We packed up the car and left promptly after school Wednesday night, headed for tacopacolipst in Des Moines, highly featured on Diners Drive Inns and Dives. The kids were great in the car but lets just say dinner came with mixed reviews. Tracy, Tom, Billy and Kay LOVED their meals. Korean BBQ chicken on a waffle, vegan sausage lettuces roles, hominy fries, spicy tomato soup and Korean bulgogi banh mi. Jimmy and Ian were MUCH less impressed and we had to make a stop at Jimmy Johns on the way to the airport. Highlight thought? BYOB - nothing like bringing your own beer to a taco place on a college campus, ah, the memories.
Thursday we headed over to Drake University to wander around and check out their basketball facilities. As with all our trips, it included sneaking into the stadium and basketball arena but this time included some serious hoop time. Jimmy even made 4 of 5 half court shots. I'll have to figure out how to get them uploaded to the blog. Super fun.
Thursday afternoon we quickly ran out of things to do in Des Moines so headed to KC, but 1st a stop at Sonic. Kay complained the whole time that it wasn't DQ. Then the food came. She's a convert - so much so that we had to stop on the way home on Sunday AND she actually even apologize for pitching a fit. Progress!
We got to KC in time to check out the mental hospital museum (otherwise known as the insane asylum) it is almost Halloween ...right? It really wasn't as creepy as expected but, there were some interesting factoids about mental medical care around the turn of the century. Little known fact, KC is the haunted house capital of the US. We couldn't convince ANYONE to go to one (fear of clowns, especially with the whole urban myth clown scare going on) so we thought this was the next best thing.
As we were driving to our hotel and past the Royals and Chiefs stadium, we had a major small world moment. Literally, Jimmys friend Jason posted a snapchat of the stadiums. He was in town for a baseball tournament. Crazy!! We quickly called and made plans to connect since we were staying 10 min's away.
Friday we were off to see KC. The Crown Center, the money museum at the Fed and Country Club Plaza. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70's and we spend the day with our baseball friends and their kids. Everyone was in heaven. We even saw mounted police. Dinner that night was a meet up with the taekwondo team and BBQ!!! we were in KC after all....
Saturday was the tournament and it was a long one. But aren't they all. Billy sparred "up" a weight class and each of these guys had at least 20 lbs on him. He lost his 1st match to the ultimate gold medal winner but kicked some serious butt in the second match, taking 3rd overall. He felt pretty good about his performance but admits he needs a better game plan for sparring bigger kids. He's got all the right techniques and he's fast, but they are just bigger. He'll get there, he's a great coachable kid. My favorite part ... after the match, he tracked down each kid he sparred against and congratulated them and shook their hands. Such a great sport.
Saturday night was an all you can eat chinese buffet (of course) and a whole bunch of pool time.
Sunday was a power drive back to MPLS while we listened to the Vikings game on the radio (brutal!!) as we were recapping the trip and had everyone share their favorite parts ... the verdict? The pool, almost unanimously. Go figure. You can take these kids anywhere, and we have, and their favorite part is still the pool. We should just rent a hotel room in town and save ourselves the hassle.
All in all, a good trip, fun family and friend time and we got to see a bit of the midwest.
Happy MEA!
