Obsession of the Week:
Going to Squeezer’s Palace for smoothies in Riverside.
It’s super dog-friendly, they always give Fritz treats, and I love going up to the window and ordering and then sitting outside on their patio - even more fun when we walk there.
It’s nice to have fun little community places like this.
Balletomane event of the week:
Art in Motion / Rogers Ballet Spring Student Recital
I took my mom to this Saturday night and it was SO good. The costumes, music, sets, lighting and dancing all came together perfectly, and it was fun seeing some of my classmates perform so well.
It also gave us a chance to see variations from several classic ballets including La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, The Sleeping Beauty, and my favorite, La Esmeralda from Esmeralda, choreographed by legend Petipa and danced wonderfully by Friend’s ballet major Gretchen Wiswell, also Diana y Acteon danced by another one of my favorite Friend’s students, Corrine Di Mola, both who charmed me with their performances in Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I also finished up watching my queue of ballet movies. There are some more that I could have added, but I wanted to stick with newer ones:
- Center Stage - best ballet movie
- Black Swan - second best ballet movie
- Mao’s Last Dancer - really good
- The Adjustment Bureau - more of a dance movie than ballet
- The Company - not good
Back before this path was here, when I was a river kid and we had to hike down the bank to watch the holiday fireworks, this was not a view you could see.
Now there is a bridge that crosses the bend and I love the view, with the Stackman Drive manse (OK, it is really apartments, but here, it looks like the old Stackman farm with cottage quarters and a dairy barn in my mind) on my river.
Watson Park Ponies
I run by the Watson Park ponies almost every weekend - they are sort of a highlight of the run and a constant for me and the city. It’d be fun to enter the children’s color & naming contest for the two ponies needing names.
My suggestions: Wallace & Buttercup to join Clarence, Peanut, Storm & Toast. We can’t have poor Clarence the only one with a traditional name.
Wichita Sweet Treat News
I’ve posted about eating at J.Rae’s, but not about what I like there. I love their frosted sugar cookies. They are thick, almond-flavored and the frosting is just right (not too buttercream-y.) Also good are the chocolate chip cookies that on the right day, could pass as the best store-bought chocolate chip cookies in town. They have good-looking chocolate chocolate, oatmeal raisin and the like of classic cookies too. Their cake balls are good. Cupcakes are cute and OK.
(If only we had a Sprinkles for cupcakes!)
Velvet Cream Bakery makes my favorite cake pops. Every time I see them at an event around town I get super excited. You can now buy them through WOW Cakes in their flavors, if you are up north, but I suggest going direct and getting the exact flavors you want. My favorites are white almond and lemon. They also do good macarons.
My newest favorite is Cake Face Bake Shop. They won me over at Death By Chocolate. You can find them at Absolute Vintage Boutique across from the Target on Maple or at the new Louie’s Coffee Dive in Goddard. They have every flavor and goodie imaginable for special orders, including macarons and pies. Today I got this (square!) frosted bar sugar cookie and a no-bake cookie.
Cookies are always my go-to. Everything else is just extra.
Let me know if you know of another cookie or sweet I should investigate.
In our midst
Look what I found in the medieval children’s castle at Exploration Place:
Replicas of
One of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries
And my favorite of the Unicorn Tapestries.
Anyone know of any other unicorns around town like this one?
If so, hit me up!
Saturday Ian & I volunteered at Death by Chocolate, an annual fundraiser for Exploration Place.
I’ve thought about going in the past, but didn’t think I could justify gorging myself (thank you ultra running for letting me get away with it this year) and I don’t always like traditional desserts.
But, this was the year for me, because rather than standard nice restaurant dessert, there were more of all the cute little bakeries and bake shops displaying some of my favorite chocolate treats: cake pops (or balls/truffles), macarons and cupcakes. And, I even discovered some new places to go try!
(Four photos. Click arrows at left and right to view.)
When you can get a lobster roll in Wichita, you go.
Via a Cape Cod-themed Final Friday at the Wichita Art Museum.
(Three photos. Click the arrows at the left and right to view.)
Cowboy book on branding at the McCormick School Museum in Wichita. The stylized school building, once widely used around town, is more than 100 years old.
Wichita’s Union Station 1963 / File photo by the Wichita Eagle
This is one of my favorites from Kansas.com’s photo gallery of Wichita’s Union Station through the years. I like the letter jacket with the W for Wichita and the feeling of young love on the big wooden benches.
After truly enjoying Kansas City’s Union Station, I think Wichita’s needs an espresso bar and a fancy restaurant. The glamor of the building still stands.
