June 10 - United States: Kansas City, Missouri
We slept in so late this morning! I'm not sure we even moved until about 9:00. Jon motivated and went for a run, despite the rainy weather. Bridget and I spent the time hanging out. I looked through one of her books of baby names, and have decided that the authors should also include the list of "100 names least chosen" in addition the the "100 names most chosen". Because if I were naming a child, I would want to name him/her something that isn't common. I went to school with entirely too many Jennifers and Michaels.
After Jon returned and showered, we made some soup and then headed out.
The Plaza
In the really nice part of Kansas City is a swanky mall called "The Plaza". Bridget suggested we go there just to walk around and take in the sights. So we parked and the first thing I saw was a Sale sign at Victoria's Secret. That's funny, because I'd just finished telling Jon that my underwear population has somehow dwindled down to half of what it was a year ago. So this massive sale, with bins and bins of underwear and bras, was just what I needed. Jon took one look at the bins of clothes and said, "I'll be in the Irish Pub. Come get me when you're ready." No problem!
We spent a little more time walking around The Plaza, but we were pretty anxious to move on to our next destination: Gate's Bar-B-Que.
Kansas City is well known for its Bar-B-Que. In fact, Jon used to mail-order this particular sauce from Gates after he'd visited Kansas City many years ago. The Gates restaurant we went to was on Main Street, in an area that was less than gorgeous. To us, of course, means that the potential for delicious restaurants abounds. Jon had the ribs and I had the beef sandwich, and it truly was delicious. Since we had extra time, we hung out and watched Sports Center before leaving for the KC Royals Game.
Kauffman Stadium - Kansas City Royals vs. Florida Marlins
We got to the stadium at around 6:15 for the 7:05 game between the KC Royals and the Florida Marlins.
Kauffman Stadium
We didn't really care about either team, but neither did we want to turn down the opportunity to watch a baseball game - even in the cheap seats! We were in the bleacher seats, way out in left field. And although they were far away, bleacher seats are traditionally the most fun. They usually attract the most hard-core fans with the craziest notions of how to express their fanaticism.
The View from Left Field
Of course, that crazy-fan expression is a different thing in New York City than it is in Kansas City. The mid-west is more conservative (and sane), so the fans are quite as scary. The worst we saw was a man in front of us who had KC Royals pins all over his baseball hat. Other than that, it was pretty tame. There were three skater teenage guys with various piercings who were also deaf. They spent most of the game silently making fun of the guy with the pins in his hat.
Enjoying the Game
Cleavage Shots
The Jumbo-tron provides me with endless amusement. I love watching the shots of people that appear on the massive television screen in between innings or during pitcher warm-ups. These cameramen have two types of people they try to put on the screen: either small children or attractive girls. The latter shots I call the "Cleavage Shots", because they usually are. So every time a young, attractive girl appears on the jumbo-tron I would say, "There's another cleavage shot!".
This made it even funnier when, sometime during the seventh inning, I leaned forward to watch some kids play over the railing trying to get a ball from the security guard. And Jon said, "Hey. HEY! You're on TV!!!!" Sure enough, there I was on the Jumbo-tron! My own cleavage shot!! I smiled and waved and then was abruptly cut off to be replaced by some young kids with sign. I'm convinced that my fifteen minutes of fame was cut short because the camera operators realized Jon's blue KC Royals hat was actually a blue LA Dodgers hat. Foiled!!
It was a fun game, but since we didn't care about either team we decided to head out in the bottom of the eighth inning. And we're glad we did, because we later found out that the game extended to 14 innings. Whoa.
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