One of my memories of growing up in Kansas City was going downtown to view the American Royal parade. The American Royal is an eight week long event in Kansas City that celebrates the city as a center of agriculture and all its associated commercial enterprises. It is a horse and stock show complete with rodeo and cattle shows and sales as well as internationally recognized horse shows. The parade was a community event to celebrate all that. It is the same today with some notable changes. In addition to innumerable equine units, there were biker groups with magnificence machines with their throaty growls and loud rumbles, stepping groups with their unique and now more main stream displays, and African-American horse riding groups.
This year's parade honored American service men and women and so there were a number of military and veteran units. It was beautiful sunny day with moderate temperatures, perfect for watching an 90 minute parade. We went with my sister Mary and were joined by my niece Kate and her husband Ryan who cycled down from their house. It was great to see them on this trip. You can see some photos of the parade here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111139278872202723241/AmericanRoyalParade I also took a lot of video which I will get posted on YouTube in the coming days. For now you can view one of the bike clubs below.
My brother-in-law bob and my sister Louisa joined us for lunch after the parade. We lingered over lunch out doors and then realized we had to hustle back to Mom's to get ready for Mass and more celebrations at Rockhurst. I, of course, had to take a little nap which made us a bit late for Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church, the Jesuit parish across the street from the University. It was celebrated by Fr. Tom Curran, the president of Rockhurst. It was very moving experience for me being back in that church in which I had spent so much time as an undergraduate: we had mandatory Mass every Friday there. I was also moved by Fr. Curran's homily that was Ignatian to the core. He spoke at length about the instructions Ignatius gave to the Jesuits attending the Council of Trent which are still relevant today.
After Mass, we attended an alumni reception and heard Fr. Curran's excellent report on the state of the university. It was final chance to be with the members of the class and make our farewells with promises to stay in touch. We joined Ralph and Buffy Richardson for dinner on the Plaza for some excellent barbeque at Jack Stack's. While we waited for our table, Marilyn and I walked around a bit and found plenty subjects for our cameras. That moon was there again and I couldn't resist a shot of it as it rose over the Plaza.
It was a late night and we found that Mom had gone to bed. I worked on the photos a bit and then hit the sack. Tomorrow we head to Maize, Kansas for two days with my cousin Andy Sciolaro and his wife Lois.
You can view the updated Rockhurst photo album here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111139278872202723241/RockhurstGoldenHawks2012#
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