Walking the Dales Way - May 2013

In May, eight of us from Sacramento (Lisa and Richard, Barb and Howard, Shelley and John and Nancy and myself) set off on a little hike in the Yorkshire Dales.  The so-called Dales Way from Ilkley to Bowness on Windemere.  A seven day trip of some 80 odd miles through some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK.

The trip was arranged and supported by a group called Contours Hiking Holidays.  They arranged the nightly accommodations in hotels or B and B’s, the transfer of our bags each day from one location to the next and  all we had to do was walk with a small day pack.  It's a great way to hike.

We assembled in Ilkley on the Monday afternoon and checked into our first hotel, The Crescent Hotel - a nice renovated coaching hotel in the middle of town.  Ilkley is home to a Betty’s Tea Room and it was obligatory to pay them a visit.  Betty's is a very fine establishment that I had visited previously in their Harrogate location.  They are well worth a visit if you come across one.  They are famous for their tea selection and something called the Fat Rascal scone.   

Ilkley is a nice old spa town; very gentrified these days and it is perhaps a little on the expensive side as far as housing is concerned as it is well within the commuter belt for the city of Leeds.

The weather was not favourable for the start of our hike.  As we sat in the hotel bar that evening, the rain outside was coming down vertically, then horizontally from the right to left, then horizontally from the left to right.   All interspersed with breaks of sunshine.  I purchased an umbrella and a bottle of water-proofing spray.  I figured they would serve me well.

The next morning it was indeed showery so we all kitted up with our rain gear and off we went on the banks of the River Wharfe.  The Dales Way trail follows the river for a major part of the way.

Points of interest on this first day:

• St Peter’s Church in Addingham
• The Quaker Meeting House near Beamsley
• Bolton Abbey and Bolton Priory
• The Strid - a narrow section of the River Wharfe where the water surges down the narrows, apparently wide enough for someone to “stride”across.
  
  

Bolton Abbey

The nights accommodation was at the Red Lion in Burnsall.   A very nice establishment with good beer and good food.

The next day was again wet and we walked on the increasingly flooding River Wharfe.   The river was really flowing and in several place it encroached on the footpath making progress a little tricky.

The River Wharfe at Litton

Things of note today were:

• The high water flows over the Litton Falls and past the village of Litton
• Lunch in the Devonshire Hotel in the town of Grassington
• A restored Limestone Kiln on the moors above Conistone
• Sheep everywhere, cute little lambs everywhere.

That night we were in a B and B in Kettlewell.  A delightful little village, which I later learned was the location for the filming of the movie Calendar Girls.   We were to spend two nights in Kettlewell and there were two pubs in Kettlewell, so this first night we dined at the Blue Bell Inn.   Meat and Potato Pie - lovely.

Kettlewell

The next day was again on the River Wharfe but now we were higher up and closer to the source so the river was not so wide or fast flowing.    We lunched at a Tea Room in Buckden before continuing on to Hubberholme, Yockenthwaite, Beckermonds and finally Oughtershaw.   Nothing noteworthy other than the beautiful scenery.

In Oughtershaw there is no accommodation, so we were to be picked up by a taxi and transported back to our previous night’s lodging in Kettlewell.  It was a bit tight, time wise, for the taxi pickup as we underestimated our progress during the day (or we dallied too long over lunch).   

Our second night we dined in the Race Horses Inn in Kettlewell - perhaps slightly better than the Blue Bell but there’s not much in it.  I should mention that our hosts at the B and B provided us with an outstanding breakfast every morning.  As in all cases along the way, we had the “Full English Breakfast” - a fine way to start out the day.

On the next day, our fourth, we were no longer on the River Wharfe and we had a bit of a climb from Oughtershaw up to Cam Fell where we joined for a brief period the Penine Way.   From the tops we had a distant view of the very fine Ribblehead Viaduct before dropping down into the interestingly named Far Gearstones (it is just a couple of farm houses really). Then we climbed up the side of Blea Moor over some pretty rough boggy terrain before dropping down on the road under Dent Head Viaduct and on to Cow Gill.

Ribblehead Viaduct

Of note today:

• Sheep and Lambs of course, they are everywhere
• Cam Houses - a nice renovation of a very remote house.
• Winshaw - the half way point of the hike.
• The Viaducts - wonderful examples of Industrial Architecture on the Sedbergh to Carlisle railway.
• Dead Moles hanging on barbed wire to, allegedly, to deter moles from the field.
• Brass Instrument repair shop in Lea Yeat.
• The Sportsman’s Inn - so anticipated but closed when we got there.  It shouldn’t be allowed to close in the late afternoon.

Moles on a fence

In Lea Yeat, the end of our hike for the day, we were again picked up by a taxi and taken into Sedbergh.  Sedbergh is known for its Public School (for American readers, a Public School is not really that - it is a private school) and pretty much anything in the town revolves around the school.  It is also known as a book town, but, to be honest, I didn’t see much evidence of this.

We stayed in the Bull Hotel.  An old hotel in the center of town that had seen better days but had an attentive owner that was trying very hard to accommodate our every need (cleaning boots, laundry, medical attention, etc).  Thanks to Richard L. for engaging the locals and bringing the local “poet”, also named Richard, to regale us with his poems at the dinner table.

The next day our taxi delivered us back to Lea Yeat where we resumed our walk.  This was our wettest start to a day.  The rain was pouring down as we got going this morning and it didn’t relent much until the afternoon.

Notable things today were:

• Sheep and Lambs of course, again
• Adam Sedgwick’s birthplace in Dent (one of the founders of modern geology)
• The terrible knitters of Dent - quite speedy knotters with an un conventional technique

We finished the day back at Sedbergh and our same room at the Bull Hotel.

On our penultimate day, we walked from Sedbergh along the banks of the River Lune and then over the fields to our finish near Grayrigg.  The weather wasn’t too bad on this day but there was lots of mud and standing water to negotiate.  We were used to those conditions by now.

While we were walking from 10 to 13 miles per day, it always seemed to take us longer than we expected.   It wasn’t just 10 to 13 miles of straight walking, it was an endless sequence of stiles and gates, and where was the wettest and muddiest place in the entire field, it was where the gate or stile was.   That’s why it took us longer than expected to walk a mile.

Of interest today:

• The Lune Viaduct
• Lincoln’s Inn Bridge
• The Lowgill Viaduct
• The M6 Motorway crossing

At the end of the hike today we again had a taxi pick up.  We timed it better today and we arrived at the road crossing near Grayrigg a few minutes before the taxi did.  We were taken into Kendal where the marvelous Beech House B and B awaited us.  We dined in town that night in the bar at the Brewery Arts Complex, an entertainment and dining center in the old Vaux Brewery building.

On our final day again we had a taxi pick up and we were taken to our end point of the prior evening.   The weather was nice, our best day of the week.  We had some nice leisurely walking across grassy fields with lots of sheep.  Nothing spectacular, just nice walking.

We lunched in Staveley before continuing our way up the hill and over the top to Bowness.

Of note on this last day:

• Swans mating on a lake
• the Mill on the River Kent
• The Eagle and Child Pub in Staveley

We finally dropped down into Bowness on Windemere fairly late in the day.  It was our longest day’s hike and we were tired.  Someone kept a count of stiles and gates and, as I recall, it was something like 50 odd stiles and 30 or so gates.   That makes for slow progress sometimes.

It was a wonderful week through some beautiful countryside.  Despite the less than perfect weather we had a great time.  Next year - Coast to Coast, or Hadrian’s Wall?

As usual there are more photos on my SmugMug site here.

Utah Off Road Trip - April 2013

At the end of April I went on another off-road trip to Southern Utah.   This one, organized by Tom Ferrin, was going to be a 2 week trip.  I opted for the first week so that I could get back to Sacramento for my planned trip to the UK.   As it turned out, my trip was even shorter than a week.

It was a Saturday morning departure where everything went according to plan - Tom was the first to leave from Mill Valley, Andy and I joined him as he passed through Sacramento and Dan joined us as we passed through Reno.  Four humans, four Land Cruisers, not the most efficient means of transportation, but it is fun.

We drove straight through on the Saturday and reached the far east side of Nevada by Saturday evening.  We camped in the Great Basin National Park in a nice spot we have used before.  It was still cool and there were banks of snow around.  I, of course, was the only one camping on the ground, the others were inside or on top of their well appointed vehicles.

Burr Trail

The next day, Sunday, we crossed into Utah and went down Highway 12 to Escalante.  From there we made for Boulder Town where we joined the Burr Trail.  The Burr Trail is a beautiful road, fairly well paved for most of the way with some absolutely stunning scenery.  We then took a side road into Horse Canyon.  This was all dirt, and dusty dirt at that.  The scenery in Southern Utah never seems to disappoint.  It goes from one spectacular view to another.

Horse Canyon

We found a nice camp spot in the canyon and decided to make camp there beneath the towering cliffs of the canyon walls.  Tom was on cook duty that night and we were treated to some fine crab cakes with the usual trimmings of fine wine and fine cheeses.   Life off-road is certainly tough.

Tom at camp in Horse Canyon

The next morning we drove out of the canyon and wandered around on various trails - possibly the Silver Falls, or Moody Canyon or Wolverine Loop trails.   We lunched by some interestingly colored deposits that I as a geologist could not identify (no surprise there) but Tom took his hand held Geiger Counter out (never travel without one) and found them to have a higher level of background radiation.  Perhaps some sort of Uranium related deposit - there was a lot of exploration for Uranium ores here the 40’s and 50’s.

After lunch we headed back up to join the Burr Trail and that’s when my problems started.  Getting onto tarmac again and leaving the dust behind, Andy commented on a puff of smoke from my exhaust.  Stopping to take a picture at the top of the downgrade, I also saw smoke - not from the exhaust but from the front left brake pads.   Something was seriously wrong.

Of course the other guys just love this sort of problem and pretty soon we were removing the wheel and checking out the damage to the brakes and bearings.  It was not good, the lock washer that basically holds the front wheel on had backed off and the wheel was really being held on by the brake pads - hence the smoke and heat.

Roadside Repairs

Between Andy, Tom and Dan they were able to piece together most of the things that I needed to get moving again.  Andy had a spare spindle, Tom had bearings, I can’t remember what Dan had but I am sure he contributed something.  We were a couple of parts away from a complete repair however as we were missing one lock-nut and sufficient high temperature grease.  It was however good enough to get me down the hill and back onto tarmac in Hanksville.

The trail down the grade was good but the drop was significant.  Fortunately for me that we discovered this problem at the top of the hill and not on the way down.   That could have been a different story altogether.

I crept down the hill - the most spectacular part of the Burr Trail checking the front wheel with some frequency.  It held up just fine and it held up just fine all the way to Hanksville.

Dan, Andy, Tom

In Hanksville we refueled and I had to make a decision.  Search around in these small towns for parts to complete the repair (highly unlikely), go to Moab and find the parts at the Cruise Moab convention (a Land Cruiser Off Road get together), or go to Salt Lake City and visit the Toyota Dealer there.  

I chose the last option and drove very slowly the 230 odd miles to Salt Lake City.  Cutting short my trip but that’s what circumstances dictated.  It was a bit of a tedious drive to SLC but I made it around midnight and got a room not far from the Toyota dealership.

Next morning I took my truck in and explained what had gone wrong.  They investigated and found that even without one of the two lock nuts, things were still nice and tight.  They fixed me up and repacked things with grease and I was all set to continue on by 10:00 am.

Given that I was early and had never explored Salt Lake City I decided to look around.  Of course what do you do in Salt Lake City - you look at the Mormon Church stuff in the downtown area.  I went around the museum, looked at the Tabernacle and then went into the Genealogy Center.  I wasn’t expecting to find much but they were most helpful and they have an entire floor dedicated to UK genealogy records.  What they did provide was free access to Ancestry.co.uk and there I found all sorts of interesting things starting in the 1911 census and going back in 10 year increments to around 1851 when all traces of my forebears disappeared.  I should get more serious about that and dig into things in more detail.  

The most remarkable thing I found was that my Grandfather White was working in a shoe factory when he was 14 years old, and my Olivent Grandparents by 1911 already had 8 children but 2 were already dead.  They went on to have 11 living children I think.

After spending more time than I anticipated researching my ancestry, I left SLC in the late afternoon and made it as far as Elko for the night.   I struggled to find a hotel in Elko.  It is in the middle of a mining boom at the moment and hotels are pretty scarce when you drop in at 8:00 pm at night. Eventually I found a vacancy and I was set for the night.

The following day it was a pretty easy drive from Elko into California and home.

Jordan - January 2013

At the end of January, Nancy and I made a short (1 week) trip to Jordan.   We were in the UK and it seemed like Jordan would be far enough to the south to provide some warmer weather.   We left a cold and snowy England for Amman where it was warmer, but actually not as warm as I expected for somewhere that far south.  It was a pretty unstructured trip - we had a flight on EasyJet and a hotel in Amman for a couple of nights.  Beyond that we had no definite plans.

We arrived in Amman in late Thursday afternoon and took a taxi to our hotel - the most adequate Hotel Toledo.  Amman is a large city (over 3 million people in the greater urban area), an old city (its been around since biblical times), and quite hilly (that made it difficult to get a sense of where you were in relation to anything else - a confusing city).  That first night we walked down the hill from our hotel to the center of the old part of town.   Nothing very impressive, but we had a nice vegetarian meal at the Restaurant Hashim, the oldest restaurant in Amman - a nice outdoor dining experience.

The next morning, Friday, we met with a friend of a friend from Sacramento.   Merrill, who herself was from Sacramento, had been working in Amman for 4 or 5 years - teaching at an English school there.  Our good friend Margaret in Sacramento had put us in touch with her before we left. The three of us  had brunch together on Rainbow Street, a nice gentrified area in the old town, and she gave us a few tips about where to go, what to do and see and assisted us with the rental of a car.  It is likely an interesting life being an English teacher in Jordan.

Amman

After brunch we were off on a walkabout in Amman - down to the old part of town, and up the hill to the Citadel, the Roman ruins standing over the old part of town.   The Roman ruins were interesting enough but not spectacular.    The more interesting stuff was down in the bustle of the town itself - the markets, the butchers shops, the veiled women, the male dominated society (very few women walking around), the cute kids, ...

On Saturday morning we decided not to hang around in Amman any more but to head out for the south of the country. Our rental car was conveniently delivered to our hotel and, even more conveniently, the rental car man drove with us until we were on the outskirts of town (in exchange for the taxi fare back).  I don’t think we would have been able to navigate our exit from Amman by ourselves - it is an extremely complicated city to drive in.  While Amman is obviously a very large and important city, neither of us felt any attachment to it - it had a nice old section, some impressive new large modern buildings showing some serious present day investment but nothing that made us want to return.

We drove south towards the Wadi Rum area.  This is the desert area just north of Aqaba and the Red Sea.   It is the area where Lawrence of Arabia did some of his work with the Bedouins and it has become one of the spots where tourists can experience the desert.  We signed up for a 4-wheel drive trip into the desert, a nights camping in the desert and, yes, a camel ride back to our car.

The Desert at Wadi Rum

We left our car at the Wadi Rum visitor center and set off on our 4-wheel trip.  We were taken by our driver in his beat up Toyota pick-up around various interesting sites - a spring where Lawrence might have visited, a building where Lawrence might have stayed, the occasional petroglyphs from some ancient time but what was really impressive was some beautiful desert scenery - majestic cliffs, slot canyons, wide expanses of sand, really massive sand dunes. We did a bit of walking and climbing on rocks and sand dunes and finished off with a cup of tea in a Bedouin tent before we left for our campsite for the night. It was called a camp site, but it wasn’t at all primitive. The ‘tents’ were fairly nice structures and each contained a bed with a ton of blankets to keep us warm in the cold desert night.   While there was no hot water, there was water. We were quite comfortable.

We were awoken in the middle of the night by a storm.  It was an incredible storm that went on for hours - thunder rolled around the valley, lightening lit up the cliff behind our tent as if it were daylight, the rain poured down and streams were running down the valley floor.  I went outside to find a waterfall that was gushing out of the cliff behind the camp.  Epic stuff.  I think it was quite a significant storm by Jordanian standards - it was talked about a lot over the next day or two. 

By the next morning (Sunday) the storm had passed and the streams of water had disappeared. Unfortunately the storm had somehow caused our camels (we were supposed to ride back to the road on camels) to get lost in the desert (that's not very encouraging).  Plan B was brought into play and we drive back to the road and picked up different camels for a trip into the desert from there.  I must say the camel ride was interesting, but the camel is not a comfortable animal to ride on (at least not for the novice) and I soon regretted the 2 hour ride that we had signed up for.   I think 10 minutes would have been sufficient.   There was a lot of lurching around and the way they kneel down for the dismount or get up to start moving is decidedly scary requiring some serious holding on.

Camels for two

After our ordeal on the camel came to an end we got back in the car and continued our journey south to Aqaba on the Red Sea coast.  Aqaba is the main port in Jordan and the point of entry for most goods coming into the region.  There was lots of truck traffic going up and down the grade from the high desert to the coast at Aqaba.  

In Aqaba we were just going to do a quick look around, dip our feet in the Red Sea and then head back up towards Petra where we wanted to stay that night.  In search of a cup of coffee we went into the local McDonalds (shame on us) - very clean, quite nice, and, above all else, free wi-fi. We ended up staying for a burger and fries and ice cream (even more shame on us).   We followed this up with a trip to the beach where we found all the men folk swimming in the sea while all the women dressed in their black tunics and veils and were sitting on chairs on the beach - very strange.   We did the obligatory paddle in the Red Sea, took a few photos and then off we went back up north towards Petra.

 

The beach at Aqaba

The drive north was uneventful - we climbed up to higher ground, passed some remnants of the prior week’s snowfall, saw lots of goats and sheep and by around 4:00 pm we were in  Petra.  We stayed in one of the nicer hotels (the Movenpick) near the entrance to the Petra archaeological site so that we could get an early start for our sightseeing the next day.  

The next day (Monday), we did have an early start into the ruins of Petra.  Petra is a world class site and the Jordanians are not bashful about charging for entry - the price for a ticket was US $100 per person. The price included a horse ride to the entrance of the canyon. Nancy took the ride, I didn’t - I had had enough or riding on big smelly animals.   

The entrance to Petra is through a narrow slot canyon which runs for around 1 mile to the main settlement.   There is one picture everyone sees of Petra and that is of the Treasury Building.   It is the most impressive building at the site and it is revealed as you leave the slot canyon.   It is breathtaking to say the least.

The Treasury, Petra

The Treasury is so impressive because it’s sandstone front has been protected by the canyon walls from the elements.   Other structures at the site were surely as impressive or more impressive but they are more exposed to the elements and some of the detail has been eroded away.  Petra was built by the Nabataeans - a culture that I was not even aware of.  They were successful for a short time in that part of the world controlling the trade from the East to the Middle East and Southern Europe.

The entire Petra site is quite large and I am sure you could spend a couple of days to cover all the different structures.  We hiked pretty seriously and pretty quickly for a good 8 hours covering a lot of ground.  We finished the day with a strenuous hike up to the so-called Monastery.  A building in one of the more remote areas of the site, way up on top of the hill.

The Monastery, Petra

The entire complex is a sedimentologist's dream - sandstone cliffs with every color of sand you could imagine.  The structures are carved into these cliffs and typically that is all they are just frontispieces. The interiors are typically unadorned and just square rooms cut into the rock that were mostly used as tombs.

That evening we were weary from the hiking but there was a little bit of light left so we headed out of Petra for the north.  We were heading for the village of Dana, where there is a relatively new “ecological preserve”.   The journey turned out to be somewhat eventful - it started with wind and rain as we left Petra and then degenerated into sleet and snow.   Finally as we headed up the hill towards Dana the fog and mist came in.  We were crawling along at a snail’s pace trying to find the right turning to our village.   A little later than expected, after a missed turning and a slow drive down a dirt road we finally found our hotel.  

The next day we explored the village of Dana - not much there.  For the most part it was a ruined village on the side of a canyon with beautiful views across the surrounding country.  There were several hotels, with little sign of any guests - it was the low season and the troubles in Syria had made it a particularly slow off-season.

With nothing to keep us in Dana we headed out continuing north towards Kerak where there is a Crusader Fort.  It was an impressive looking fort but we couldn’t find the entrance so we decided that the most impressive thing was perhaps the view of the fort from the outside and so we continued on towards the Dead Sea. 
 
We wound down the side of the mountain to the lowlands of the Dead Sea.   I think that somewhere nearby would be the lowest point on the planet.   We did pass the Sea Level sign halfway down the side of the mountain.   

Sea Level above the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea was pretty barren - there were no beaches or access points to the water as far as I could see and no life on the water.  We headed up to the north side of the sea where all the hotels are.   It was all very strange - you drive for miles with barely any civilization at all and then there is a cluster of half a dozen luxury hotels.   It would appear that the only way you can gain access to the Dead Sea is from one of these hotels.  With the Dead Sea level dropping by as much as a meter per year even the hotels don’t have good access to the water.   Our hotel, the Movenpick again, had an artificial one-time beach sitting up above the water and then some steps down to the new water below. 

Dead Sea Swimming

We did the obligatory swim thing, though I don’t think you could swim in that water - it is way too buoyant to swim in. It is certainly a strange experience - you bob around like a cork and the water feels kind of oily and viscous. If you have any cuts or sores then you will certainly feel them, if you get any water in your eyes, you will be in agony till you wash the water out.  It was an experience but I am not sure it is a pleasant experience.

Supposedly its good for you!

Following the dip in the sea, you are supposed to rub yourself with mud.   It’s supposed to be therapeutic.  I doubt it, but I fell for it anyway and rubbed black mud all over my body. It took a lot of work to get clean again.


The next day, Wednesday, was our last full day.  We headed off for the “Baptism Site”, allegedly the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and started the whole Christianity thing rolling.  To be honest, it was a bit of a mud hole - murky polluted water, the odd plastic bottle floating in it - nothing commensurate with the expected stature of the place.

What was interesting was the Jordan River.   Again not a very impressive river, quite small, but Israel was on the other side so you have Jordanian and Israeli soldiers watching over each other.  From the Israeli side several people were dipping themselves in the river.   Obviously a deeply religious experience for them - they were dressed in white gowns and they walked down steps into the water and submerged themselves in the muddy water.  It was a little comical too - these people were not youngsters, they perhaps shouldn’t be swimming in flowing water.  To add insult to injury, when they emerged from the water, their white gowns were all clingy and transparent - not a pretty site.

Baptisms at the Krdan River

Back on the road again we headed north towards Jerash, a town just north of Amman where there are some very impressive Roman ruins.  The ride was interesting as from time to time we would pass through a town and we would get chance to see life going on in the street right beside us.  The butcher’s shops were the most interesting with all manner of carcases hanging outside - all with their heads still on - presumably it aids in identification of the meat you are going to buy - goats, camels, cows.

Butcher's Shop

The ruins at Jerash indeed are world class.   It is a very impressive site.   We spent the afternoon walking around taking way too many photos.   We just missed the nightly bagpipe recital by Bedouins in the Roman Amphitheater.   Probably just as well, but I understand that the bagpipe demonstrates the acoustic wonders of the Roman Amphitheater very well. 

Roman Ruins at Jaresh

Rather than stay in Amman that evening, we decided to continue on and spend another night at the Dead Sea.   Amman is just way too complicated to drive in, so we stayed on the major road that skirted the city and headed back out to the Dead Sea.  On the way back there was another torrential rain storm.  It made driving a bit scary with mud washing across the road, cars stalled here and there and yet everyone else keeping up a pretty high speed.   We survived and checked in for our last night in Jordan at the Movenpick.


Thursday our last day we started with another swim in the Dead Sea (no mud this time).   We then headed off towards Mount Nebo and Madaba.   Mount Nebo is another biblical spot - it is allegedly the place where Moses saw the Promised Land.   He saw it and then promptly died at the ripe old age of 124, or so they say.   Nice view so if you are passing you might as well stop - but for a non-believer such as me, not that impressive.Madaba was a nice town but we were about done and the weather was cloudy and cool.  We had lunch, bought a few trinkets, and got ready for our flight home.  

Not everyone has the best of living conditions

We left our car in the airport parking lot with the keys in the trunk and off we went.  It was a great car - a Nissan Micra. A great trip too - an interesting country and great place for a winter break from the UK.  

As usual, here are some photographs from the trip - the highlights and everything.

Thanksgiving in Kansas City - November 2012

For Thanksgiving this year I went with Nancy to Kansas City where her daughter lives.  I had never been to that part of the world before and I admit I didn't know much about it.   When I asked people what to do they everyone said Eat Barbecue and Listen to Music.   I did experience the barbecue, but alas no music this time.

Flying at Thanksgiving is always a difficult procedure - the busiest travel season of the year.   Nevertheless, the outbound journey was quite relaxed and I even managed to arrive earlier than expected on Wednesday evening.  

Thanksgiving morning, we all did a 5K run - Nancy, daughters Erica and Arden and Joey Erica’s fiance.  It was a small race compared to Sacramento’s mighty Run To Feed the Hungry (3rd largest in the nation) but it was fun and just what we needed to make us feel good about all the excessive eating.

For Thanksgiving Dinner we prepared the usual fare - turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, the works.  In Arden’s apartment, we were a little deficient in cooking utensils, but we managed to pull it off and I made a good job of massacring the turkey with a small and not very sharp knife.

That evening we walked around a nearby section of town. This area known as the Country Club Plaza is the home of one of the first suburban shopping centers in the US.  It is quite the work of art with lots of beautiful Spanish style ornate buildings - lots of hand painted tile, lots of towers.  That night the streets were thronged for the ceremonial “lighting of the lights”.   All a bit anticlimactic really - thousands of people waiting for a few lights to be turned on.   Those mid-westerners are easily impressed.

Country Club Plaza

Country Club Plaza - all lit up!

Friday came with a blast of cold air - it was in the 60’s on Thursday and then on Friday it was down in the 30’s - that is quite the steep cooling trend.  We made a quick visit to the Kemper Museum of Modern Art.   A nice museum, not very large, and free entry to all.   Then it was off to sample the famed Kansas City Barbecue.  One of the best places in town apparently is Oklahoma Joe’s - it was listed by Anthony Bourdain’s as one of the top 13 places to eat before you die, albeit at number 13 in that list. The place is in a strip mall in a converted gas station and, of course, we weren’t the only ones wanting to eat there - there was a line out of the door.  Our patience paid off with a wonderful selection of barbecue meats. Not something that I would want to eat all the time, but on this occasion, it was mouth-wateringly wonderful.

We then took a tour of the downtown area and wandered around in the older parts of town.  There are some remarkable buildings in KC.  Lots of great architecture - most of it old from the early 1900’s I would imagine, but then some great modern buildings too like the concert hall (the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts).  It looks like the older parts of downtown are being gentrified as they are in a lot of cities now and loft conversions were everywhere.   Everyone wants to live in a “loft” these days.

In the late afternoon we took a quick tour around the Nelson Atkins museum.   This is a larger museum/art gallery and, like the Kemper, totally free.   It stands in a large park and it has an old section and a more modern wing.   The modern wing is clad in this translucent skin and as night falls it looks quite amazing with the glowing light from the interior illuminating the building.

The Nelson Atkins Museum at dusk

The next morning Nancy wanted a photograph of the family for her Christmas Card so we were again off to the Nelson Atkins museum area to capture the perfect shot.  I must have taken 300 or so photographs of everyone in various poses and positions around the museum.  It was cold and it was windy so as the day progressed people’s patience was running short and their noses were getting redder.   I learned how difficult it was to get four people looking good for a photograph at the same time.  Particularly when three of them were women.  The guy Joey was just fine in every shot, but it was rare to get all the women happy with their faces or hair or posture at the same time.

One of the many photos

Later that day we toured the Union Station - like all the old railway stations this was an impressive structure.  It must have been a wonderful place when people traveled by train in large numbers.   Now of course there aren’t many travelers and it houses a few restaurants and shops.  There is a sad little waiting room off to the side for what remains of train travel in the US today.    

The Union Station was the site of the infamous Kansas City Massacre where 5 people were killed in an attempt to free a criminal in custody.  There is a memorial plaque outside the station and the scars on the entrance wall are allegedly bullet holes from the event.  If you read the details here you see it was a bit of a botched job by the FBI.

Union Station and Downtown Kansas City

On Sunday we did a couple more museums.   The first was the World War 1 Museum.  A monument and unexpectedly good museum telling the story more from the American viewpoint.  A great guided tour too and I even felt I learned a lot (e.g. I didn’t know that Germany approached Mexico to join in and attack the USA.   Pretty bold move on Germany’s part).

The second museum was the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, just 10 miles up the road from Kansas City.  That was my first visit to a Presidential Library and I was suitably impressed.   The whole span of Truman’s life was laid out.   He made some tough decisions during his presidency and he set the ball rolling for a more interventionist USA.   It was fascinating to imagine Truman returning from Washington to live in little old Independence Missouri.  It is not a very impressive town - bit of a dump really.

Nancy, Harry Truman, Arden

I left Nancy on Sunday evening to return home.  Alas it was not a smooth trip - delayed flight out of Kansas City, late arrival in SFO, missed connection to Sacramento, night in the airport, fog delayed departure from SFO to Sacramento the next day.   I haven’t had a bad travel experience like that for some time.

Again, there are more photos here.