Day 31: Leaving Kansas. Come again.
31 Oct 2011 3 Comments
in 31 Days
I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey through Kansas this month. Some days I was scrambling making sure I had a photo, but I loved trying to see how many different parts of Kansas I could document. And this isn’t even half of it – I rarely get to the western part of the state so you mostly got to see the eastern parts.
Because I am insane, I have created a little collage of our adventures. Clicky to embiggen.
Day 30: Getting ready for Ghosts
30 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 31 Days
I was going to post this for October 31, but I realized that I have a wrap up post already set for tomorrow, so I’ll post this a day early.
Kansas is a spooky state. Atchison, which I mentioned previously as the home town of Amelia Earhart, is also known as the state’s most ghostly town which you can visit by trolley. Kansas City is fairly acclaimed for being a city of haunted houses as well, with The Beast garnering rave reviews. As my favorite holiday of Halloween is upon us, we all need a good scare, right?
Okay, well I tend not to be the type who enjoys haunted houses, but who doesn’t love a creepy little graveyard: peaceful by day and spooky by night.
Photo taken August 2011, Stilwell, Kansas.
Day 29: Arboretum
29 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 31 Days
Kansas isn’t entirely made of cities and farmland. There are quite a variety of lovely gardens, but one that we have recently come to love is the Overland Park Arboretum. The Arboretum boasts a number of beautiful gardens which are open for exploration.
There’s the Monet Garden:
The Erickson Water Garden:
And a number of beautiful areas of flowers.
Photos taken October 2010, Overland Park Arboretum, Overland Park, Kansas.
Day 28: Forgotten America
28 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 31 Days
Kansas is not unique in that it has many abandoned properties. As I said in an earlier post Wes loves finding abandoned structures to photograph. This past weekend we took a road trip and ended up using some of the smaller country highways rather than the interstate. We found this house just outside of Overbrook, Kansas.
I questioned Wes about his love for these kinds of photographs and he started talking about how it fascinates him that these beautiful houses and barns that were built by communities of people, possibly a few hundred years ago, now stand empty and forgotten. Did someone die without heirs or a will? Did someone lose the house? Could someone not keep up with the maintenance of an old house? What becomes of these houses and barns?
I’m adding this one to our growing collection, and hope to dedicate one of the huge walls in hour house to a gallery of these breathtaking pictures.
Photo taken by Wes, October 2011 outside of Overbrook, Kansas.
Day 27: The Little Apple
27 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in 31 Days
Located 1340 miles east of “The Big Apple” (Manhattan, NY) is “The Little Apple:” Manhattan, Kansas. Manhattan is a college town at the intersection of the Kansas River and the Big Blue River. It’s home to Kansas State University (go Wildcats!) and is right outside Ft. Riley. It’s also where my in-laws live and my husband went to school, so we spend a decent amount of time there.
Photo taken October 2011, Manhattan, Kansas.
Day 26: Famous Kansans
26 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in 31 Days
There are quite a few notable people who started their lives as Kansans.
Last month, when my parents came to visit we took a little field trip up to Atchison, Kansas to learn about one such notable person: Amelia Earhart. About an hour north of the city, Atchison lies beyond Leavenworth, a small town on the Missouri River and the site of the Atchison-Topeka-Santa-Fe Railroad.
While there, we visited the picturesque Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, the house in which she was born that has now become a museum and hosts some wonderful artifacts of her life. We spent an hour or so immersed in her life from her birth to her solo voyage and her mysterious disappearance.
Photo taken September 2011, Atchison, Kansas.
Day 25: This here’s a tale of Johnny
25 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in 31 Days
Meet Johnny Kaw, Kansas’ answer to Paul Bunyan.
Johnny’s a tall drink of water, coming in at over 30 feet tall. He’s the pioneer wheat farmer of Kansas and he was born in 1966, 11 years after author George Fillinger created him in a series of stories and ink drawings for the Manhattan Centennial. Today he abuts a large park and playground, watching over the children as carefully as he watched over the waving wheat.
Photo taken October 2011 at Manhattan Park, Manhattan, Kansas.
Day 24: Is this Kansas or Oz?
24 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 31 Days
No trip to Kansas would be complete without some mention of Dorothy Gale and her trip to Oz. Wamego, Kansas is home to the Oz Museum and a variety of other Oz themed businesses (Toto’s Tacos, The Wicked Stitch…).
Now where did I put my ruby slippers?
Photo taken October 2011, Wamego, Kansas.
Day 23: Gone Fishin’
23 Oct 2011 5 Comments
in 31 Days
This is the redneck fishing boat I keep stashed on the Kansas River*
Photo taken June 2008, Kansas River, Manhattan, KS.
* Yeah if you believe I’m actually fishing, or on THIS boat, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Day 22: City of Fountains
22 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 31 Days
I bet you didn’t know that Kansas City was the City of Fountains. Neither did I until I moved here. Today there are 47 public fountains, plus countless more in business, shopping and apartment complexes. It is said that the only city with more fountains than Kansas City is Rome.
When we first moved here, Wes and I found out that some enterprising individuals had developed a series of geocaches at the city’s fountains. We set out a few times to explore them.
We did one at the Meyer Circle “Seahorse” Fountain:
And another at the Ward Parkway Mirror Pool Fountain:
There’s also a nice fountain near the Plaza where the Sunflower Knitters Guild of Kansas goes each year for World Wide Knit in Public Day, the J.C. Nichols Fountain:
Just across the way from my office is the Kauffman Foundation Center with beautiful fountains and gardens:
