Tuesday, May 14 -
Tuesday, Joe and I went with his dad to Saint Joseph's, which is where President Truman is from. Though we are trying to hit up as many presidential libraries as possible on the trip, Joe and I have both been to the Truman library, so we decided to bypass it and visit his house instead. It was such an awesome experience!
Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside, but that was the only disappointing part of the tour. Park rangers give tours every half hour for up to eight people and we were lucky enough to choose a time that no one else did, so we had a private tour! Our ranger (Dave) was really into Truman's history and shared a ton of cool info. Here's some fun facts I learned about President Truman:
1.) The house we toured was President Truman's home for over 50 years - but it was actually his wife's home first. He moved in with her and her parents after their wedding. Bess' mother was a bit difficult to deal with, and didn't want her daughter to marry Truman because he was "only a farmer." Once he became President, she refused to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom because she had Confederate ties.
2.) Though they initially met at Sunday School at ages 5 and 6, Harry and Bess started their courtship after he returned a cake plate to the house. His aunt and uncle lived across the street, and had borrowed the plate while he was visiting them.
3.) The Secret Service lived in this nearby house after Truman was president:
After the library, we toured the Hallmark museum (which is free - score!). I was pumped, because at the end of the tour we got about 6 free greeting cards a piece! This frugal gal is pumped to have saved $36+ on future cards :)
The museum was interesting too. Of course I teared up at several points because they played Hallmark commercials. Hallmark commercials always get me (those, and laundry soap commercials. And don't get me started on what happens when I watch a Saint Jude Children's Hospital or Sarah McLachlan animal shelter commercial. It's not pretty.)
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| There was a bow machine that was really cool to watch make bows. Better yet, I got to keep one as a souvenir. |
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| Some old-timey cards. |
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| My stomach starts to rumble every time I see this sign! |
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| Burnt ends and lard fries. |
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| That look in my eye is saying, "I'm so happy to be here, but hurry up and take the picture so I can stuff my face." |
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| Poor Joe had a stomach ache, so he had to take it easy. Just a turkey sandwich for him and one of my lard fries (I obviously love that man for giving him a lard fry). |
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| Joe's dad had the brisket. It looked really good, you could see the smoke ring on the beef. |
Wednesday, May 15 -
Wednesday we left Kansas City for Columbia, Missouri. But we made a detour to the state capitol (Jefferson City) to have lunch with Joe's aunt and cousin, visit his friend and his friend's wife and new baby, to tour the capitol building, and to eat some delicious ice cream at Central Dairy.
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| Joe in front of the Capitol building |
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| They let us take pictures from the House floor because they weren't in session. I checked the computers to see if anyone was Facebooking or looking at dirty websites - but it all looked legit. |
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| Do you watch Parks and Rec? Do you wonder where they got the idea for the Pawnee mural? I'm pretty sure it was from the Missouri Capitol building. Here are some gems (the people on the bottom right aren't scared of the smoke monster on LOST - their house is burning down. And, yes, the woman in top left photo is shooting a man in the butt and the woman in the bottom left photo is wiping her baby's butt with a cotton ball. I have no clue what is happening to that poor man on the upper right...) |
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| Joe and his mom highly recommended Central Dairy, so we stopped by after the Capitol. Oh.my.sweet.goodness. Yes, very delicious. |
Thursday we spent the day in Columbia. We had lunch with Joe's old supervisor who has written him several letters of rec during the dental school and scholarship process. It was great to see her and where Joe worked during college (he worked with people with developmental disabilities and helped them gain work and life skills so they could get jobs, live more independently, etc.). We walked the halls and it was hilarious seeing people's reaction when they saw Joe 7 years and 100 pounds lighter later.
For dinner, we went to Columbia's famous Shakespeare's Pizza with his mom's side of the family. It was great catching up with all of them and the pizza, of course, was delicious.
After dinner, we headed over to his brother and sister-in-law's house. They will be coming to St. Louis for about 3 days to help celebrate Joe's birthday and so we can have some quality time with them), but we couldn't wait to see them :)
Alrighty - we are officially caught up. Sorry for rushing at the end, Joe has an eye exam today (his sister works in an Optometrist's office) and we need to leave in 30 minutes. I haven't even showered yet, so I gotta get going!
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I think the guy in the upper right picture of the mural is getting tarred-and-feathered where they put hot tar on you then put feathers on the tar as a punishment for some crime.
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