Category Archives: Travel

There are places on the planet where it is damn near impossible to take a bad picture, no matter your equipment, skill level, or whatever. I’m sure there are folks who somehow do manage to screw it up, but they’re in a different class from us mere mortals.

For example: London

My first stop has repeatedly been the Thames and the Battle of Britain monument. A favorite, it’s HUGE and wonderful.

A short walk to Parliament and Big Ben. It was grey and raining all day. That happens there a lot.

Some nice person figured that I might like to have proof that I was there. They were correct. Thank you, nice person!

St. James Park, looking toward Buckingham Palace. Not seen are the viscious geese that figured if I was there I just MUST have bread and was holding out on them.

Buckingham Palace.

Picadilly Square. Now getting dark and raining.

Trafalgar Square. Behind me was a guy on a unicycle playing bagpipes with flames shooting out the top. Not something you see every day.

The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. It would be nice to get to see a concert or organ recital at Royal Albert Hall some day.

One of my favorite London pictures – an ancient, tiny cottage in Hyde Park, with a steel and glass skyscraper  just behind it. That’s London to me. Things hundreds of years old cheek & jowl to things built yesterday.

This was my second (third?) trip to London, in 2016, and all three have been about 18 hours long and a rush of how-much-can-I-cram-into-18-hours and how-little-sleep-can-I-survive-on-I’ll-sleep-on-the-plane-or-when-I’m-dead. It would be nice to go back for a few days or a week and see the city at a more leisurely pace.

Someday…

Twenty years ago, my one and only trip to the tip of Cape Cod.

It was very, very flat and very, very windy and sandy. We did not go swimming, no matter how competent that lifeguard looked.

Does that sign say “Danger” or “Dancer”? Twenty years that’s haunted me…

Again, Vermont, along Route 5, headed north along the Connecticut River

Oh, to be on a bicycle with no schedule, no deadlines, nothing ahead of you but a nice lunch and a maple creamee somewhere in White River Junction.

Maybe stop for a while on the bank down below the train tracks to do some fishing for bluegills, finding a shady spot, hoping the mosquitos aren’t biting and the fish are.

A spectacular shrine in Kyoto, Japan. Fushimi Inari.

I spent half a day climbing the mountain and wandering the pathways. I could have spent ten times that. I would love to be able to go to someplace like this whenever I need to stop thinking and just be.

Home now, just a quick out-on-Saturday, go to the game on Sunday, back-on-Monday trip.

It was also my first trip through Kansas City’s new airport. It’s wonderful and gorgeous!

The previous airport was built pre-9/11 and was very artsy and avante garde architecturally, but the need to put in security & TSA stations made it nearly impossible to actually function.

Many, many years and many billions of dollars later, the new airport opened up a year or so ago.

Tall ceilings, a ton of glass and natural light, plus artwork and sculptures everywhere, it’s highly functional, easy to get around, has a ton of space for now and for expansion.

Fancy, techno art.

Hanging, colorful, bubble-like art.

Lots and lots of gates – today I was at B66, which is waaaaay down there at the far end in the distance.

Lots of restaurants and shops, many of them selling Chiefs souveniers and gear, one or two selling Diet Coke instead of Pepsi. That’s the way to stick it to The Man!

There are so many excellent reasons to visit KC – pick one and go see the airport as well!