Kansas City, Here We Come!

We're back from our final summer trip, an epic journey to middle America. Neither Alan or I had ever been to Kansas City before, and we loved it. It helped that we had great weather - clear, cool, not humid - not typical for KC at all in August. We were pleasantly surprised by how green and lush it was, which we were told comes from the normal summer humidity.

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The reason for our trip was the NFA (National Flute Association) convention, where I played a recital with my colleague and friend Donna Shin. It was a big honor for her to be asked to perform there, and I was happy to go along. Around 5000 flutists go to this convention, which was crazy! You couldn't walk anywhere in the convention hotels without hearing someone practicing flute or piccolo. I was able to catch up with a couple of flutists from Eastman that I haven't seen since I graduated.

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Alan came along on the trip for baseball. He attended two games (I went to one). Kaufmann Stadium was a great place to watch a game. The fountains in the outfield are a nice touch (there are fountains everywhere in KC). Our other baseball destination was the Negro League Baseball Museum, which was really interesting and inspirational.

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After the convention, Alan flew home and I kept Donna company driving back. She had her car there because she had come straight from a music festival in Michigan. I had been in the mood for a road trip, and we had a blast. The first day, we went from KC to Rapid City, SD, and saw the Badlands National Park (pictured above) and Mt. Rushmore at night (tough to get a good picture, but awesome to see). Second day, SD through a little bit of Wyoming and a LOT of Montana. We ended up in Sagle, ID at Mom/Grandma's, then drove home yesterday! The boys had a great time with Grandma, Aunt Kelli, Uncle Dave, Nate and Ian.