Happy Anniversary

Yah! Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. Went down to Columbia for a meal at our current favorite restaurant, Sycamore.

21-23MAY: Wichita, Kansas

This weekend, Donnie & I went on a road trip to Wichita, Kansas and had a great time. Drove down Friday night and got up and went to the Wichita Art Museum where we saw a Norman Rockwell exhibition. Our favorite painting was "Lincoln for the defense". We then went to Old Town and visited the Museum of World Treasures. They had a T-Rex skeleton! The next day we spent 5 hours at the Sedgwick County Zoo. Also got in some good food and swimming at the hotel pool!

May 1-2, To Des Moines

The weekend after we saw off Mick, Bron, Mitch & Elise we went up to Des Moines to meet up with Pam's family, mainly to celebrate Steve's 40th. We met up at the Des Moines Zoo, but since I still had a to of grading to do, I ducked out to do some of it. I went to the La Mie Bakery near Drake University, will have to take Pam there. We all stayed in Ankeny, just north of Des Moines.

Chicago and Goodbye :(

After a lovely stay it was time for the visitors to leave. We hired a big red van to hold all seven of us and that worked great! On the 23rd April we drove up to Chicago after we had finished school. Stopped the night in Napierville and the next day went to the Field Museum. The exhibitions were fantastic, we all loved the Evolving Planet and the Ancient Americas permanent exhibits. As well there was a temporary exhibit, Mammoths and Mastodons: the Titans of the Ice Age which Mitch, Donnie & I saw. It included a 42,000 year-old intact baby mammoth. Very cool. After the museum we went to visit Little India up around Devon St and went to Hema's Kitchen, run by the woman who catered Aaron & Priya's wedding. The next day we had Chicago style hot dogs for lunch folloewd by Coldstone Creamery. Before we left we were able to catch up with an old uni friend, Simon Stephenson, who has been living in Chicago a while. All in all a wonderful stay and visit. Can't wait for the next visitors!

Did we mention that Donnie loves his cats?

Birthday!!!

We had a great BBQ party on the Sunday before my birthday and then on the 21st we went out to eat Mexican. I got the sombrero treatment!

The famous Mexican bandit El Mitcho!

It was lovely having Mick, Bron, Elise & Mitch there (where's Mitch?)

I made out like a bandit with the pressies.

Looking at the cool card that Nanny sent.

Our New Headboard!

Donnie's Musical Program

I'm afraid Mick & Bron didn't plan their trip very well as they missed the highlight of the school year- the 1st grade music program. You should be able to spot Donnie as the watermelon in the top row.

Hollywood!

Photos from La Brea Tar Pit

Photos from Farmers Market, LA

Trip to Los Angeles, Part IV

Monday, April 5th: After a great weekend it was time to get back to Kirksville. I dropped themMick, Bron, Mitch & Elise at Universal Studios so they could start the entertainment park part of their trip. I had time to see Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana, I think I'm half way through seeing the 19 Spanish Missions of California. It was interesting to see that there was where Bob Hope is buried.

Donnie on La Brea Tarpits

La brea tar pits has storks and smiladons but no dinosaurs.

Trip to Los Angeles Part III

Sunday, April 4th: Time to go to the incredible Getty Center. I had taken Nanny to the Getty Villa years ago, when they were building the center. The story was that the museum had goten into trouble with the taxman for not spending enough money to keep their charitable status. Thus they built the center on top of a hill outside LA so that you could take a monorail to get there and built the place out of Italian marble. Also the garden was fab as you can see.

That evening we had our best meal at a Korean restaurant we found.

Trip to Los Angeles Part II

Saturday, April 3rd: OK it was time to brave the LA freeway system. Luckily our rental car had a GPS which made life easy. Had a long day seeing the sights:

• GRAMMY Museum, a new museum about music, cool to learn all the different music styles.
• Lunch at the Farmer's Market (hmm gumbo!)
• The treat of the day was the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits (meet Zed the Colombian Mastodon). I risked the wrath of Donnie in going there without him.
• Finished with a stop at the madhouse which is Hollywood. Saw the cement footprints of the stars at Graumann's Chinese Theater, the Hollywood sign in the hills, and the complex at Hollywood and Highland where they have the Oscars.
  

Trip to Los Angeles Part I

After the raging success of Bron & Mick's blog of their US trip, I thought I can do that. Afterall this is when I turn the big 5 O, plus visits from family, plus trips to North Carolina and Alaska. OK time for a bit of retrospectivity. I thought the place to start is the trip to LA to meet up with Mick, Bron, Mitch & Elise at the start of their trip.
April 2nd: I took the Friday off and flew into LAX. I was meeting them at Anaheim train station in the evening as they were seeing the San Diego Zoo, so I had time to go to Exposition Park, home of the 1932 & 1984 Olympic Games. I checked out the California Science Center and the California African American Museum, this was so I could see

• America I Am, The African American Imprint
• Hubble 3D, the IMAX movie (fantastic!)

Anyhow it was great to see them get off the train and after sorting out some hotel problems we had a great weekend.