Day 8: Road trip, Thursday June 18, 2009

This is Barbara, taking a turn at the overall story of the day.  Hot, hot, hot: 95 degrees and full sun here in Lawrence, Kansas.  Main “industry” here is the University of Kansas, a huge and extremely beautiful campus.  They’ve paid a lot of attention to the architecture over the years, and there are many quite new structures, including parking garages, that are very attractive.  We were bound for the Spencer Museum of Art on the campus, which turned out to be a winding tour of much of the property before we got to it.  With freshman orientation, summer school, road closures and construction, even with the campus map we felt like explorers.  The Museum is small but has a varied, excellent quality collection.  We recommend Wheatfields, on Vermont Ave., if you’re ever here for a meal.  Found the Eldridge Hotel, which is on the Historic Hotels of America roster.  In its early years, it was burned down twice.  And that was due to the struggles in the 1850’s between the Free Staters – those opposed to slavery who established Lawrence in the early 1850’s, and the pro-slavery forces who wanted the Kansas territory on the side of the Southern states, as Missouri was.  Lawrence was attacked and virtually destroyed in  1854, and again by Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War.  Don’t be thinking I remembered my school history so well!  The city’s visitor center has an excellent film of its history.

The pictures are  the Visitor Center – restored train station, a Jayhawk, and at the Fieldhouse on campus.

On a lighter note, Massachusetts Avenue is a lively downtown district with restuarants and shops, and on it as well as all over town and the campus, you see sculptures of the University’s mascot, the Jayhawk, each creatively painted and styled.  A prize to anyone out there who knows what a “jayhawk” is, or the origin of “rock, chalk, Jayhawk”.

Elsa’s penny’s worth:

It was quite exciting to know that the Oregon Trail crossed over the roads meandering through the Kansas University.