Weekend in Missouri. Not "Weekend In Misery".

So Jacob is taking this prep course in Overland Park. That's right on the border of Kansas and Missouri ( I had to look it up). And when I did look it up, I thought, Seriously? Kansas? Missouri? Who goes there?!

Last weekend I went to visit and surprise, it's actually a cool place. Kansas City has a lot of personality and some great food. Jacob was studying/testing for part of the time, so I had some free time to read, eat, read, sleep in, read. 

They are taking the course right at the hotel where Jacob is staying. During one of the practice tests, the instructor put a kind reminder up to NOT do a big job in the closest bathroom since it would disrupt the test takers. I don't know if it's funnier that he wrote this sign or that he HAD to write this sign.




Downtown Kansas City has several sections. One is devoted to kids--including a big Hallmark Center with TONS of fun stuff. We spent a little bit poking around here, looking at a Crayola store, Legoland, an aquarium, an exhibit all about the 75th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz, and they even have a hands-on museum where you can make crafts out of leftover Hallmark mistakes. I wish I had the girls with me! I didn't get any pics of this place--there wasn't much to photograph with the kids there. 

We left the kid section and drove to the grown up section, which was a big long outdoor strip mall that spanned several blocks. Kind of like Gateway but not as contained. We waited an hour for this barbecue called Jack Stack's. It was SO good!!! I don't like lumps of meat, but this was fantastic food. There's no excuse for Jacob's surly expression in this picture. I think it was indigestion :). 


I gave him a hard time about being surly and got this instead:


I didn't know this, but Kansas City is home to some LDS church historic sites (clearly I need to catch up on some Midwest geography). We spent Sunday going to Liberty Jail and Independence. These were GREAT experiences! We learned so much about the church in its early days. The tour guide and photographer of this photo at Liberty Jail was also the choir director at the MTC while I was there. I loved him back then and was so excited to hear from him again. The tour guides at both places made a point to say how the early LDS church members made a lot of mistakes which fed into the hatred and persecution. They were trying to make a point that there are two sides to the story and don't want people thinking that the members were needlessly picked on just for being Mormon. Really interesting stuff. 


Jacob pontificates on the corner of Franklin and Prairie:


The ride home was a bit emotional (understatement). I sat by a fleet of BYU Religion professors who were in Kansas City for a Book of Mormon Symposium at the sites we visited. The one I sat by (what was his name? JB?) was very kind and validating. I asked a bunch of questions about church history and we had a really good discussion. 

So, super fun weekend. Very sad ending. Another reminder that med school and medicine is a vicious beast--an animal with its own priority and agenda. Everything else is a distant second. Everything (even going #2). There's so much ambiguity and unknown, so much time spent in books. The price doctors pay to do their profession is very, very heavy. My role right now is sideline cheerleader. Go Team Jacob. 

Comments

Jacob said…
I lived in Overland Park for a summer. Bleh! Good BBQ, though.
March 12, 2014 at 9:19 PM
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