City mice
August 28, 2015

Yeesh!  I’m adopting Trinity’s word: for her, it is used for something surprising; I’m utilizing it because I can’t think of anything remotely appropriate to cover the past week’s activities in Kansas City.  That was when the country mice (Chris & me) visited the city mice (Sara, Ray & Trinity).

Longview Farm, Longview Lake . . .

We stayed in a lovely rural park that Sarah found for us at Longview Lake in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.  The location, unfortunately, was a half-hour or so drive from their place in Lenexa, but still a great choice.  The lake is a reservoir on the Little Blue River. 

Turtles, always turtles, okay maybe a tortoise in this case.  This one galumped across the park drive in  front of us, eventually disappearing into the grass.

Longview Lake Park is county maintained and contains a whole slew of recreational opportunities - from radio-control flying fields to swimming beach, equine trails and boating.  It is carved out of an historic farm of special interest.  There is a fascinating article about the history of Longview Farm at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longview_Farm.

The undertaking was quite remarkable: "The farm and over 50 other structures was built on 1,780 acres. Construction started in 1913 and completed in 1914 taking just 18 months to complete. The result is what came to be known as the world's most beautiful farm.  Construction workers included 50 Belgian craftsmen and 200 Sicilian stonemasons, among 2,000 other workers employed, to build the Longview Mansion and farm."

The 22,000 sq. ft. mansion consists of 48 rooms, 6 fireplaces, 14 bedrooms and 10 baths.  It is rented out now for special events.

I can't imagine what it was like having more than 2,000 workers completing the place, right down to the main manicured lawn of 225 acres in less than two years!  175 people were needed to run the farm.

We recognized right away that something was afoot as we drove into the area and saw random structures of similar style - stuccoed with red tile roofs. 

We photographed a few that are abandoned and/or . . . part of an urban redevelopment plan . . .

 . . . and others that are still in use.

Apparently one of the original Longview Farm structures, this house exudes charm.  If I could live in it, it would almost make it worthwhile to move to Kansas.

The Longview Lake recreational opportunities were lost on us - our time was with family, but we did enjoy the many deer in the park, in addition to a whole passel of hummingbirds that sipped the feeder nectar down with great abandon and the American goldfinches that were the only takers at the seed feeder.

This groundhog kept a close eye on us, but only after he gained safety by proximity to his lair.

Grandparent alert . . .

Be aware that reading further in this post could cause an overload of sappiness.  So what did we do during this family stop?

T-Rex . . .

There was a fun girls’ day of shopping, accented by lunch at the T-Rex Cafe, where grandma was possibly even more enthralled than granddaughter.  The place is a marvel of all things prehistoric and aquatic.

In addition to the fantasmagorical sights throughout, the place displayed a wealth of amazing crystals and fossils, many of both categories man-size.

There was even an archaeological dig site where T uncovered portions of a dinosaur skeleton.

Deanna Rose . . .

We five had a good and tiring day at Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, a destination that easily keeps a youngster’s interest with its varied activities.  And . . . she caught a fish.

Fun fam stuff . . .

We read and painted and cooked and ate and walked, attended back-to-school night and had a tea party, fully planned and orchestrated by Trinity.

Trinity recruited big brother to assist in a treat-making project.  Since no actual product resulted from the process, I relied on my imagination to determine that it was quite tasty.

Trinity is schooling us on tea party etiquette before we begin.

Showing off the blue suede (!) cake she decorated for her dad's birthday.

There was a great chicken & dumpling Sunday supper served by Sara, at which we were joined by Ray’s parents.  Two visits later, we have gotten better acquainted with them and find we really enjoy their company.

We pulled off a large dinner party at our “house”, just very, very glad the weather cooperated.  The five of us were joined by my brother-in-law Bob’s ever-burgeoning clan, who reside semi-nearby and trekked over for a visit.

Play ball, hopefully . . .

And the kids treated us to super second-row third-base seats at a Kansas City Royals game, an afternoon of baseball that nearly did not happen.

Despite a favorable weather forecast, the game finally commenced a nervous 2-1/2 hours late.  During the rain delay whilst we were cooling our heels and soothing our throats with gigantic blue margaritas, there was a rumor that the game was called.  Perhaps the margaritas helped our attitudes at that alarming news - more waiting was rewarded by an excellent day at the ballpark, polished off by losing the car in the parking lot.  Much trooping hither and thither later, it was found and we were rounded up for our drive home.

It's a huge project to cover and uncover the field to keep off the rain.

Finally - play ball!

She's wearing the special Royals jersey Ray had made for her in memory of her Grandpa W.

In the end, the leavetaking was softened by the fact that they are coming to visit in Prescott in October.

Not too shabby a view from Sara's 10th floor workspace, all the better to see the tornadoes approaching.

Chris got his hair cut; I'm lookin' pretty road weary, but holding out until I get back to Julie to get my do done right.

Someone was counting the days until our arrival.

At one random stop while exploring Longview Park, I struck up a conversation with Roy, a pilot who demonstrated his helicopter aerobatic prowess while I attempted to snap pictures as the aircraft zipped past, up and down and around - a very impressive display.  We had a nice talk with him and learned that he had lived in Bandera, Texas, the home of my Winans ancestors and that he knew kin there.

Just because Sara said so. . .