KC Birthday Masterpiece
When Dave Ramsey LIVE! announced they were coming to Kansas City, I knew I wanted to go. When I saw that it would be on my birthday, the heavens opened up. When I saw that we could get tickets for $9 (originally $39) if we hurried, I used my birthday lifeline to e-mail Kels.
Here's the link to what I want for my birthday and I want to take two friends with us. POW!
I am sure she wanted to go just as bad as I did, but she couldn't say no because it was my birthday. So we chose to take my buddy Doug (college roommate, groomsman) and Jess (co-worker, great friend, married to Doug).
Friday, March 4, 2011 We started our voyage from The Moines around 9 a.m. and ventured down I-35. The trip was blessed with great conversation, one topic was helping Doug name his future goat farm. Yep, you read it right. Some thoughts were "Goat, tell it on the mountain," and "Doug, Doug, Goat."
Upon arrival in KC, we headed toward the Country Club Plaza to get some well-deserved grub. Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue was my restaurant of choice for lunch. Superb customer service and equally great BBQ.
Then came the shopping. We enjoyed perusing the shops, and Kelsey bought a fedora and black jeggings. Having just finished her 30 for 30 challenge, she was like a sprinter coming out of the blocks. By mid-afternoon we were ready for some ColdStone. The guy working there did not love his job, but that's probably because it was 83 degrees inside. Made it tough to eat the ice cream before it melted.
Next, we checked into our hotel. We scored a great deal in true Dave Ramsey fashion and they put us near the top, which provided an excellent view of downtown KC.
We had no dinner plans so we looked to our good friend Concierge Torrence to suggest something. He sent us to a place in the Power & Light district that was out of our price range and also our vocabulary--didn't know anything on the menu. So we headed to Gordon Biersch Brewery and Restaurant for some appetizers (we were still full from lunch and ice cream). Doug and I split the wings and beer sampler (6 flavors, 4 oz. each). We timed supper so that we would be able to attend our first 'tweet up' with some folks from Dave's team.
We walked up, not having a clue what to expect, but were welcomed by Becky Tennille from Dave's marketing team. She was so nice! She heard it was going to be my birthday and offered to have me on stage during the pre-show to play a game (more on that later). And remember Jon Acuff, the guy who wrote our Christmas letter? He's on Dave's team and does an opening bit for Dave's live events. We got to chat with him for a while, he gave us each his new book and signed them, and in true Stuff Christians Like fashion, we got a picture side-hugging. Jon couldn't be any more down-to-earth and genuinely friendly. We also got to meet Chris, who tweets from DaveRamseyLive, and Dave's daughter Rachel Cruze. She is working on helping out high school-aged students across America be financially savvy.
After the tweet up we went to McFadden's Sports Saloon for a drink before heading back to the hotel. And what better way to end the night than a soak in the hotel hot tub? While waiting for the elevator, we were asked to "step aside." Then about 10 guys blocked off the elevator. We had no idea what was going on, but then Whoopi Goldberg stepped out of the elevator with some people wearing FBI-style ear pieces. I was like, "That's Whoopi!" and then some smart alec photographer that was chasing her down says, "Never seen Whoopi Goldberg before?" and I thought to myself, "Nope."
That was enough excitement for one day, so, forecasting a long day ahead of us on Saturday, we went to sleep.