Downtown

On my quest to find free and inexpensive things to do while the youngsters were visiting,

we ventured downtown.  If this is your first visit, or you haven't been here in awhile, I have three young people visiting from CA (a state in the U.S.) who I took care of last year after their mother died of breast cancer and before their aunt could arrive to take over their care.

I thought we might try to find more of the Keeper of the Plains replicas that had been painted by local artists and donated to the city.  They had already seen the Keeper at the river, but had not seen any of the statues. 



It's hard to tell what they look like with all the background distractions in the Pop-Up Urban Park in downtown Wichita.

Apparently I failed to get a view of the back of this one.

 

Again, a front view, but no back view.

 

This one was called Day Trip and it appears I remembered to get a decent photo of the back.

Here are the backs of the other two, although they don't show a great deal.

If you want to see a photo of the real Keeper and more of these replicas, please see this post I wrote in June, 2017.   Below are the ones I found on the internet after I wrote the post in 2017.

This one shows the night sky and glows in the dark.

This one contains about a gazillion bottle caps.  Personally, I liked seeing them in this environment, because there are so many distractions in the Pop-Up Urban Park.

While downtown, we checked out a few of the bronze statues

the city placed on this street.

Apparently, I got distracted, because we saw a LOT of these statues and sculptures that I didn't get photos of.  Somehow spending time with young inquisitive minds is about the only thing that keeps me from taking photos.

On our way to lunch, one of the few days we ate out or didn't pack a lunch or snacks, I decided to find a mural my foodie friend Sally told me was going to be painted over soon.

The story goes that the artist who painted the mural had died and the building's owner wants to cover it up, since it can no longer be repainted or touched up as needed. 

However, the son of the artist wanted it to remain and was trying to get a petition to keep it there.  It must have been a genuine beauty when it was first painted.

I kept fighting the sign that was in the way of taking a good photo, but the youngsters were just happy to see it.   It's amazing what art can do to a conversation as they explained how big the celebration was/is in CA.

On the way to the restaurant, I noticed that Jack's Drive-In was finally open again.  It has been an institution in Wichita for years.  Here you are looking west toward the river and the Minisa Bridge.

Some of you may remember this postcard of the large print I bought Sally at Christmas.  This is looking east over the bridge and you can see Jack's in the back right.

The restaurant was sold several years ago and the new owner spent a ton bringing this hamburger "joint" back to its former glory.

Thanks for heading downtown and around town with three young people who surprisingly didn't get bored with me today.