A Few Days Away

I am back in my studio after taking a few days off...my husband was on vacation last week...and since most of his weeks of vacation center around hunting and fishing trips, he decided to share a few days with me and take me down to Kansas City for a little rest and relaxation. What started out as an extremely stressful trip for me (just because I have a million deadlines and a huge pile of work to take care of right now), actually was quite enjoyable....and although I did take some work along with me, I did do my best to enjoy the time away. Kansas City (the city of fountains) is a good destination for us - it is only about three hours from our home - it has an old-world charm enriched by quaint outdoor parks, museums, shopping, and great dining. We stayed in a charming historical hotel that has been renovated to have modern conveniences...with a beautiful view of Country Club Plaza - and we were just moments away from many of our "go-to" destinations. My husband did a decent job of keeping my focus away from work and on the trip, as we visited some of my favorite places (the Kansas City Zoo, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and sculpture garden, shopping at the Plaza, and some delicious restaurants - just to name a few).

Even with the extreme heat wave, the Kansas City Zoo was enjoyable - we always enjoy this particular zoo - we arrived as the gates were opening (trying to take advantage of the cooler morning hours) and stayed for about half the day, taking advantage of the train, the tram, the African Sky Safari, and the boat ride. To our surprise, most of the animals were out and active...after a couple previous visits without seeing the Chimpanzees, we were surprised to see them up close...and we even got to see the hippopotamuses being fed. As always, I took a bunch of photos and picked some of my favorites to give you a little tour - I wish I could show you more (this is just a taste), they have so many amazing exhibits - click on any of the photos for a larger view....

Nikita the polar bear swimming in his 65-degree 140,000 gallon pool...

Springbok - taken from the Sky Safari - I just love the two that are nose to nose...

Perfectly posed Meerkat

Red-flanked Duiker

Blue Duiker

Saddle-Billed Stork

Western Lowland Gorilla

Three giraffes and an ostrich - taken from the Sky Safari...

The elusive chimpanzees...

My favorite photo of the day - Liberty the hippo cooling off...

Chilean Flamingos

So there you have it - my little photo tour of the Kansas City Zoo - I hope it was enjoyable...and I still have a few inspiring photos from the Sculpture Garden at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to share with you in the future...

For now, it is back to work - I have multiple models to stitch, new designs to prepare for printing, a newsletter to write, shipments to package, and sewing/quilting to complete - it is going to be a busy week!