Kansas State Capitol

Governor's Ceremonial Office

Toured the Kansas Capitol located at Topeka.  The building was restored a few years ago, and the results are beautiful.   The building is constructed of limestone blocks.

There are five floors.   The capitol building also houses the original Kansas Supreme Court, and has ceremonial offices for the governor to issue proclamations and such.  The secretary of state also has a ceremonial office in the capitol building.

The building also houses offices for the legislators and meeting rooms for legislative committees.

Since the governor was not in the building on the day of our visit (August 27), we got to take over his desk!

Kansas Capitol - House of Representatives

A view of the House chamber, from the visitor's gallery

A view of the dome, from the 5th floor of the state capitol building.

In the 1880s, the political battle between the establishment Republicans and the populists became so intense that each faction elected its own legislature.  One group commandeered the legislative chamber, and the other group broke open the chamber doors with a sledgehammer (shown here).

Crystal Bridges

Sherry and I made a two-day (weekend) visit to NW Arkansas, in late October 2016.  We enjoyed beautiful, mild, autumn weather.

Our first destination was Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.   Financed by Sam Walton's daughter Alice.   Located in Bentonville.  Admission is free to the museum and grounds.

We spent about 3 hours strolling through the four galleries.  The galleries were organized to provide a progression from early nineteenth century portrait and landscape painting, through the twentieth century with its modern art and mixed media pieces.

Each gallery featured a timeline of social and cultural events, which provided context for the exhibited artwork.

There were several startling exhibits - mixed media that were amazing lifelike.  Sherry and I were both stunned by this suspended fellow on the right.





The last gallery highlighted the period 1940 to today, which matches our lives.  This huge wall mural was called Moses and the Burning Bush.








In the second gallery, we noticed two landscapes of Yosemite, a national park which Sherry and I toured last year.

These landscapes were done in mid-1800s.  I don't recall the artists.


   - Art -

Arenal Volcano - Costa Rica

Feb 2016 getaway to Costa Rica.... a nine day trip.

We spent two nights at a resort located at the base of Arenal volcano.   Our room at a beautiful, direct view of the volcanic cone.  The volcano seemed to be active, emitting puffs of steam from two vents near the top.  No visible lava flow, however.

This part of Costa Rica is on the dry side of the central mountain range, at this time of year.   During our two days at Arenal, we visited the town of Cano Negro and enjoyed a river cruise near the Nicaragua border.

Groundwater is heated naturally by lava and is piped to a number of spa locations on the grounds of the resort hotels around the base of Arenal.  Sherry is enjoying the spa with some of our travel companions.

Prior to reaching the volcano, we spent two nights at Monteverde cloud forest which is on the wet side of the central mountain range.  At Monteverde, I was able to do the zipline course.

  - Art -

France Magnifique tour - Sept 2015

Two nights in Paris, two nights at the Normandy coast, two nights in Loire valley (city of Tours), two nights at Avignon, and two nights at Cote d'Azure (Nice & Monaco).  Included in our tour was a TGV train ride.   The remainder of our travel was on a tour bus.  We had a wonderful group of 40 people; strangers at the start and friends at the end.

Sherry and I especially enjoyed Avignon, famous because seven popes resided there during the fourteenth century (approx 1309 - 1377) at the invitation of the French King Phillip the Fair.  Palace du Papes is an impressive and intimidating structure, built atop a rock outcrop on the east (left) bank of the Rhone River as it descends from northern France (Lyon) and empties into the Mediterranean.  The palace took some thirty years to build.

Avignon is a walled town from the medieval period in French history.  Except for Palace du Papes and papal gardens, the town is mostly flat and at riverbank level.  Very walkable.  The bridge (Pont St. Benezet) originally extended all the way across the Rhone (1177 - 1185), but was abandoned in 1680 and fell into disrepair.

Parrot friends at Topeka Zoo

Topeka Zoo is a small zoo, located about 60 miles W of Olathe.  We took grandaughters Lizzie (age 4) and Ainsley (age 3) on an exploratory trip.  They had a great time.  One of the exhibits was a hands-on parrot experience....feeding time!

To top off our visit, we rode the kids train, which runs on a one mile loop.

Great Allegheny Gap bike trail

April 2015 - my sister Kitty invited me to ride on the famous GAP (Great Allegheny Passage) bike trail.  Kitty was preparing to go on a self-supporting bicycle ride along the Rhine in late summer, and she wanted to do a shakedown ride using her Bike Friday and all her travelling gear, including panniers.

The GAP trail is a crushed-rock and packed-dirt trail built along the right-of-way of the Western Maryland RR.

I met Kitty and her Rhine group (friends Susan, Mark, Chuck, Helen) near Pittsburgh.  I rode with them for 3 days.   They hauled all their clothing/personal gear on their bicycles, which created a 30 lb load for each rider.

Because I was supported by my wife Sherry and a vehicle, I only had to haul myself.   (We drove from Olathe, KS to join the bike ride).   While I was riding with Kitty, Sherry was able to do a bit of sightseeing (Falling Waters, Ft. Necessity).

Overnight stops were at Ohiopyle and Meyersdale in Pennsylvania, and Cumberland in Maryland.

On the third day, I broke off from the shakedown group and rode ahead, biking across the eastern Continental Divide and through the Big Savage Tunnel riding NW to SE, then downhill to Cumberland, MD where I met up with Sherry.

On the downhill leg, I crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, from Pennsylvania into Maryland.   The M-D Line is beautifully marked on the bike trail.

    - Art -

Rudolph's story

As part of our family Christmas celebration this year in Virginia, we participated in a talent show, staged at McCrillis House.  For our part of the show, Sherry and I excerpted 32 couplets from the original 1939 story (87 couplets) Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer.  The book contained beautiful illustrations.  We found some props on a recent trip to Branson MO.  I provided some musical accompaniment to the storytelling.