A road trip to Kansas City

Back from yet another road trip! This one for the purpose of Joel presenting at/attending a counseling conference (which went really well for him - so proud of my man). Let me tell you, the drive from Detroit to Kansas City is long and dreadfully boring. There weren't even pretty fall colors, except for a few small patches here and there. Good thing I had an awesome travel companion. Near the end of our drive home, I read him a long list of random geographical facts I had found online, just to keep the two of us awake (plus we are both kind of obsessed with geography). Haha. Did you know that Michigan has the longest coastline of any state (besides Alaska)? Yea, our state is pretty darn awesome. I could spew off lots more useless facts about U.S. geography but I'll spare you.

Kansas City itself was really cool. I enjoyed the laid-back Midwest feel. And the artsy vibe! You may not guess it, but there is a thriving artist community in Kansas City. Joel and I really enjoyed the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. We also really enjoyed THE FOOD (thanks to Yelp and Sandy), most of it locally sourced (love that). I never did have BBQ, which kind of bums me out considering how much I love it, but the delicious food I did have made up for it. We went here, here, here and here. At that last place (Glacé), I had fluer de sel caramel ice cream along with butternut squash ice cream and it was some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted! I also dined solo one day while Joel was at his conference and went to my first vegan restaurant. It was out of this world, especially the raw chocolate hazelnut pie. Oh mah gah. Wow, I am really obsessed with food. Not that that's news.

 

The highlight of the trip was meeting a blogger in person for the first time! I got to have lunch (and crepes!) with the lovely Sandy of Sandy a la Mode. It was quite exciting. And as I expected, she is super sweet and fun to talk to. (Not to mention a pretty lady!) Makes me want to attend a blogger conference so I can potentially meet more of you lovelies :)

please excuse the extreme fuzziness. bad lighting!

Oh yea, another awesome part of our trip -- discovering a three-story antiques market! wow, it was so hard not to come home with a bag full, including that blanket below. I hope that there is a market like that wherever we move -- would be perfect for furnishing our future home {since we probably won't take a lot of our stuff with us}. can't wait to decorate a new place :)

Man I just love exploring new cities.. I've been so blessed to be able to join Joel on all of his conference trips. I think traveling/exploring is my favorite thing to do with him. I look forward to exploring a brand new city with him once we move, wherever that may be (the list of posititons Joel is applying to has grown to 20! More on that soon).

made a pit stop in St. Louis for a scrumptious brunch in the magnificent sunshine.

{a short trip to chicago}

it was so, so nice to finally get away for a few days.
and let me tell you, i was not ready to come back!
despite the fact that it rained the whole time we were there.
i love traveling, and have decided we need to do as much of it as our
pocketbooks can handle while we're still kid-less.
even if it's only day trips to nearby cities, like ann arbor.
it's so thrilling to experience different places.
especially when i am bored to death with where we are now.
it seems i am always craving change.
i am so happy that spring is finally arriving; once it is warm & sunny
and the flowers are blooming here,
i think i will have a new-found appreciation for my surroundings.

i most certainly appreciated my surroundings while we were in chicago.
it is such a magnificent city. i have long desired to live there; although
this desire has decreased lately as my desire to live somewhere warm has
skyrocketed; i'm pretty sure chicago winters are even more brutal than ours
(no thank you!) anyway, here are a few photos of our lil road trip.

us at hotel indigo. complimentary stay, thanks to my day job!

unfortunately, this is the best photo i got of one of the most mind-blowing concerts i've been to :: Arcade Fire. incredible. any fellow arcade fire fans out there?

one of the best mexican restaurants i've ever eaten at :: zocalo. tried duck for the first time!

 

we spent a whole lot of time on the L. public transportation is just so convenient!

we also did some antiquing while we there (prices were outrageous), went to joel's favorite guitar store, where he fell in love with a $12,000 '72 leftie strat (he was practically drooling),
andspent some time with some old college friends.
oh and joel bought me a new dress :)
it was so wonderful to finally spend some uninterrupted one-on-one time with him.
i love that man.