Ah yes, traveling while pregnant is fun, so we haven't gone anywhere really exotic this summer. However, yesterday Nathan and I did take what will probably be the last road trip we take just the two of us for a while: we drove two hours away to Salina, KS!
Not only is this our nearest "big city", which boasts such luxuries as a Kohl's, Target, and the Kenwood Cove Waterpark, it's the home of my Aunt Jeanine, Uncle Allan, and cousins Jocelyn and Ciarra! We were pretty excited to see everyone and get some errands done at the same time.
They took us to a great Italian restaurant for lunch, Martinelli's, which was exciting given the fact that there are zero Italian restaurants within a 1.5 hour radius of our new house. We were warned that this was "Kansas Italian", so even though it didn't compare to the amazing "pizze" in Italy, it was quite good for the US - even Kansas. We also got the Tour d'Salina, which culminated in Salina's most exciting and exotic attraction: the yellow submarine bench!
We don't live in this.
I insisted on visiting the Kenwood Cove Waterpark in the afternoon, seeing as I've gotten no use out of my maternity swimsuit yet. It's better than your average pool, with several water slides, a wave pool, lazy river, and separate lap pool. Weeeeeelllll, the lap pool was closed (due to some cloudy chemical in the water that I'm sure was added because some kid peed -or worse- in the pool), and I was not allowed to ride the water slides. I thought I'd be fine floating the lazy river and enjoying the wave pool only, until I found out the wave pool, which my cousin Jocelyn warned me was more of a ripple pool, really was just shallow, crowded, and lame. After briefly considering explaining to the slide bouncer that I wasn't pregnant, just fat, we left to go run some errands at Hobby Lobby and Kohl's.
We stayed for dinner and had some delicious steak burgers and custard at a place called Freddy's, which is the Kansas equivalent of a Culver's. Even though I am Wisconsin-breed just like Culver's I have to admit Freddy's had better custard, but NOT a better burger.
On the way home, we got sidetracked at dusk and ended up wandering into Cheyenne Bottoms, an amazing rehabilitated wetlands area close to Great Bend. We didn't see the Night Heron Nathan was looking for, but we did catch a gorgeous sunset instead.
Almost looks like the ocean, doesn't it?
Good night, Sunflower State
Perfect end to my vacationing days without kids. Just now I realized this would have been just as fun and probably more fun with the kiddo, so I'm pretty happy to include another person in our future expeditions into the unknown. Bring it on!
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