A very nerdy road trip
Yesterday I went to Kansas City for the day with my classmate Jeff who offered to take me along while he visited his brother. It was good to get away, as I haven't been more than two and half miles away from campus for a month.
We had no particular plan for the morning, so we began to walk down the main street when we caught sight of a seemingly life-size T-Rex outside the central railway station. It turns out that the old Union Station has been renovated as an exhibition space as well as a train station, and had a dinosaur exhibit within. Even more interesting though was the architecture itself with beautiful ornate ceilings and magnificent art deco columns. Where as most early 20th century stations such as the original Penn Station in New York have since been demolished, this is a rare example. There was a great history exhibit within the station showing the history of railroads in the US. It turns out that many major train stations are called Union Station because they were a collaboration of the competing railroad companies which otherwise had independent tracks and stations.
What what made this such a nerdy road trip, apart from dinosaurs and trains (which every 6 year old kid loves)? We also visited a map shop and the public library. I was delighted that Jeff had the same interests is such nerdy public utilities and infrastructure as me. We also found a bar which claimed to have "the most draft beers in the country" which seemed like a pretty big claim, but did have about 100, and had little shot glass size samples of several interesting, and a couple of awful ones.
It was a good day out, but today it's time to get back into to study for term 2. More about that soon.
We had no particular plan for the morning, so we began to walk down the main street when we caught sight of a seemingly life-size T-Rex outside the central railway station. It turns out that the old Union Station has been renovated as an exhibition space as well as a train station, and had a dinosaur exhibit within. Even more interesting though was the architecture itself with beautiful ornate ceilings and magnificent art deco columns. Where as most early 20th century stations such as the original Penn Station in New York have since been demolished, this is a rare example. There was a great history exhibit within the station showing the history of railroads in the US. It turns out that many major train stations are called Union Station because they were a collaboration of the competing railroad companies which otherwise had independent tracks and stations.
What what made this such a nerdy road trip, apart from dinosaurs and trains (which every 6 year old kid loves)? We also visited a map shop and the public library. I was delighted that Jeff had the same interests is such nerdy public utilities and infrastructure as me. We also found a bar which claimed to have "the most draft beers in the country" which seemed like a pretty big claim, but did have about 100, and had little shot glass size samples of several interesting, and a couple of awful ones.
It was a good day out, but today it's time to get back into to study for term 2. More about that soon.
That sounds like a great day out mate! I’d find interest in all those activities.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that you have time for other activities.
ReplyDelete