Four Game Day in Kansas City

Marlena and Evie Playing Games on Their Computers

Up at 6:30 to a surprisingly cool day here in Kansas City.  It looks like a sunny day, but the high will only be in the low 60's if that.  At least it will be sunny.  Tom and Nick had to leave around 5:45 for a soccer game at 7:00 in Overland Park, KS, about a half hour ride.  Nick had a soccer game again at 1:30 in the same park, against a team from Milwaukee.  Marlena has two volleyball games this morning, one at 8:00, the next at 9:00

Not a lot to say about yesterday, as we left sunny, lovely Scottsdale to return to the Midwest of Missouri, at least we had Tom and family as solace.  Not really, but we did have a great time in Scottsdale, thanks to the hospitality of Claire and Henry, mostly, and the wonderful weather, not too hot, so that we could hike each day in the spectacular mountains surrounding most of the cities in Arizona.  I always have remembered T.S. Eliot's line from "The Waste Land,", "In the mountains, there you feel free/ I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter," and you feel free, off alone, if not physically, in your thoughts, high above the cities, or in the valley or gulch, looking up at these miracles of geology and past history.  I miss not seeing them out my window already.  If we did not have Chautauqua Lake to look at each morning,  I think I would have to move to somewhere with a view of a mountain.

Looking back at our visit to Scottsdale, neither one of us assumed we would be hiking to the extent we ended up doing.  Each day, we became more and more excited about exploring a new trail and before we knew it, our morning routine was not complete without a six mile hike somewhere in the mountains.  I hope we can keep it up in Chautauqua, no mountains of course, but plenty of great parks, trails, and hills to explore.  And we can always come back West, if our hunger for mountain hiking gets too great.

We were up early in Scottsdale, watched the sunrise on the mountains one last time, had some breakfast, said our good bye's to Dot, went over to Claire', for another cup of coffee, to hold their granddaughter one more time, then off to the airport with Henry.  Fortunately, his son Scott was arriving about an hour after us, so he was just going to wait there.  Our flight went quickly, just a little over two hours, although bit bumpy when we landed.  We got to Tom's around 6:00, and Marlena was at a birthday party until 7:30 and Nick was out with buddies playing some kind of nerf ball game.  Tom ordered Chinese, our third night in a row for it, and we all chowed down when the kids got home.  They are all good, ready for the weekend of fun with Granny and games.  Because we were all getting up early, we were in bed by 10:00, all of us tired.