There were also living history exhibits which I hadn't seen previously. Pete the blacksmith was at work and he made us a wall hook, explaining the steps he took along the way. There was also a young woman portraying an officer's wife, who was playing the piano as we entered the officer's quarters, and then showed us through the building.

On the way back toward Larned, we also visited the Santa Fe Trail Center, a locally run museum devoted to the history of the Santa Fe Trail. The Center was created by the Fort Larned Historical Society, who originally had a museum at the Fort, but lost the space when the Fort became a National Historic Site. 

In addition to a museum and gift shop, the grounds have a collection of old buildings which have been moved to this site or recreated. More recently, the Trail Center has added additional buildings with exhibits of historic farm equipment and automobiles. The structure which I found the most interesting was the cooling house which was originally built about 1870.

There was just one more stop on our way back to Johnson County, we had lunch at Diane's Diner in Great Bend. Our experience was mixed. Linda's cheeseburger and onion rings were good, but overall, the buffet was just so-so. With one exception, the fried chicken was very good. This chicken tasted so good after sitting for sometime, that I would like to return to Diane's and order fresh made.

We arrived at 1:30 and the restaurant was going to close at 2PM. Most of the staff were eating their lunch at the next table, which would have been fine, except they were loudly talking about bad experiences that they had with other customers. It was inappropriate.
 

Santa Fe Trail Center
 
 
 

Diane's Diner

The three year old restaurant could use a little sprucing up. Things are starting to look a little worn and there was a broken water fixture in the men's room.

Thank you to Pastor Ryan K. Nelson for telling me where this boot is displayed.

This was the first year that the conference was held at the new Oread Hotel.

This year, only one of the award recipients was present to receive their award. Joan Slonczewski was there to accept the Campbell Award for the novel, The Highest Frontier. In the photo to your right, she is posing with Science Fiction Grand Master Games Gunn, who is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas.

The second photo at the right is the sun setting over Memorial Stadium at the University of Kansas.

Photos of the Award Ceremony at our sister web site, the MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive.

Memorial Stadium

We began with the seafood bisque, which was highly recommended. It was thick, rich and full of seafood, including two huge shrimp in each bowl. It was super good.

We sampled three entrees - Shrimp Casbah, Shrimp Fettuccine and rack of lamb with garlic sauce. The fettuccine was good, but nothing special. The Shrimp Casbah had a lobster sauce and was better. The stand out was the lamb, both for flavor and value. That was a lot of lamb for $29.99 (including salad, vegetable, saffron rice and a really good fried zucchini.

We will be making a second visit to Cafe Casbah, soon!

rack of lamb

Tonight's visit was somewhere in between. This was good food, but it wasn't as well kept as I wan to give the restaurant an outstanding grade. The short ribs, appetizers and tradition dishes were fairly good. The seafood that justifies the higher ($13) price was less consistent. The snow crab was hot, good and not overcooked. The frog legs had a good flavor, but they were not hot and were not replenished when they ran out. The spicy shrimp cooked in the shell was also just luke warm.

Updated and slightly expanded the reviews of the Butterfield Trail Museum and Historical Museum in Russell Springs and the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway.

There are no tables or chairs at Christy's just a window where you order and a small area to stand while the food is prepared. There are four picnic tables behind the restaurant for dining and the table which was in the shade was popular on this 100 degree day.

Christy's pork tenderloin is the best that I have had anywhere in the Kansas City area.

Then on to downtown Kansas City to the Huron Indian Cemetery, next to the 7th Street Casino. The years of battle to keep this cemetery have many interesting stories, but my favorite is that of the daughters of Andrew Syrenus Conley (who is buried in the cemetery). Eliza Burton Conley became the first Native American woman admitted to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. She and her sister, Helena, lived in the cemetery for two years to protect it and Helena cursed anyone who intruded upon the cemetery.

While photographing the cemetery, I met a man who said that he had just been released after 20 years in prison and had just learned that his family had died while he was imprisoned.

The final stop was Mad Jack's Fresh Fish, about a mile away. This tiny dive is half fish market, half restaurant. I ordered a half pound of fried oysters and they were great.

Jack's is mostly about take out. The seating is limited, your food is bagged to go even if you are dining in, and the utensils are flimsy plastic.

Huron Indian Cemetery
 
 

Mad Jack's Fresh Fish

I substituted Talk of the Town Grill & Bar, which was so busy that I had to wait 5 minutes to get a menu. Today's special was half price burgers, so I went with the Patty Melt, which is usually $7.69, including a side of fries. It was good, but next time I would go with the mushroom burger with burgundy sautéed mushrooms, sour cream, green onions and Monterey Jack Cheese.

We began with two appetizers, Crab Rangoon and Crispy Chinese Eggplant. I liked the soy garlic dipping sauce that came with the tempura eggplant. Our entrees were the Honey Walnut Shrimp, Shrimp & Lobster Sauce, and Sichuan Gon Bao. I thought that all three were good, better than Linda and Mary did. The Sichuan Gon Bao (stir fried chicken with chili, peanuts and hot peppers) didn't have that much flavor, and was my least favorite dish.

On our way out of the metro area, we stopped for lunch at a Kansas City restaurant which I had never heard of before today, R & J Barbeque on Parallel Parkway, a couple of miles from the Legends.

I really want to like every restaurant which I visit and look for things to like, but R & J really disappointed me. The onion rings were fairly good, but was the only positive. The meats (ribs, pork, beef) had no flavor from the smoking. I actually thought they had been cooked in a convention oven and had to confirm that there was a smokestack and wood pile on the back of the restaurant after the meal. There was.

The fries were limp and made from frozen. The slaw was cut extremely thin and and had a sour flavor which I found unpleasant. The "Texas Toast" was ordinary slices of toasted bread.

The service was inattentive, not checking if I wanted more pop or needed anything else. The server and chef both acted outright hostile.

Supper in Omaha was at a much more interesting restaurant. The Bohemian Cafe has been serving Czech food since 1924. They really went with the Bohemian theme, with elaborate hand painted tiles on the exterior of the building, music, interior decorations and server costumes.

We had Polish sausage and breaded sweetbreads. Those meats were the best part of the meal. We didn't care much for the dumplings, sauerkraut or potatoes.

The meals were much better the next two days. 

R & J Barbeque
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bohemian Cafe

Jesi joined us for supper at The Dover, which was even closer to the convention hotel. It is one of the many Omaha steakhouses which are only open in the evening. We began with the grilled bacon wrapped shrimp garnished with small whole mushrooms. They were good, but I thought the best part of the dish was the creamy citrus horseradish dipping sauce.

The Dover is an old style restaurant, feeling very 70s. When we went to the salad bar, we were amused to spot large piles of plates with apple rings on them waiting for entrees to be plated.

My bone-in ribeye was very good and cooked exactly has ordered. The skin-on fries were good. The baked potatoes were good and huge, piled high with sour cream.

The evening at the OSFest convention included some of the best photography opportunities. There was an art auction, followed by the Masquerade (a costume contest held at most science fiction conventions). The Masquerade was followed by something more unusual, a Klingon wedding. Not a performance of one, an actual marriage. I've attended perhaps 5 or 6 weddings at conventions and was in the wedding party of one that was pirate theme, but this was the first Klingon wedding which I have attended. More photos of the wedding and links to other photographs from the convention.

The Dover
 
 
 
 

Klingon wedding

I really wanted the chicken fried steak, but decided on a Omaha regional dish - Cheese Frenchees. They were originated by a Lincoln, Nebraska chain called King's Food Host. They start as an American cheese sandwich with mayo, the crust is trimmed and it is cut in quarters, frozen, coated with French dressing, rolled in corn flakes and deep fried. They were very good! 

I've since learned that there was once a King's Food Host in Olathe, Kansas.

So I started with the Fried dumplings. There were six dumplings stuffed with minced pork & vegetables and served with homemade dumpling sauce. It was my favorite part of the meal (particularly the tasty, but simple sauce) and something I would order again.

The Thai Herbs Beef (which name they have trademarked) is described as a touch of hot, healthy Thai herbs made with red curry sauce, wild ginger root, green pepper, bell pepper, green beans, bamboo and sweet basil leaves. I ordered it spicy and it was near the limit of what I still find enjoyable. Unfortunately, there was a spice which I really didn't care for. It might have been the specific kind of ginger which they used.

The meal including rice, two small crab Rangoon and hot & sour soup cost $8.95 without the dumplings.

For supper, Linda joined me in revisit of Elsa's Ethiopian Restaurant in downtown Overland Park. There had been a couple of changes since are last visit, last fall. There was a new menu and their was a change in servers. The previous two times, the server had very poor English and communication had been difficult. This server had perfect English, in fact she wasn't sure how to pronounce some of the Ethiopian dishes.

The fine chopped salad with house garlic & oil dressing was good and I loved the Doro Wat (spicy beef). Linda's chicken Pasta BeSiga was described as being marinated in rosemary and awaze (spicy sauce), then pan fried with hot peppers, tomato, onion and greens. But it just tasted like spaghetti with chicken.

Pasta BeSiga