9-28-2014 to 9-29-2014 Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City was the first to get Google fiber.  It is also home to the Kauffman Foundation, which helps entrepreneurs and tech startups in particular.  They were at South by Southwest in Austin.  We decided to go there for 2 nights and check out the city.  Unfortunately there were no tech events the nights we were there.

We got in late the first night so we woke up early the next morning and worked a few hours then headed out to explore the city.  We got going at about 2 in the afternoon.

This is the national WW1 memorial  (unfortunately it was closed the day we were there)

This is the view of the city from the WWI memorial.  The building to the left in the foreground is Union Station.

A panorama of the view of the city from the WWI memorial

You could imagine the bustling place Union Station once was

this is a view of the ceiling

There was a player piano

In the back they had a really nice model train collection

they had many different scales of trains and they were all elaborately displayed

they really knew how to build stuff back in the day

We biked all over the place.  Here you see Kansas City divided: Missouri on the right, Kansas on the left.

Part of the museum on the lower level, we found this inside City Market.

There are tons of fountains in Kansas City.  We found a map of them and there were dozens just in downtown alone.

This was an interesting tear drop camper that had a cool slideout in the front

This is a great camper idea

The KC football game was being broadcast on a screen and there was a nice outdoor area where people gathered

We found a sushi restaurant (the Drunken Fish) that had great ratings and they were half price through Yelp.  :)
This is the chef's combo.

we got a miso soup and a seaweed salad

some vegetarian sushi

This is the inside of the sushi restaurant

That was it, the next day we needed to get up early and drive back to Indianapolis which was 8.5 hours away.

Of course, on the way out we had to stop by Kauffman Stadium (where the KC Royals play) to pick up something for Cara's
brother, Kirk, who has to be one of the biggest Royals fans.

I'm sure it was killing Kirk that we were in Kansas City, and he wasn't, especially since there was a playoff game later that day.

9-27-2014 Denver, Colorado

Cara's cousin Lindsey lives in Denver, so since we were nearby we stopped by for a night.  Lindsey's mother, Sheryl, was there also, and it was good to spend time with both of them.

We got to Denver and took a bike ride on some of their many biking trails

That night we went out and had some dinner at The Copper Pot.  Lindsey recommended the spot then when I looked they
had a Groupon!  So, (from left) it's Eric, Lindsey, Sheryl, and Cara.

Our lovely dinner at The Copper Pot

The next day we went out for some brunch at Breakfast on Broadway Cafe then we went on another long bike ride.

The bike trail was along a nice river.  Notice the guy on the left fishing?

Then it was time to head off to Kansas City which is 8.5 hours drive.

9-25 to 9-27-2014 Cheyenne, Wyoming

Our main reason for stopping in Cheyenne was to see Cara's friend from college, Brian Beadles.  We had a delicious dinner at his house and met his wonderful wife and two adorable children.  (Of course, we forgot to take pictures of that.)  We also checked out downtown Cheyenne, went to the farmers market, and visited a Sierra Trading Post outlet (we have ordered online from them for many, many years now).  After Cheyenne we headed 90 miles south to Denver, Colorado.

On our way from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne we stopped in the town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We looked at their
"historic" downtown area, and Bitter Creek Brewing  was about the only thing going on.

The brew pub was nice, and seemed to have decent food, and the workers were friendly.  In fact, one of the bartenders was
from Vincennes, Indiana!

The Wyoming State Museum was very nice, and free!

A diorama of Wyoming wildlife

Wyoming is the leading producer of a type of mineral used to make soda ash which is used in all sorts of stuff

Wyoming is the nations leading coal producers and they have some pretty tall veins of coal

24% of America's coal is produced in Wyoming

A whole building made of fossils

These are links from a big drag line coal mining machine

This was the dragline

The State House.  The sky was amazing that day.  Cheyenne is over 1 mile high

Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote

Cara actually found a cute little restaurant (Pizzeria Venti) that served gluten-free pizza!

by the train station they had a really weird little town setup...don't know why.

This was the Saturday farmers market, which seemed well attended.

The farmers market is in Cheyenne Depot Plaza downtown.

These boots (all decorated differently) are scattered throughout Cheyenne.

The old depot is right next to where the farmers market is held.

The beautiful old depot now houses a museum, gift shop, and restaurant/brewery.

This train is the last of the line of the steam engines and was the most powerful one built.  It was used on the Cheyenne to
Salt Lake City run and they said it logged 440,000 miles