Topeka, KS

We made it to Topeka, in spite of the horrible freeways- they are doing a ton of roadwork, and the roads need it!  Kyle got here about 45 minutes after us, right as we finished setting up.  It is so great to see him, and we are excited for the 3 days we had with him- and they were busy days!

Day 1: We started the day by visiting the Kansas Capitol, and it is beautiful! There are 17 different kinds of marble, and it is the tallest building in Topeka, at 308 feet.

There are numerous beautiful murals, and the dome is spectacular:

We saw the house and senate chambers:

Kyle got GREAT tickets for the Kansas City Royals game, so we headed to Kansas City.  First stop was Joe’s Kansas City Barbecue for lunch- and all I can say is WOW!  Five thousand + yelpers who gave it a 4.6 score were sooooo right- it was delicious!  Since the game was in the evening we went to the Kansas City Mint and Money Museum.

There was a lot of information about how the Federal Reserve works, and a couple of cool exhibits:

There was a nice coin collection, and when we could look into the bank part we saw the robotic transporters “Snap”, “Crackle” and “Pop” moving money around. Those were their names! You couldn’t take pictures of that, though.

We then went to the National Frontiers Trails Center in Independence, MO, which is right next to Kansas City. The museum starts with the Lewis and Clark expedition searching for a route to the Pacific ocean. The exhibits show the Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail and the Mormon Trail, and there are writings from various people who participated in wagon trains on the writings are so interesting- joyful and heartbreaking!

After the museum we made a quick stop at Duluth Trading Company, and then off to the game! The tickets were in the Diamond Club just to the right of home plate- amazing! I could get used to these seats, along with the food delivery and the private restrooms!- no lines!  We had a great time, and the Royals win put the cherry on top!  Rain had been forecast, but it held off until after the game- yay!

Like I said- GREAT seats!

The Hotdog Race was fun:

Good looking group:

Day 2: We drove to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Museum and Library.  The museum was very interesting, but unexpectedly, most of the information was about his time in the Army, and there was not as much as I expected about his presidency. I was really interested in how important Mamie was to Ike’s career- they viewed it as a partnership!

We also saw the World’s Largest Belt Buckle:

Day 3: We visited the Brown v Board of Education exhibit, and it was so interesting.  It is so sad that this took place during our lifetime! Five cases from different states were lumped together and called Brown v Board of Education in the Supreme Court case, which challenged the doctrine of “separate but equal” schools. The park ranger was proud that the schools in Topeka truly were equal, but the schools in South Carolina were nowhere near equal! The SCOTUS decision was that segregation was inherently unequal

Just across from the school was this mural:

After lunch we went to the Combat Air Museum.  Jerry and Kyle especially liked looking at all the planes- and I was amazed at how they fit them in the 2 hangars- it must have been a real puzzle!

We were surprised at how industrial Topeka was, but that is probably why it is the Capitol of Kansas. We were sorry to see Kyle head home, and were soooo happy to have some time with him- even if we did run him ragged! We’ll see him again later this summer on our return trip home- and it will be a little bit more restful 😉