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January 11, 2007

Lex, KY to Lawrence, KS

I spent an interesting week in Lawrence, Kansas. Am going to be a lazy blogger and just upload a few photos and let them do the talking (I'll add my 2 cents inbetween of course!)
We rented a PT-Cruiser at Kansas City and drove to Lawrence. Man! People meant it when they said, "Kansas? The drive to Kansas is one long, flat, boring drive!" The PT-Cruiser was a different story though. Interesting attributes - a vivid purple body color and a funny shape (reminded me of Mater from "Cars" :p) The picture here should give you a better idea!



I didn't quite catch all the "Hawk" stores and "Hawk" street names (JayHawk boulevard) until I began to notice the slightly serious-funny looking bird everywhere on campus. I've asked p~ to get me a souvenir next time she comes to Lex. p~ (k's sister, Payal) gets to study @ the University of Kansas for the next two years. I wish I could go to school there, a nice literature degree or something, hmm...



For someone who has spent 6 years in a mid-sized (oh, alright...small) town like Lexington, the buildings at the University of Kansas seemed pretty grand to me. They have several libraries, some of them much bigger than our famous Youngs library (Sigh! And I thought we had one of the best libraries in the country).



k and I absolutely loved the cafeteria on campus - there was this "make-your-own-pasta" center where you get to pick the pasta, the vegetables to go with it, herbs and sauce of your choice. I tried a few, let's say, "interesting" combinations and it all tasted great. k had to be dragged out of that place. He wanted to have breakfast, lunch and dinner there and insisted that I click a picture of the best garlic bread he ever tasted!



While p~ had a lot of work to do, orientation and all that, we pretty much chilled and stuffed ourselves with as much food as we could. There was this one neat Thai place called "Zen Zero", if you don't mind oily but very-very tasty food, this is one great place to try. Err...you can't see much of "Zen Zero" in this picture, but you can catch our satisfied smiles :)




The temple at Kansas City was not empty, considering it was a cold weekday morning. Except for the slightly loud bhajan on the stereo, I enjoyed the visit.







We made a short trip to the Nelson-Atkins museum. We enjoyed the museum from the err...outside. It was freezing and the museum had closed :p The parking attendant returned our money back...talk about mid-western niceness! Inscribed on the walls of the museum were these words: "Art deals with things forever incapable of definition that belong to love, beauty, joy, and worship. The shapes, powers and glory of which are forever building, unbuilding, and rebuilding in each man's soul and in the soul of the whole world."

How does that saying go? That you are never too old to fall in love?

Amen.

9 comments:

Parth said...

I have spent a week or more in Manhattan, KS. You can pretty much put a lock on the steering wheel, a brick on the accelerator and go to sleep when driving in that state.

BUS said...

every other place than Lex is big :-) ...good you had a fun trip

Hellboy said...

yes, i hear the same complaints about the plains of midwest. For some reason i always believed that Kansas, Nebraska and other midwest states to be beautiful. Miles and miles of prairie land is no beauty to me :)

Trivia:- Kentucky and Kansas rank 1 and 3 in the all time NCAA Div I basketball total wins. Great basketball schools :)

Unknown said...

Hey Nice blog! and btw thanks..unwanted advice nahi that..sometimes u get a better perspective from virtual strangers, I guess :)

sb said...

i thot u were flying to kansas? illiya?

IBH said...

do people go on vacation?:) ahaha

Kentucky to KS....should have been a long drive rite?
hope you guyshad fun....

hey RS, how have you been? long time since i read any of the blogs...

dinesh said...

Nice write up.How did you decide to drive ? Definitely a longg drive. Good you have fun.

Another piece of trivia: The game of Basketball was invented at the University of Kansas.

RS said...

parth - very true, it's good we decided to fly and not drive aaaalll the way!

bus - dei!

hellboy - Thanks for the trivia. I have a feeling I will come last in any sorta trivia game!

ramblings...- thanks!

sb - we did fly but the airport is in Kansas City and it's a one hour drive to Lawrence, KS.

ibh - How have you been and how is the little one doing? Happy new year!

Dinesh - We drove for an hour...I guess I gave a build-up that made it seem like the ride was longer :p

IBH said...

little one is keeping us pretty busy..we are always on our toes :)
Happy new year to you guys too....so did u guys have fun for new year?

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