It's Alive!

It's Alive!

Last day in Salina for River Festival

Last day in Salina. We packed everything into the car and then went to the festival for a few hours. First we checked out the sand sculpture - the dragon was mostly complete and in color. Then we went to Stage 2 to listen to a couple of groups. It was warm today but there was a nice breeze. There was not nearly as many people there today. There was a lot of space in the grass by the main stage which was packed with chairs, blankets and umbrellas yesterday. Stage 2 (under the tent) was only half-filled with chairs and we were able to sit on a bench. After we listened to some music, we walked through part of the Fine Art Show to look again at one of the booths that impressed us yesterday, and picked out 2 small pictures of math/computer-generated art. After that we headed home. We had a good time and took in a lot of art and music. Look for pictures of the festival soon on our website.

Salina Smoky Hill River Festival 2007 - Day 3

Today was very warm and sunny. We managed to spend most of the afternoon in the shade. We listened to music at both stages. One of the stages has bleachers under the trees and the other is under a large tent. We have heard a lot of good music and discovered new bands. We looked at the Fine Art Show booths. The Fine Art Show was in an open sunny area, so we were a bit uncomfortable, although we saw some amazing art and we were next to Stage 2 so we could hear Needfire again. They attract a large audience and get very loud! By now it is late afternoon so we took the shuttle to the car and relaxed at the hotel. For dinner, we went to Jim's Country Style Chicken for fried chicken. It is a local restaurant that has been in business for about 30 years - it is a casual homestyle place that only serves chicken. It was good. After dinner we picked up shakes at Bogey's.

Salina Smoky Hill River Festival 2007 - Day 2

We spent most of the day at the Festival. It was a bit cool as there was a cold front last night so the high temp was in the mid-70's. Today we walked around Oakdale Park to see some of the art exhibits, listened to several bands at 2 different stages, and enjoyed some good food and treats. We also looked at the crafts booths and craft demonstrations. One of the cool things about this festival is that there is art everywhere in the park. There are the giant wooden spiders, the poetry wall, the wrapped trees, riverbank mural, the kinetic wheel scupture on a bridge, the art car exhibit, and the painted sand sculpture. The sand sculpture this year is a dragon, which we plan to check every day to see its progress. We heard some really good music today - some local groups, one KC group (Lisa Henry Jazz Group), and a Texas band called Needfire (Hard Rock Celtic music) which we liked so well that we picked up their CD. Tomorrow should be a fairly warm day and the Fine Art Show will start.

Salina Smoky Hill River Festival 2007 - Day 1

Today we drove to Salina, KS to attend the Smoky Hill River Festival. It was a nice drive with only a few raindrops. When we arrived in Salina, we drove through town and noticed some new buildings and businesses, stopped to look at the building that Steven designed (a branch office of his company), and went to the hotel. Since Gregg went to college in Salina, he is familiar with the town. About 6 pm we went to Oakdale Park to hear local bands play at the Festival Jam - every 15 minutes a different band played. We stayed about an hour then decided to have burgers at Bogey's, drove through downtown Salina and then back to the hotel to relax. Tomorrow is the first full day of the festival and we have picked out some of the bands we would like to hear and checked out the list of food vendors. That's it for now. Diane

Chicago Vacation - 2006

Chicago recap. Tuesday July 4 was our last full day in Chicago. We took a bus to the river by the Wrigley Building on Michigan Ave. From there took an hour-long Architectural Boat Tour. The boat toured both branches of the river, with the guide informing us about the buildings and their history. It was very interesting. There are four different styles of architecture and every type of bridge. We saw the new Trump building under construction, it is right by the river. Afterwards, we took a train to the Sears Tower, then went up to the observation deck on the 103rd floor to get views of the city from every direction. By this time it is late afternoon so we took a train over to State Street where we knew there was a lot of shops and activity, and happened upon the Italian Village restaurant (a place we had read about) where we went for dinner. The atmosphere is very nice and they have pictures on the walls of all the celebrities who have been there. From there we walked back to the hotel and watched fireworks from the hotel window. Wednesday we packed and went to the Navy Pier for a few hours. The interesting thing about this day is that we took about every type of transportation in one day. We took the free trolley to the Navy Pier. We took our time watching boats, seagulls, and checking out the downtown skyline. We also spent some time in the Museum of Stained Glass (it had some windows designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as well as Tiffany glass and much more) and had Chicago hot dogs (with mustard, relish, tomato slices, and a pickle slice on it). We then took the free trolley back to the hotel, took a cab to a nearby train station (so that we wouldn't have to schlep our luggage and bags 5 blocks), and took the orange line train to Midway airport. We took a short plane ride back to KC, a shuttle bus to the airport's economy lot, and then drove a car home. Chicago has so many things to do - museums, parks, festivals, shopping, dining, theater, sports, etc -that a person could do different things in every trip. It also has very good public transportation. The free trolley goes to all the popular tourist spots. The bus lines and trains go everywhere, including the suburbs. People do a lot of walking downtown. We heard tourists speak all different languages. It is a very interesting city.

Chicago Vacation - 2006

It is Monday July 3rd in Chicago. It rained all morning so we took a cab to the Field Museum. We already had tickets to the King Tutankhamun exhibit as they limit the number of people that go in every half hour. It was a very interesting exhibit. There were a lot of beautiful things like the gold and jewelry found with King Tut. There were also miniature items made to represent items he used or needed in the afterlife. The end of the exhibit had CAT-scan images of the mummy and the items on him or wrapped up in the cloth (like a gold dagger). We also looked at the Ancient Egypt exhibit with the life-size tomb and mummies, T-Rex Sue skeleton and info, and Pacific Spirits about tropical islands and cultures. Late afternoon we took the bus back to the hotel. We braved the crowds to go to the Taste of Chicago for dinner (crowded is an understatement - it was wall to wall people). A lot of people were in Grant Park for the free orchestra performance and fireworks tonight. The newspapers estimate was 1 million people. We decided to watch the fireworks from the hotel.