A fun day with Billie in and around Wichita

Yesterday was the first time I've had a chance to spend time with Billie since George's funeral. We spent the day just relaxing and having as much fun as possible, given the circumstances.
We began by having tea at Billie's before embarking on our journey. Our outing actually began when Billie took 12 pairs of George's glasses to Howard's Optical. They will donate them to the Lion's Club.

Then it was way south to a small town nearby called Derby where we played Bingo. I had never played the game before, just used the bingo cards in my art. It was fun, but I didn't win anything. Billie however, won a set of four lovely hand made glass plates. They were gorgeous with bits of glass swirls in them.

I didn't bother taking my camera into the Bingo game, but I should have. It was quite colorful.


Back in the car, we drove downtown to check out our new Sports Center that no one except a few special interest groups wanted. On the way, we drove past the Boat House, a lovely old building that the City wants to tear down. Wichita has some really stupid policies. This place is gorgeous and could be rented out every day if someone would just take it over.

This is our new gazillion dollar eye sore that is supposed to revolutionize the downtown area. What it did was cause many of the lovely old buildings to end up under the wrecking ball.

Next we went to the river, where we got to see the new walkway and the "Keeper of the Plains," a huge metal statue by a famous Native American artist named Blackbear Bosin. The statue was recently moved from the Indian Museum to the river and it was raised another 50 feet or so.

Billie on the bridge looking at the Keeper.

A photo of the Keeper with the rocks and lights that surround it.

As we walked to the statue, there was an outdoor museum winding in and around the statue.

I really liked the bison relief on the wall.

My camera wasn't large enough to get the entire wall.

More of the wall.

And more.

Another view.

And yet another view.

This is a different wall.

The rest of this wall. Each of the dark rectangles tell about the individual symbols.

This is a portion of the wall above. I was drawn to it because of the hands on the horse. It was the only cutout in both walls, too.

Looking back across the bridge, we headed for the Keeper area.

Here is the plaque that tells about it. Sadly, I didn't get a view you could read.

Here is a photo of the Keeper looking up from the base. As many times as I have seen this statue, I had never seen the decorative colors on his pants until I was downloading this photo.

Flat Stanleys are everywhere. What fun!!!

These "rounds" are actually lights for the statue. The river and small dam were very dirty. I can't believe what crap people throw in it. Part of Wichita's downtown skyline is in the background. Believe it or not, the building with the angled roof is the tallest in Kansas!

I never got a good photo of Billie, but I had to laugh at this one. It looks like she is wearing a crown. For those who take really good or professional photos, they would never post this one. One of the "rules" is to make sure the subject has nothing growing out of the subject's head. However, the shape of the bridge structure struck me and my altered art background kicked in.

Layers and layers, trails and more trails surround the area.

You could hide in these nooks and crannies and never be found.

This is such a fun place that I didn't even know existed until yesterday. I had so much fun and it was something we could both do with no cash outlay. My kind of day: fun in the sun and FREE.