A Freezing Drizzle And Gray Skies In Kansas City

The Family Davis

It's 8:00 and no one is stirring  not even a, yup, a grandchild.  The weather has not been cooperating much, as there's more freezing rain this morning, and it won't clear up until Tuesday when we head home.  It will be a good day to hunker down with Tom and family and watch their beloved Chiefs play the Buffalo Bills.  I am glad we are not going to the game; it's much nicer to stay home and watch it in a warm house, with a beer and chips and dip.

Yesterday did not lend itself to much of an outing because of the rain and cold temperatures.  Nick, however, had a soccer game, on a team with a bunch of buddies, san coach now that his season is over.  He and Tom braved the weather, leaving around 9:30, not getting home until 12:30 and the roads, fortunately, were no problem.  We both felt guilty about not going to the game but rationalized it by thinking we had seen many of his games over the years and this was just fun, the way it should be, not playing to get ready for the next season, just playing because you love to play soccer.  I watched the Ohio State game, as they devastated a Michigan team and the reputation of their coach as a miracle man.  They were just out classed by the Buckeyes.  I am not sure why I still care about Ohio State football, perhaps because I started listening to their games on the radio in the 1950's, cheering for Howard 'Hopalong' Cassidy, a 150 pound running back, as any good boy growing up in Ohio would do.

The Monopoligists, Granny and Marlena

When Tom and Nick returned, Tommy got out some home fries and turkey sausage, fried them up and Evie fried us some eggs, for a late breakfast.  We ate watching the Ohio State game. The only healthy one of us, Mary, spent a couple of hours working out at the gym.  For a good part of the afternoon, Evie and Marlena played Monopoly, not Evie's favorite but she stuck with it, even beating her granddaughter at the last minute, a true capitalist.  Nick and a friend watched a Spanish film in the basement for extra credit, while the rest of us wiled away the afternoon, playing games on our iPad, like a new one Evie has shown everyone called Word Brain.  Tommy and I are the only ones who don't seem to have any interest in word games; everyone else loves them.

Kansas City's Union Station

Union Station's Grand Lobby Christmas Decorations

We were going downtown, around 5:30, to walk around Union Station, the rehabilitated train station in Kansas City, then to Lidia's, a landmark restaurant here in KC, part of our favorite chef, Lidia Bastianich's empire.  We have followed her TV show for years, have her cookbooks and have eaten at her restaurant only once, about 15 years ago.  So we were excited to go there.  But first we spent a good hour touring the train station, an architectural wonder from the early 1900's.  Now it was festooned with Christmas decorations, especially in it's large main hall.  It houses restaurants, museums, a theater, coffee shop, and gift shops.  Like many of these older buildings, it was almost taken down before concerned citizens stepped up and raised the money to renovate it.  Now it's one of the gems of Kansas City.  We also took the skywalk, which connects Union Station with Crown Center, a hotel and an agglomeration of shops, all crowded with happy shoppers.  It was fun just being downtown on a Saturday night.

One Of Four Lidia's

Lidia's Main Dining Room

We got to Lidia's at 7:30 and the Burlingame's, Tom and Mary's best friends, were already there, enjoying a beer with their son Peyton.  Our table was ready, in the outer, windowed section of the restaurant, not as nice as the restaurant proper but we did have nine people.  Lidia's was crowded, as we expected, but our waiter though busy was accommodating, explaining menu items, sometimes two or three times, and letting us share meals if we wanted which was nice.  Most of us ordered the pasta trio, all you can eat pastas, a pasta with bolognese sauce, another with shrimp and crab, a third ravioli with butternut squash in a sage butter sauce.  I got the duck breast, Tom salmon, and Mike, osso buco. All our meals were good but nothing fantastic, alas, perhaps not worth the money.  But we all enjoyed being there, six adults and three youngsters, who enjoyed the ambiance and being out with their parents at a nice restaurant.  Lidia is going to have to kick it up a notch before we ponder returning.

Gang of Nine At Lidia's

Our ride home, on slick roads, went fine; we stopped for ten minutes at the Magic Tree, near Tom and Mary's house.  It wasn't so magical this year; no one wanted to get out of the car except for Mary and Marlena.  Bah humbug.  We did not get home until around 10;00, Nick and Peyton going downstairs immediately to play some games and watch movies, the rest of us watched some TV but soon went up to bed.

The Magic Tree

Today brings more football, at noon, the Chiefs and Bills, and Evie is going to make beignets for breakfast.  I cannot wait to see how they match up with the ones we had at the Cafe Au Lait in New Orleans.