Chronicles of a 24th birthday

As a first born, I don't naturally like surprises, although China helped me get over that to some extent. July 17th was my 24th birthday and it was filled with lots of nice surprises. Since I don't have many friends left in these here parts of the country, I spent my birthday with my lovely mother. I was very glad, and couldn't have asked for a better birthday friend.

Mom planned a whole day of exploring some of northeast Kansas' history and charm, which I love. It was extremely hot and sunny-- the heat index was 110 degrees, but that seemed fitting for Kansas and fitting for my birthday. And it ended up that I had a marvelous time! Thanks, Mom! And she took some pictures with her camera, chronicling the day. So I apologize for all the pictures of me, me, me!

First, we headed east to Kansas City, Kansas on the wide, open road. This Kansas City is the less successful, less glamorous, less well-known twin of Kansas City, Missouri. We found our way to Kansas City, KS, with some parts that are as ghetto as Kansas can get. It was fun!

Mom pulled into a Polish sausage shop, which was about the only thing open in the "Strawberry Hill" community of Kansas City. Strawberry Hill's not doing so well as it used to, it appears. It had been established as a Slavic community, with tons of Catholics from Russia, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, etc. Now a lot of the restaurants are shuttered, the cute little houses are half-decaying, and most of the Slavic store-fronts are either closed, or replaced with signs in Spanish.

Anyway, the Polish place didn't serve lunch. My Mom asked the two Polish guys in there, "Well, what about the Bosnian place?" Nope, it was closed. "Italian?" Nope, closed on weekends. I think Mom went through a list of all the possible ethnic restaurants, to no avail. The only thing cooking in this town was Mexican food. So we cruised around until we found a little Mexican restaurant, which wasn't at all hard to find.


Eating tacos instead of Polish sausages.



After eating a tasty lunch, we went to the Strawberry Hill Museum and Culture Center, which shows the history of the community. It was all very interesting and historic, albeit a little depressing. It's always sad to visit places that were once thriving, and are now struggling.


Strawberry Hill.


View of Kansas City, MO from Kansas City, KS.


Aw, little strawberries on the mailbox.

I'm not sure what city we ended up in next--maybe a smaller city around KC. We went to Andre's, and had nice little desserts in lieu of a birthday cake.


Dessert at Andre's, whoever that is.

Then since I was a history major, Mom decided to surprise me with another museum! This time it was the Johnson County Museum, which is pretty nice and well done. Inside the museum, they even had an exhibit on the 1980s--complete with a 1980s car seat, 1980s clothes, and 1980s pictures. I was born in the 1980s! I'm 24 years old, and all of a sudden I belong in a museum.

Outside the museum they had a whole house called the "1950s All-Electric House." It was a model home built in the 1950s, with tons of electric things--there seemed to be a switch for everything. And it was all preserved in its 1950s style. The guide had white gloves on and told us not to touch anything. It looked like my grandparents' houses--how can it be a museum? But it was still pretty cool.


Is this your grandma's house? Nope, it's the 1950s All-Electric House Museum!

After museuming some more, we went to the Legends outlets around there, and shopped for a while. For dinner I had the best turkey burger. Thank you, America, for all your meat!



Eating my turkey burger. The End.