Trip to Kansas City - Days Nine, Ten, and Eleven

I spent one final day in Kansas City to visit with Mom and just relax before hitting the road home.  Fortunately Peter and I were able to get out early in the morning to take some photos of Roxy Paine's Ferment, a 60 foot stainless steel construction installed on the grounds of the Nelson.  I was thrilled to see one of his pieces since we had first encountered him on the roof garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York a couple of years ago. Click here to see the photo album of that construction.  Click here to see more photos of Ferment.  I also took some exposure compensated images which I will process into High Dynamic Range photos as soon as I get time.

Just as I was about to finish my photo taking, a young man working on the grounds asked what I was doing.  I explained that I was taking pictures of the main building although I had come to take pictures of the..."The tree," he said.  "Yes."  "you know that is a $2 million tree," he said with evident pride.  On this particular day the temperature would get to 106 and he was working all day on the grounds.  I told him that I grew up in Kansas City and come back often and always came here to take pictures of the Museum and its grounds.  He said that he was a Kansas City native.  I told him how wonderful the grounds looked and thanked him for his work.  later I reflected on what he was doing.  He was pulling weeds in an elevated bank of ground cover.  The weeds to my eyes were indistinguishable from the ground cover and yet it was clearly important that the area be tended to with care.  It bespoke the amount of resources available to the Museum and also the fact that the grounds and outdoor spaces are considered part of the exhibition space and are tended too as carefully as the indoor spaces.

After visits with Anola and Peter and Mary and Bob, I left early the next morning for Aurora IL, a relatively easy 8 hour drive.  I was on the road as the sun came up as you can see from the photo I took with my phone as it sat in its hands free holder.  When I arrived at Brendan's, I got to see the new truck he had purchased when they returned from Kansas City earlier in the week.  They had some car trouble before and on the way home and decided that they needed a reliable vehicle since they were traveling to Cleveland for the weekend celebration of Eileen's Mom and Dad's 55 anniversary.

Very early the next morning we left for Cleveland with Brendan riding with me for the 7 1/2 hour trip.  It was great to have company and always great to share time and conversation with Brendan.  We stopped for breakfast and I took my last picture of this extended trip which you see below:  Brock and Brady ready for breakfast at a rest stop.  That's it for this trip.  See you all the next time.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Eight

This was Marilyn's final day in Missouri.  As soon as we could get going, we drove to Clyde to visit Sr. Paula, some I try to do at least twice year.  She was my spiritual director in San Diego and we have been friends for over 30 years.  She is a monk at the Clyde Mother House of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.  They ahve been doing extensive renovation at the Mother House but the chapel is still a place to encounter the stillness of the divine presence.

As always we had a lively visit with Sr. Paula including a tour of the new renovations and some areas I don't think we were supposed to be.  But you must remember that this a monk who was once criticized for smiling too much!  Fortunately for all of us, she stayed.

Clyde is about two hours north of Kansas City on 71 Highway which goes right by the airport.  so I dropped Marilyn off for her 3:30 flight.  Before we left Nodaway County up north, she suggested we take some pictures of us in a corn field.  Great idea.

My next post will be the final three days of my trip.  See you then.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Seven

Sarah and Meg

The morning after the big picnic was a time to say good by to Brendan and Eileen, Sean and Julie, Galen, and Liam and the kids who came with them.  Meg wasn't leaving till late in the afternoon and she joined Tom, Sarah, Marilyn and me for lunch at Brio on the Plaza.  It was hot but breezy and we found a side balcony that was in the shade even without the awnings.

It turned out to be a late lunch and we had to hustle back to Grand Court to pick up Mom and get her back down to St. James for the service project.  St. James Place began life as the St. James Recreation Center, a multi-use recreational facility for the parish.  We all grew up playing basketball there, attending Scout meetings, watching golden Glove bouts, and enjoying numerous and varied breakfasts:  First Friday, Holy Name Society, Altar and Rosary Society, you name it.  As the parish changed, so did the need for such a facility.  It's goal of cohesion within a Catholic community--perhaps even a bit of a ghetto--became significantly less important as the social and economic needs of the neighborhood increased.  The Center was built in the early forties and served the parish and the larger community as a recreation center.  The parish opened a food cupboard in the Center in 1970 to respond to the needs of the community.  In 2002, the parish turned to the Bishop Sullivan Center to operate St. James Place in the center.  This includes a food pantry, vocational assistance and a supper program.  You can read more about the Center by clicking here.

Those family members still in town along with Mom went to St. James Place to serve dinner and clean up.  We worked continuously from 5 till 6 and even after a bit.  This is a daily program at St. James Place and there was a full gambit of people going through the line:  young, old; down and out, disturbed, happy, joyful, and all seemed thankful to God and to us for serving them.  The outside temperature reached 106 that day but fortunately the Center had been air conditioned by a generous donor.

View the photo album of St. James Place dinner.

After dinner at St. James Place, we all went to Sweet Tomatoes for a great family dinner.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Six

While Mom's birthday was the next day, the big celebration was on Sunday.  We began with Mass at St. James, the parish we all grew up in.  The is still active and doing important pastoral and social ministry work. they have also fixed up the interior and it looks great.  Mom doesn't attend every Sunday but she is still a loyal member and is known by all.  My sister Mary and her husband Bob are extremely active members.


View a photo album of Mass at St. James

Mommer with Maggie, Braden, Marin, and Brynne

The big event was a picnic at Loose Park in the pavilion.  More than sixty family members attended.  All seven of my children were there along with seven of the grandchildren.  All Mom's grandchildren save one were there along with our Sciolaro cousins and several of their children and grandchildren.  We were all please to see our Pickett cousin, Oren, attend since we had not seen him in several years.

We had a great time with plenty of barbecue, visiting, stories, cousins meeting each for the first time, more stories, visiting with Grandma/Mommer, and more stories.  Oh, and we all had an Oreo cookie since it too is celebrating its centennial this year.  There were hundreds of photos just on my cameras so I have selected some for Picasa albums.

Mommer Picnic Photo Album

Mommer Picnic Group Photos

My kids with their pens

There was one side activity that is very interesting. My son Galen has gotten into using fountain pens...in a big way.  He buys them on Ebay and reconditions them.  Actually some of the ones he gets have never been "inked" as he says.  He has done a lot of research on the history of fountain pens including the various technologies and the companies that have been involved in the manufacture of them.  A couple of weeks before our Kansas City weekend, he wrote to each of his siblings...actually wrote individual letters with one of his pens.  Each one was different.  They all ended with the same commitment.  He would bring fountain pens for each of them to Kansas City and further that if they wrote him a letter with the pen, he would answer in writing that same day.  He didn't pick out a pen for each but let them select from the group he brought.  The photo shows them after they made their picks.

We also re-enacted a photo of the seven taken at Meg's graduation from Cornell.  Of course, none of us brought a copy of the original picture so we think we got everyone in the same position but I won't know for sure until I get home and take a look at the original.

View the photo album of the picture and the pen project.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Five

I am actually writing this on Day Eight but so much has gone on that I am way behind.  I probably have 500 photos so get ready for a lot of text to read and photos to view.

Day Five started with early morning coffee from Starbucks at the Marriott Courtyard where most were staying.  Sean and Julie were staying at Grand Court but he joined me for the Starbucks run and then our gathering of Pickett males.  It was a real treat for me to have coffee and conversation with all four sons in one spot.

After that interlude, I returned to Anola's where we stayed Friday night and got to visit with Peter and Anola.  Gerry and Kara were there getting thing ready for a gathering of their friends for later that evening.  We had a bite to eat and then hustled out to get balloons for the party in the park the next day.  That's when I learned that there is a shortage of helium!  Why a shortage?  My question exactly.  It turns out that helium is a made from natural gas and due to the unusually warm winter, there was less natural gas pumped this year resulting in less helium.  Who knew?  Eventually we found a party store with helium and made our purchases.  Then it was on to Grand Court, where Mom lives, for the party there.

Erin, Amy and Brynne came in that morning and so all the kids were there except Meg who came in Sunday morning.  Old friends and some family were there.  A real treat was Bo Claxton, son in law of Mom's good friend Hilda, who sadly passed on a couple of years ago.  He comes to Grand Court to entertain and is a favorite of Mom's.  Her favorite song is "I am my own grandpa" which, I guess, has special significance when your father was your grandfather's son.  It's a long story!

Watch a video of the song.

After the party, Marilyn and I hosted the kids and grandkids at Sweet Tomatoes.  It was sweet time.  We were especially pleased at the interaction of the cousins who rarely get to see each.  Braden quickly became the leader of the pack and it was great to see her play Abby Wambach to her adoring fans.  After dinner, Eileen got one of the staff to take a photo of the whole gang.  If you can't make it out, that is Justin Bieber on Marin's t-shirt.

Eventually we all make it back to the Courtyard and visited late into the night.  The kids were swimming and playing ball and the rest of us just sat around visiting, telling stories, and laughing.  My brother Tom and his family joined in.

You can view the photo album of the Grand Court party and the after events, by clicking here.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Four On the road to KC

We left a little before six and made good progress.  There was some rain and one flash of lightning but little weather of consequence.  Well, there was one little problem.  Within half of a mile of their house, we stopped at a Seven-Eleven for gas and coffee.  We got all set to go and I couldn't find my keys.  Yes, the very ones I used to drive to that spot.  We looked everywhere including inside and even in the trash when I noticed them on the roof where I had placed them as you can see in the photo.  Great.  Now we were all ready to go except except I didn't have my keys.  oh, yeah, I had put them back on the roof to take the picture.

McDonald's turned out to be the official food vendor of Pickett Summer Tour 2012,  Marilyn was busy calculating Weight Watcher points on her tablet so we were ready to order once we got in line.  We got to Kansas City in good order.  Marilyn took a pass on the ball game.  I hustled over to mom's to hook up with Sean for a ride to Kauffman Stadium with Julie and Sam.  I had Liam's tickets and so waited for him outside.  We eventually all made it and went inside to see an very entertaining game.  Unfortunately the White Sox won 9-8 in 14 innings.  i was very impressed with the play of the Royals but not the pitching so much.  It is not hard to understand when five of your pitching staff are on the 60 day DL.  I made till the end of the 11th and called it a day.  Brendan and his gang stayed to the end as did my brother Tom and his son Jamie.  It was a very entertaining game.

A highlight was when Brock participated in a kids throwing contest that was broadcast on the big diamond vision screen for all to see.  See video below.



Check out the update Kansas City photo album.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Three Aurora

We spent the full day Thursday in Aurora with Eileen and kids.  Brendan worked all day including a closing so he could get off Friday for the drive to Kansas City.  We went with Eileen and the kids to Naperville, a quite sizable city (over 150,000) with a downtown area that reminded me of Georgetown in that it had stores--many high end--worked into the buildings and streets of the area rather than in a shopping mall.

We visited a lot of shops including one that had a lot of jewelry and other bling.  Afterwards we visit a cookie dough shop where everyone had some ice cream or cookie dough...or both.  After walking around is absolutely comfortable summer weather, warm and dry, we returned home to prepare to go to Brock's 3 v 3 soccer.  It was an experience to see this fast paced, possession game with no goalies.  Brock's team lost both of their games but he scored a nice goal followed by a collision with a defender.  See the video below.

As we were returning to the house earlier in the day, I had spotted some egrets in a pond nearby.  I knew I wanted to take some photos but it was mid afternoon with the wrong kind of light.  After the soccer match, I went by again and found that wonderful sunet light and several more egrets and a couple of heron.  You can see more in the Egrets and heron photo Album.

Click here to see the updated photo album from Aurora.

Trip to Kansas City - Day Two - Aurora

We left Buffalo a little before 6:00 am and made great time.  The weather was clear and the traffic reasonable...until we got to Chicagoland where it became intense.  Even though we stayed on I-80, well south of Chicago proper, the volume of traffic increased dramatically.  Those 75 miles were more stress than the previous 500.  As I get older, I find that it takes longer to drive long distances.  Not that I drive any slower but I seem to stop a lot more.  The seniors out there will understand.

I might note that both Marilyn and I started religiously tracking our Weight Watcher points as we headed into the danger zone of vacation travel and all the parties that await us in Kansas City.

We arrived in Aurora a little before 4:00, helped by the additional hour provided by Central Daylight Time.  that gave us a chance to relax a bit before we were off to the ball fields to see Brady's final game of the season.  This has been his first year playing baseball and he enjoyed it a lot.  he told me this morning that he wants to play next year.  He had a good day at the plate and in the field.  He went 2 or 4 with a pretty legit double.  After the game and team photo, we went to the team meal in a nearby shelter house.  They offered a lovely repast of watermelon, cupcakes slathered with frosting, cheese curls, and candy.  Happily Eileen had gotten some frozen pizza thinking that perhaps the team meal would be to our liking or health.  We returned home, ate that pizza, had a brownie that Braden had made earlier, visited and then hit the sack.

This is a video of Brady's double.  

View the updated photo album.

Trip to Kansas City - Day One

Well, we made it as far as Buffalo and will spend the night with Mom and Dad.  We are off tomorrow morning--as early as Marilyn is able--for Aurora IL to stay a day with Brendan and his family.  The highlight will be watching Brady play baseball tomorrow night.  More information and pictures as we go along.

Oh, did I mention that we are going to Kansas City this summer to celebrate Mom's 100th birthday!  Even better is the fact that all seven of my children will be there.  This will be the first time since our wedding in 2000.