12:41 PM, Apr 16, 2006 
Holy Saturday
I didn't go out on Friday night. I sat at home, played video games, and watched Flight of the Navigator while the rest of Kansas City debauched.
Our little heat wave has almost abated, and the air conditioning finally works. I suppose that's the way it usually works.
I was startled awake by the buzz of my phone against my desk, vibrating with a text message from Jeff, instructing me to get moving, and come down to Westport and join him on his cross-city walk. I got up, showered, hopped on the 51, and found Jeff enjoying a beer on the patio at McCoy's on what was a stunningly beautiful day. He had already walked thus far from the Plaza, and had planned to walk all the way to the River Market, like a certain someone, but had to break up the trip with beer and pizza, both of which we consumed with relish at McCoy's.
I plotted out the route we took using a handy google-powered mapping tool over at MapMyRun, which informed me that the route was just under 4.5 miles. We stopped at Ace's Gems on Westport and gawked at amethysts, geodes, and felspar fragments for a few minutes, before continuing our trip. Jeff got a lot of pictures, too. We wandered through Hyde Park, which Jeff had never seen, and remarked at the design and craftsmanship of most of the houses in that well-kept island of a beautiful neighborhood.
Near Union Hill, we stopped at Sol, a brand new Mexican trendy bar with no beer on tap, and were halfway through our crappy Mexican beers before we realized that we should have just gotten Margaritas. They would really have been nice, in the hot weather.
We continued north through Union Hill, which Jeff also had never seen, and continued down the hill toward Crown Center, where it started to rain. We went inside, and climbed up the stairs to the well-placed LINK, a small network of skywalks that connect Crown Center with surrounding attractions, originally designed to keep fragile visitors away from the big, bad, mean streets, but that also served very well to keep the rain off our shoulders as we wandered over to Union Station.
The crowds thickened as we walked the LINK between the Westin and Union Station. Lots of families and children were clumsily bumping into each other and us. It felt nice to see people spending a day in the city. We went inside, and as always, were blown away by the turn-of-the-century grandeur of Union Station's massive hall. We took a seat at the second-floor cafe, and enjoyed a lemonade and a Bully Porter.
After some quick checking of routes, we determined that we needed to run outside with all speed in order to catch a bus that'd give us enough time to buy some beer. We settled the tab and hastened outside in time to catch the next southbound MAX bus, which in turn deposited us at the corner of 39th and Main. We walked over to Gomer's, where we took our time, as we still had over twenty minutes before the 5:57 bus would be along, to take us farther south.
It turns out that Oberon, Bell's summer seasonal, is out now, so we grabbed a six of that, along with another of Anchor Steam. After that, we waited outside in the shade for the bus to arrive, which it did, amazingly spot-on-time. A few minutes later, we hopped off at 48th and Belleview, and walked over to Heidi's, where we spent the remainder of the day hanging out and enjoying an Easter weekend barbecue.
At about 10pm, the guests departed, and I took my leave as well. I got to the bus stop on the east side of the Plaza, to find that it would be about 25 minutes before the next bus departed. I passed the time by going over to Fred P Ott's for a quick beer.
It was a very nice Saturday, but I now have blisters on my heels.
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