty times in a row. It was better than any amusement park for them. With so much time on the escalators I was also able to end an age old question - If you send a slinky down the up escalator, will it go on forever? The answer is no. In fact it won't go anywhere. Surprisingly enough the steps are too deep for a slinky to step from one to the next. I guess if I ever want to do this I'll need to build my own slinky. It just might be worth it.

It was great to spend some more time with her family this weekend. Now that I know everyone it was a super relaxed weekend and a great chance to simply kick back, enjoy the time, and get to know everyone better. We played cards (yes, I now know more than Go Fish), chatted, and just hung out. What more does a person need?

The only downside of the trip was how it started. I missed my flight. I've never missed a flight before, granted I've never flown a lot, but I like to think that I'm a bit more responsible than that. I left after work, and gave myself 2 hours and 15 min to get to the airport, big mistake. There was an hour and 45 minutes of traffic on a normally 20 minute drive and Northwest wouldn't allow me to check in 20 minutes prior to the flight taking off so I missed it. I felt terrible about it. Lucky for me I'm dating the most forgiving person and she took the news very well. I caught the first flight Saturday morning and it all worked out well from there. Yet another lesson learned.