A lost Frenchman in Kansas City, Missouri!

How did a Frenchman ever make it to Kansas City? You might be asking. And it’s a good question too, because you really don’t find too many French people in Kansas City!! 

How did this particular man choose Kansas City to be his first United States city ever? Why not New York? Why not Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, or Washington DC?

Well, isn’t it obvious?! Because the great city of Kansas City has so many things to offer! A traditional American Christmas with a wonderful American family, a Negro League Baseball Museum, art Museums, the beautiful Plaza Christmas lights, giant houses covered in snow, batting cages and miniature golf, great BBQ, great ice cream, back yards to play catch in, a loving family to take him in as one of their own, and well, Me. 

Perhaps it was my great persuasive abilities to convince him to come to Kansas City, or maybe he just really likes the KC Royals…. haha.

Waiting at Madrid airport to go to KCMO!

No matter the reason, we made it through all 16 checkpoints and on the only non-cancelled flight to KC through Philadelphia the Thursday before Christmas. 

There was snow on the ground, a layer of thin ice on the road, warm pot roast waiting for us to be eaten, and a wonderful family waiting to great us, and finally meet Guillaume. 

He made it!

We spent most of our time chatting the nights away and shooting pool, but we did make sure he experienced the best parts of KC for the short six day visit. 

Activities:

1^st - Family time!! There were many days we just spent hanging out with my family and everyone was so nice to Guillaume. They treated him just like a member of the family! My dad even indulged him in a game of catch outback!

They even made him play COD! haha

My Dad and Guillaume playing catch in the biggest yard he'd ever seen.

2^nd - BBQ. My mom got our family’s favorite BBQ and my best friend and her husband came over to spend a lovely evening of catching up, present wrapping, and shooting pool. He loved the lbs of beef, ham and turkey covered in a delicious BBQ sauce, baked beans, and coleslaw. It was quite entertaining, because he would wait patiently to see how everyone else organized their food, and how you were supposed to eat. Quickly discovering that you just “dig in.” 

We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa one night, and Guillaume "doodled" them!

We taught him again how to play pinochle and he was dealt a double run!

Johnny wasn't thrilled, but he had his fair share of great hands too!

3^rd - The Negro League Baseball Museum. As a pitcher for the Rivas Baseball team here in Madrid, this was by far one of his favorite parts of the trip! We spent hours in the Museum, reading all about the KC Monarchs, Buck O’Neil, and the Detroit Stars (many of the national negro league teams are in this Museum, and as he is a HUGE Detroit Tigers fan, Thanks to David, this part of the Museum was of equal interest).  We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but you know me and my secret photo taking abilities!!

So excited, he had no idea where we were going!

 

Home of the Monarchs!

He was amazed at all of the drawings and memorabilia!

Detroit Stars!! He was blown away by what we found in the NLBM!

He even "pitched"

But I still stole second base!

4^th - Ice cream on the Plaza. My cousin Audrey works at Glace’ on the Plaza and we stopped in to try some yummy ice cream! It was fun, we were the only ones there for a while, so we got to catch up and he finally got to meet her in person, and not just through our Spanish Skype dates. AND we got a HUGE SURPRISE because my Auntie Jo and cousin Samantha walked in the door!!! So we got to see them too!

Audrey hard at work! (she's gonna love me for this photo)

YUMMY!

Guillaume loved his ice cream!

We got to see Samantha and Aunt Joanna by accident too!

5^th - Jazz Museum and a live Jazz show! We went to the Jazz Museum after the Negro League Baseball Museum, it was really cool and they had lots of booths to listen to great music! Then we went and saw my Grandpa Gregg play some music in his band Nobodys Bidnis at a bar in Liberty!

Listening to Jazz music at one of the booths

You could even go in the Blue Room!

Oh jeez, what a great welcome to KC Jazz Museum... (the crazy part is we find it normal)

Grandpa Gregg and his band!

6^th- A giant steak on the plaza and a full size pool hall! We met up with Gorgeous Georges and shot some pool at my favorite pool hall, Sharks!!! It was great; Guillaume had never seen a pool hall so gigantic with so many pool tables!  (I don't have any pictures of the night with Gorgeous Georges :( so here are some from pool nights in my Dad's "man cave")

Guillaume, enjoying a night of pool - completely jetlagged!

Me!

My Brother!

Guillaume!

My Dad!

My Sister!

7^th - Christmas! - Raelynne’s American Family Style. On Christmas Eve we went to Aunti Jo’s and with the whole gang! It was so wonderful to see everyone and it was really nice that Guillaume, although being French, had more in common with my family than anyone expected! Of course, playing baseball probably helped. haha. We played games, gave our Grandparents our gifts, listened to Grandpa and Audrey play music, attempted to play music, and ate yummy yummy food!  We even got a surprise visit from my friend Alex and his girlfriend!!! On Christmas day we opened stockings and presents, a traditional Christmas Dinner with my family and Uncle Matt and Aunt Liz and more baseball gear and gifts he’d ever seen in one room, all just for him!

My Brother, Grandma and I

The shirt Guillaume designed for my Mom to give to my Grandpa!

Ben, Johnny, Sabrina, Audrey, Jeremy, Grandma, Annalise, Samantha, Guillaume and I!

Samantha and Audrey! So beautifule!

Guillaume and I! I brought Crackers to pull and they came with crowns for all!

Aunt Lisa, Samantha, and Uncle John

Annalise, Aunt Lisa, Samantha and I

Johnny, Sabrina and Jeremy

Auntie Jo and Uncle Ben

The whole gang! (almost!)

Rockband (Annalise on Guitar, Sabrina on Drums, Audrey and Guillaume on Vocals)

Grandpa and Audrey playing Christmas songs!

8^th - A movie in America and a giant casino. The movie was just a regular movie in a theater, but he was excited just because it was in the US! Then, we each played a dollar on some slots and lost, but it was really the atmosphere that got him. The casino had painted on a fake sky so that you never know what time of day it is, and he got carded to go inside!! 

Argosy Casino, inside

His first slot machine EVER!

 9^th- Batting Cages, Mini Golf - This was by far one of Guillaume’s all time favorite days. My entire family took him to the batting cages, and we all took a swing at the machines. Some even dared to bat against Guillaume himself! My aunt Joanna caught a great video of Guillaume HBP my Dad! Then we went down and played galactic mini golf in which we invented new ways of being obstacles and playing the game in the dark with neon lighting. 

Guillaume's first batting cage bat!

Us after an hour of batting!

The gang hanging out!

Group shot!!!

10^th - Driving in the US -I let Guillaume drive my car. In which he did great, but felt as if he was never going fast enough, and had the sensation of running red lights, because in Europe you cannot cross any red light, whether you are turning or it doesn’t apply to you in some way. Even I got confused at one point, forgetting that a red light to your left didn’t mean you couldn’t turn left. HAHA

Him and his new jersey!

That was all we did with Guillaume, but luckily for him, his flight was cancelled so he got an EXTRA day with My family while Annalise and I flew to Madrid. 

 

My family is so great, my aunt and cousins took him to more museums, the plaza and EVEN FED HIM! My parents took him to the WWI museum where he learned that someone from KC had built and funded the field in France he used to play on when he was younger! What a coincidence! We didn’t even know that. 

And to top it off, due to the flight cancelation, they upgraded him to FIRST CLASS! Where he got to watch movies, and recline his seat into practically a bed on his long flight home. 

Guillaume, Audrey and Ben down at the Plaza!

More yummy 'merican food!

The Plaza!

What a trip! I don’t know how we’ll ever be able to top it!

Thanks to my family and friends for really welcoming Guillaume into the family and making his trip to Kansas City, Missouri as wonderful as it could be! 

And also, a huge thanks to Guillaume for coming to Christmas with me, and being so awesome, so that I could spend time with my family too!

Until next time,

Raelynne