Kansas City, MO

This week were were in Kansas City, MO. I have spent time here in the past, and it's a pretty cool place. Lots to do, tons of hotels, restaurants, jazz clubs, etc. Kevin and I decided to kind of take it easy, but I still got out and did a few things around town. However, I have become horrible at taking pictures, especially when it's just the two of us.


We went to a few GREAT places to eat that I actually found on restaurant.com. I spend a lot of time (because I have too much of it) looking up the restaurants on the website and then googlemapping them to see if we can walk to any that look decent. This week we went to an awesome old tavern-like place called The Majestic, and a place that only served local food that was a little hipster-ish, called The Westside Local. The Majestic had a Sunday Jazz Brunch we were planning on going back to, but that didn't happen. We had unreal prime rib at The Majestic and amazing steaks and burgers (and deviled eggs as an app?) at The Westside Local.


We stayed at the Hotel Phillips, which I have always liked. We actually got two connecting rooms at this hotel (which we call having an "apartment") and they were HUGE. The two of them together were literally almost the size of my condo. Let me tell you, it was really nice to have my own bathroom for a whole week. :)


On Wednesday, we decided to go to the famous BBQ joint called Arthur Bryant's. It's been on the Food Network, famous people have been there, etc. I had been there before, and I wasn't too impressed going back. It was just OK. Then we walked to the famous 18th and Vine area of the city and visited the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Baseball League Museum. Both for $10! What a deal. 19th and Vine was the area of Kansas City where jazz was "born". At one point in time, there were over 100 jazz clubs in this tiny section of town. Unfortunately now there are just a few, and most of the buildings are falling apart. I actually learned a lot that day, and enjoyed all of the interactive exhibits they had at the Jazz Museum. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway... it was great. I wish I would have learned more about jazz from Poppy when he was around because I really enjoy it. I guess better late than never!

Worst picture of me ever, eating BBQ chicken at Arthur Bryant's

Seattle, WA

Unfortunately, we only had a few short days in Seattle, and five shows to work. So I tried to make the most of my time that I had. While I had been to the Market before (2007), I really wanted to go back just to hang out and look around. I was so bummed because the famous fish throwing place was closed! Booooo. But I had a great tuna melt at a restaurant there, AND went to the first Starbucks, opened in the 70's. I kid you not, there is a Starbucks on every corner in Seattle. I have no idea how many there actually are, but I'm convinced that you cannot live in Seattle if you don't drink coffee, or eat oysters.


I also went to a few local restaurants, bars, shopping areas, etc. But the highlight of Seattle is always the Market. :)

Pink Ladies

I see this daily working on this show, and I think it's so fun! The best is when little kids come dressed up as Pink Ladies and Greasers. This was in Boise, ID over the weekend!

Tabogganing

With all of the "holiday madness", I really wanted to just do something fun and different one day. I was talking to a girl on Christmas Eve at Gamekeepers, and she told me how she had just gone tobogganing with her family that week in the Metro Parks in Cleveland. I was like, how fun! BA's boyfriend was visiting from France and we thought it would be a fun thing to do.


We of course picked the nicest day of the week that was sunny and not totally freezing during Winter Break from school, so the place was pretty busy. It was kind of set up like a water park would be- you got a tag, waited in line for a sled, the carried it up 500 stairs to get to the top of the chute (or in our case, watched the guys carry it up the stairs). You can see the chutes in the first picture behind us, but I didn't really take any. It was about a ten second ride, but it was fun and worth it!

The Other Days Of Christmas

The rest of Christmas was really fun, and really crazy! Just LOTS of places to be- dinners, lunches, get-togethers, parties etc. We were ready to drop by the 27th! Some highlights were definitely my aunt Susan's house for Christmas (she decorates her house like a magazine), Melt for huge day after Christmas sandwiches with all of the cousins, and one more White Elephant gift exchange at a party, where Kevin got a Snuggie. He tried so hard to get rid of that during the exchange but got stuck with it. Guess who wore the Snuggie every day and night for the rest of the time we were off? "This is the best invention ever" might have been the words used when we got home later that night. :)

I got a gingerbread man that grew in water and Kevin got a polar bear so we had a contest for a week. My gingerbread totally won. They started out like a quarter inch tall.

My cousin Heather and her two adorable kids on Christmas.

A little game playing on Christmas.

MELT! Huge, huge grilled cheese heaven!

Heidi's party with our White Elephant gifts. And giant turkey legs.

Christmas Eve

Christmas in Cleveland was SO GREAT and totally busy and insane. I had two weeks off from the tour and was able to be home for all of the holidays. It made such a difference knowing I was going home after three pretty tough weeks on the road.


Christmas Eve day Kevin and I were busy prepping the 15 pounds of standing rib roast we were eating that night, and making sides. We went over to my mom's house for gifts with my stepsister Alisa that involved a little champagne, and lots of food!


We headed to Poppy's house in the afternoon to start cooking the roast, and I was SO NERVOUS! I had never cooked a piece of meat that expensive before! I'm a chicken turkey cooker, so red meat was a new feat for me. Thankfully it turned out amazing. We did one half with a horseradish crust and the other half with a maple syrup Dijon mustard glaze. I can't believe my family ate all of it, but they did!


We do a white elephant exchange on Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the fam, but not with crummy gifts we don't want. We do a $25 exchange, and I requested that no one do gift cards this year. It was so much fun! We had a deep fryer, deli meat from Corky and Lenny's, a toaster, and the famous Shake Weight! We thought that doing Christmas Eve at Poppy's house might be hard after everything we recently went through, but it was really the only place that would fit our growing family. It turned out to be so much FUN! Just a great day in general with fabulous food and company. :)

A little Christmas cheer at my mom's in the afternoon.

That roast was HEAVY!

Bethanne was NOT comfortable getting the Shake Weight

Lima, OH

Since 2006, I have been waiting to pass through Lima, OH again. I fell in love with a burger joint there called Kewpee's and have been wanting it again for like four years. Their fries oddly taste like Wendy's and their burgers are just amazing. It might have something to do with the Miracle Whip they put on them (I'm a big fan).

Sure enough, Grease took me back a few weeks ago to the creepy diner with the larger than life naked doll outside. YUMMMMMM!