The menu is fairly short, but we found things which looked good. We got a crab cake slider, quiche Lorraine, Hannah fries and peach melba crepe. All of the dishes were good. I really enjoyed the slider (blue crab, horseradish crème, arugula, brioche). It is a little small, but only $10. I wasn't sure about the smoked paprika curry, but it was great on the fries. I didn't care for pesto aioli on the side, but the fries didn't need them. The peach melba (peach compote, raspberry coulis, almond crumble, crème chantilly) was my favorite.

Across The Shops of Prairie Village, we also stopped at the Better Cheddar. It had been many years since I had been there. The selection of cheeses is great, the staff is still helpful & very knowledgeable, but I missed the samples they used to supply. The cheeses are from all over the world, but they include a couple of Kansas cheeses and we bought some Cottonwood River Reserve from Jason Wiebe Dairy.

Before leaving Prairie Village, we stopped at Santa Fe Trail Park where historical swales from wagons on the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails can still be seen today. Unlike many of the similar locations across Kansas, we could clearly see where they are..

Santa Fe Trail Park

Big Q was the only surviving restaurant which grew out of Quick's family Barbecue which began in 1953. The Big Q was started 1986 by Marvin Quick's son Rusty Quick and son in law Gary Wright. Rusty and Gary retired in March and it was take over by the Tolle family, who own the great Snack Shack on Johnson Drive in Mission. They reopened for a couple of months, but it then it had a sign it was temporarily closed for transformation.

They hope to have the new sign tomorrow.

Between Tonganoxie and Lawrence, The sunflowers at the famous Grinter Farms are at peak bloom. The plants are shorter than usual this year, but the blooms are spectacular. At 10 AM on a Friday, there were already dozens of people taking photos.

In downtown Lawrence, we parked on Mass Street to do some birthday shopping at The Toy Store. Up the street, we also visited 1313 Mockingbird Lane Toys and Collectibles. It was such a contrast with the Toy Depot in Hutchinson which we visited last month. There is still a use for a store like this, but the Toy Depot was much more exciting. The people working here never spoke to us and there were only a few vintage items.

A few blocks away, I photographed The Akers House, which was just added to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year. It is a little hard to see well from the street, but we could see that work is being performed on it.

For lunch, we visited, Lucky Seb's Dumpling Bar & Grill on Lawrence's southwest side. It is a nice, fairly intimate space and Levi, who waited on us, was a lot of fun.

We got three sharables: pork dumplings, loaded kimchi fries with smoked pork belly and smoked salmon Rangoon. They were all good, but the dumplings were my favorite. I preferred the Rangoon with soy sauce, rather than the very sweet sauce which came with them.

Our first stop in Topeka was at Lane Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, which was also added  to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year. It does not appear to be still active. The sign is no longer legible, but it still looks kept up. The building began as a Church of God. The Lane Chapel congregation started in the 19th century at 14th and VanBuren.

Nearby, we found Shiloh Baptist Church, Buchcanan Center in the 1920 Buchanan School, El Shaddai Ministries Community Church, and a small art environment. Shiloh Baptist Church is another African American church, founded in 1879, with this handsome stone building built in 1926.

We went on to Washburn University to visit Carole Chapel and nearby memorials. The mostly glass Chapel was originally built as Nunemaker Chapel in 1996 at the former Menninger Foundation site in Topeka. When Menninger moved to Houston, Texas in 2003 it was donated to Washburn in 2003 and physically moved to its current campus location in December 2004. 

Nearby, we also photographed the WW1 Larrick Memorial Bench, Flagpole Rock, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Kuehne Bell Tower, and Yager Stadium at Moore Bowl, which has been the home of Ichabod football since 1928. 

Driving back across Topeka to NOTO, we saw the "Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea" traveling exhibition display at Morris Gallery, which has one more week to run. There are other displays at Washburn University, Topeka Zoo and Kansas Children's Discovery Center.

At Gage Park I took new photos of the Victory Highway Eagle. The ones I rook earlier in the year were to hard to see. I also revisited the grave Carrie Frances Kiene in Mount Hope Cemetery, who died in 1888. There is a statue of a girl on the grave and someone periodically puts accessories for the season on the statue.

After a short stop at Beauchamp's Art Gallery (which will be closing after 50 years, later this month),the final stop of the day was the other location of The Toy Store, which we hadn't been to before. These are large, well curated toy stores with very helpful staff.

Grinter Farms
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lucky Seb's Dumpling Bar & Grill

Lane Chapel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea

The river has moved over the years and it was located and excavated in 1988-89 in a corn field in Kansas City, Kansas. Since 1991, the results of that private dig have been the spectacular Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. If you have never been there, a month and a half remains to visit, as it will close November 13, so the city can replace it with a hotel. 

The museum houses the world's largest single collection of artifacts from before the Civil War, including clothing, shoes, fine China, carpentry tools, guns, dishes, children's toys and canned foods. Even the remains of the only fatality of the wreck, a mule which was tied to the deck. 

We had supper in the River Market at Pigwich, a BBQ & sandwich restaurant which opened in 2019 when the butcher shop, Local Pig, opened next door with the same owners. Food is ordered at the counter, much like it was 40 years ago when this was Winslow's Smoke House. I like that such a meat centered restaurant has two vegetarian options on their fairly short menu

We had the BLTGQ and Big Pig, with a pint of house made chips. The chips had BBQ seasoning and were quite good, although the level of seasoning on different chips was very different. 

The BLTGQ has bacon, lettuce, tomato, smoked gouda and Q sauce. It was good, though the bacon was slightly overdone.

The Big Pig is fried chicken, pulled pork, pickled jalapenos, ranch, BBQ sauce, spicy nduja spread, and pepperjack, American and provolone cheeses. It isn't a sandwich I would choose all the time, but it was surprisingly good. It took a while for it to come. I had ordered it without ranch dressing and the counter person spotted that and had it remade. They threw in a couple of cookies to make up for the delay.

Friends each had the (Not A Philly) Cheesesteak with 10 ounces of beef, provolone, pepperjack & American cheeses! Served on a freshly toasted hoagie roll with sautéed poblano peppers and onions, a light drizzle of ranch and smoked red onion pickles. They were quite happy with them.
 
 

The Big Big