A Day in Lawrence

While in Kansas for my grandpa's funeral, we were able to take a day to explore Lawrence. Our first stop was the Booth Family Hall of Athletics (Kansas Jayhawks museum), which houses The DeBruce Center where the original rules of basketball reside. Dad and I were in heaven!

Dad and I with Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball

Dad and I with Phog Allen, the father of basketball coaching

After much Kansas Basketball history, we headed over to Freestate Brewing Company for lunch and to see Uncle George off. We walked around Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Lawrence for a bit, and then headed back to campus.

Freestate Brewing Company

Our first stop on campus was the Kansas Union, and the bookstore - we, uh, spent some money there... 😆

Hanging with a Jayhawk in front of the Kansas Union

Entrance to the bookstore = empty wallet for Amber...

Big Jay and I - he knows what's what, he drinks Pepsi products!

After the bookstore, we went to Oread Hotel and looked out on the area around Lawrence from the top of Mount Oread. It was a beautiful hot, sunny day! Then we drove around some sunflower farms and toured Eudora  bait more before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Remembering Grandpa Andy

Last month, my Grandpa Andy passed away. I was lucky enough to be able to fly down to Kansas for the funeral and spend some time with my dad's family.

The afternoon I flew in, a handful of us gathered for dinner near our hotel in Kansas City, MO.

My sister and I

The next day was the visitation, funeral and luncheon in Eudora. It was a nice time with family and friends remember Grandpa Andy.

After the visitation and burial, we walked over the the church hall for a nice luncheon.

Grandma Andy's memorial window in the church hall.

The Andersons

My parents, sister, uncle, and I

Siblings

Cousins

After the luncheon, and a quick tour of the town my dad grew up in, we all headed back to the hotel and spent some time looking through old family pictures. We then headed out to a big family dinner, while everyone was still in town.

Toasting Grandpa Andy

My cousins' kids hugging their Uncle Fireball

The next day we spent the day in nearby Lawrence, and we all headed home the next day. While we miss Grandpa Andy, we are happy he is with Grandma now - and that we were all able to spend some extra time together.

Florida in July = VERY HOT

Recently we decided to visit my parents in Florida... In July. I don't know quite what we were thinking, but the average temperature with the heat index while we were there was over 100 degrees! That's hot for us Alaskans (and even my parents too)! All in all, we had a very goo time, but decided to visit at a different time of year in the future.

The air travel however there and back was not so pleasant... Leaving Anchorage, we were delayed for two hours - two hours into the actual flight - around 1 a.m. I woke up to someone saying "Oh my gosh, the wing's on fire!" Yeah, not what you want to hear when you wake up on an airplane. After 2-3 minutes, the fire on the right engine (we were on the left) was finally out. The crew alerted us that we would be landing in Seattle (it was originally an Anchorage flight to Atlanta, and we were over Vancouver, British Columbia at the time), and needed to learn the "brace position" for the landing in case it went poorly. A few folks threw-up and were hyperventilating, but the landing was one of the best we've ever had! After landing, we were met by over a dozen emergency vehicles who inspected the plane before we moved to the gate. Everything looked safe so we moved to the gate and were able to deplane normally. We then sat in the S Gates for six hours before we could get a flight to Atlanta, but Delta provided us with lots of free snacks and blankets.

On the plane - before we knew what was going to happen!

The fire coming out of the right engine!

Our amazing crew!

Free food from Delta

 The night we arrived (over eight hours late), we ate out and went to HarborWalk and watched the fireworks.

Staying hydrated!

Sunset through the trees

Dad's new awesome ring toss!

Loaded-down golf cart for all our gear!

Monday night we headed to Pensacola for a Blue Wahoos baseball game - it was fantastic!

Tuesday night we headed out to a Matt Redman concert down the road at the Village Baptist Church. While it was packed and hot, it was neat... and Jonas Myrin and Chris Tomlin showed up!

Last night in town at Mellow Mushroom

Golf cart ride to Dairy Queen at sunset!

Coming back to Anchorage, we ran into more problems. We sat on the plane in Florida for two hours due to lightening. Finally we were able to get back into the terminal while Atlanta had their own storms. Got some more free food from Delta though!

Pouring-down rain while waiting on the tarmac

We finally made it to Atlanta (again, hours later than planned), and ran into some Alaskan friends of ours, who also pointed out that Willy Robertson from Duck Dynasty was also there! 

The requisite Chic-fil-A meal in Atlanta.

Because our flight to Atlanta was so behind, we ended up getting routed through Seattle again. However, we ran into another reality TV star - this time, we actually had time to talk to him (well, Andrew did) - Josh Harris from The Deadliest Catch!

While the time at the beach was great with my family and nice and relaxing, the traveling was very... memorable. By the time we got home, we were in town for five days before heading out again to Ketchikan!