It’s not the beer
… nor the food; nor the music. It’s the one you share it with. Boy, I’m lucky to be married to Colleen (finally). I probably say this too often in this blog. Hey! It’s my posting. We all have doubt. She asks me if I like her. Ha ha. She liked me first. Men! I was so dumb (unconscious) it took me nearly fifty years to figure out she liked me. Thank goodness there is still time to appreciate all of this, and, to share more than a beer. I hope the music never stops.
Evening in Kansas City
The New York Times likes to publish articles about 36 hours in…. ‘you name the city.’ Here is my … evening in Kansas City. We arrived after dark. It was really a pass-through heading to Denver. But since I had been here last year, I had some foreknowledge. We chose Grunauer Restaurant and the Red Lady Lounge. The restaurant is a German restaurant with schnitzel my latest favorite food. It is a pounded thin cutlet breaded and fried up. There were alternate selections for my gluten free vegetarian companion. The restaurant was not crowded and the meal was great. We can’t predict traffic and could not schedule any events. Perfect. The other “drop in” was the Red Lady Lounge. I am not a bar person. I don’t drink alcohol. But jazz is fun: no cover: dark: in a very untraveled part of town. In other words, you would not necessarily go here or want to park your car here. The music was good. The sound was poorly balanced. Hey, it was live and we sat next to the organ. Impromptu jamming, a very laid back relaxed atmosphere, it was a very pleasant end to the day. Yes, we packed a lot into one evening in KC.
Green Lady…
…Lounge. It’s a dive bar. Dark. It’s listed as a top destination for jazz in Kansas City. We were there twice for three groups. You’d be afraid to open the door. The neighborhood was deserted – both nights – at 7PM! The music was great. We guessed about the bio of the musicians. Two of three groups were music educators playing a gig on the side. The third was the house band. The singer’s name was on the drink menu. That was pretty cool. The band wore tie and jacket. We wore jeans. It was all cool. Jazz!
U Street
If you look online the music scene is on U Street in Washington. There was a parade later this day. But we were here now. So, hula hoop? White boots? Short dress and a DJ. Oh my go figure. I’m out of it I guess.
It leads me to another place near to the subway entrance. This motley crew all wore expressions that serve as ample fodder for a short story. I guess. Or it was simultaneously catching everyone with their mouth open while they ate.
Dinner was a Thai restaurant with a jazz trio. It was too much work to navigate a club. New city different rules. We had enough trouble getting on the subway. Each of us needed a ticket and you had to know where you were going in order to pay per station. To be sure you didn’t cheat you had to swipe your ticket when leaving. Oh my it’s a whole lot more unfriendly than NYC mass transit. But then again I never remembered Washington as user friendly. Go figure it’s our nation’s capital. Or, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” Oh yeah!
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