Several years ago, we stayed home from Spring Break. Actually, our little family has seldom traveled at Spring Break in the 13+ years it has been an option. Time of year, maybe. Lack of funds, probably. It always sounds great, and I talk a lot about it after Christmas, but all the plans peter out as March arrives.
So that year, I spiced up our Kansas City staycation by looking at the list my son and I had been compiling on a notepad in the car of all the places about which I had said, over his lifetime spent in the back seat, “Yeah sweetie. That’s X. We’ll go there sometime,” or, “Oh. I’ve always loved that place. We’ll go there sometime,” and, “Wow. I used to take your Aunt Lindsay and Robin Parks there when they were little like you. I’ll take you there sometime.”
On that staycation we slept late, ate lunch at restaurants new and old, and visited places that we had never been with our son. Browne’s Deli, John Wornall Home, Kearney House Museum, Thomas Hart Benton Home Museum. We did it all. The list was depleted. My husband and I were able to work in fits and starts during that week, and, when the break was over, we all felt like we’d really been somewhere and seen lots of new things. Because we had.
Currently, our son is traveling in China with my husband’s family and we (my husband and me) are in our home alone – with the dog, of course – for three weeks. We both have loads of work to accomplish but have much more flexibility to get it all done without the pull towards wanting to be with our son. Given his busy teenage existence – work, volunteering and goofing off – our times as a threesome have little footing in his regimen this summer.
While he is gone we are having a “foodcation”. Our son has been gone for 6 days, and not one meal has been prepared in the home. I am not a breakfast eater, and lunch is easily acquired from the huge bowl of organic fruit in the kitchen and hurriedly stashed in my bag as I wing out the door for work.
But dinner is another matter. My husband and I had a list much like the “Sometime” list my son and I kept in the car. This list has been growing on my husband’s cell phone/electronic notepad and includes places new and old. We don’t really dine out all that much, and this has been a real treat. So far, mostly dinner. A few lunches.
One of our lunch adventure was to Werner’s in Mission. We sat outside and had a great conversation with one outstanding staff member who was working the grill. She spoke of the butcher and the sausage maker. She mentioned her work and how she hand ties sausages and does additional duty cooking them outside over the grill. She explained to me what the different sausages were on the grill and, in particular, why one was so darned pale. (That was the German bratwurst. It isn’t made from cured or smoked meat.) Inside, one woman behind the counter made our sandwiches from scratch on soft bread and another woman checked us out on an oldish cash register.
Tonight we are off to another restaurant with good friends. A place we haven’t been. An adventure.
Sometime is now.
Note: All photos above are from our time at Werner’s.
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