A Day in the City and the Wind Tunnel Home

J.C. Nichols Fountain

I got a play day today! I spent the day with the high school Spanish classes as a sponsor for their annual field trip to the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. They had just recently completed a unit on Spanish Art/Artists and it culminates with a trip to the Nelson to see some of the actual pieces they study. What a great way to put learning into action!

After a very informative tour of the Spanish art, we were off to lunch at Rudy's for some authentic Mexican food. I noticed on their wall that they have been chosen as "The Place Where the Locals Eat." Always a good sign of great food.

Next stop was the Plaza for a self-guided walking tour of the fountains. The kids were assigned to small groups and they had to have their pictures taken with several of the fountains to use in a class project. I got to be the photographer for Madison's group.

The weather was a bit warm -  93 degrees - so by the time we were done with the walking tour we were all in need of a cold drink and a cool place to sit. Panera won out and we all enjoyed frozen drinks or ice cold lemonade. Ah! It hit the spot. Once we had cooled off we headed back to the above fountain to sit in the shade or dip our toes in the water while we waited for the rest of the group.

  

My view.

I chose to find myself a comfortable shady spot. My purse became the perfect pillow. I closed my eyes and managed to get a few moments of quiet under a beautiful shade tree while hearing the sound of the fountain (photo at top). Perfect ending to a beautiful day.

Or so I thought. I somehow managed to forget about the ride home....93 degrees, no air conditioning, 2 hours. It was like riding in a darn wind tunnel! It was so ridiculously warm that the bus driver pulled over to a service area so that we could all get a cold drink about 1.25 hours into the ride home. It was really for her benefit, not ours. She obviously has experience in this sort of thing...I noticed she had shed a layer and was also wearing a headband to catch the sweat running down her brow. Experienced? I think so.

I found it so ridiculous that I got the giggles. Of course my girl thought I was nuts but she was a good sport. She told her friend about me laughing and the 2 of them had the best time poking fun at me.

I shared a conversation with the mom in front of me. We were both complaining about how sweaty we were and that we were sure we would have to peel our underwear off when we got home because they were so sweaty wet! And we reminisced about our childhood in the late 60's, early 70's and the fact that we didn't have air conditioning in our homes or our cars and how every road trip was a wind tunnel! Oh, the laughter. It did me good.

(Ok, not sure why everything is centered but I'm too worn out from that wind tunnel ride to try to figure it out!)