Like last time we drove down Thursday afternoon after G got out of school, and again things went pretty smoothly. Drew had a different hotel this time, somewhere near the middle of town, and all I can say is thank goodness for GPS. We had dinner at a little Vietnamese restaurant called BamBu: pho really hits the spot on a cold night. (Shabu-shabu would be better, but good luck finding that in Missouri.)
I can't remember what day it started, but last week we had the Lower-48's version of Alaska's recent cold snap (left, in Anc on 07 January 2009, and in Fairbanks the day before). Though this hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, had a newer decor, an excellent continental breakfast – I'm talking scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, and cinammon rolls – and no indoor pool, as hard as I tried I could not find a better reason than the cold to stay in. So I got directions to what I hoped might be a Burger King with play structure, but no luck (on the latter) – and we ended up at Jump Mania after lunch.Our first time at Jump Mania, I was quite pleased with our experience. This second time, I don't want to say that I was disappointed so much as just satisfied. For one thing, I think our trip was marred by the presence of older kids, the kind that run around and knock little kids over, even accidentally. Turns out Friday was a teacher in-service day for the school district and therefore no school. But having those older kids there leads me to remark on BB's ability to make friends, in particular older "little mother" friends, wherever she goes: this time was just such a friend named Mahleah (spelled phonetically) who helped her up the hard parts, accompanied her down the slide (below), and held back traffic while BB carefully climbed. For another, BB was long overdue for her nap and certainly that was the source, or indeed the exacerbation, of her frequent outbursts. After a late afternoon nap for everyone, we tried St Louis-style pizza at Imo's for dinner: I can't recommend it at all. I think it was the cheese that put me off.
Saturday morning we had our excellent continental breakfast and, after we vacated our hotel room, Drew had to rush down to Battlefield Mall to help man a DTV information booth. We planned on meeting him there, possibly for an early lunch, before heading back to KCMO, but what with the weekend shoppers and end-of-season sales and irate rabbit-ear television customers, we got to have only a few words with him, and only after we stood in line. So we had lunch by ourselves – may I say I like the toys that come in the Chick-fil-A kids' meal – and headed home. (May I also say I regret not having offered to help the old man down the table from us who was slipping ketchup packets into his coat pocket.) Since returning home, I haven't felt terribly motivated to blog, but here it is anyway, lest I get behind.
