Let’s Mix up this trip report and talk about a fun self-challenge I did. My sister goes to school at Kansas State University (Go Cats, Doom, weird hand sign thing, etc.), and Dad invited me and my nephew to visit her for a weekend so I decided if I could make February in Manhattan, Kansas seem fun I can make just about anywhere fun.
I started planning what everyone should do, a good and proper gts. (Google that S*%#). Most of the things that came up were university-based, but there were still some real gems to choose from. Here’s what made the initial list:
Fragrant Blends Candle Bar
A mural titled “Beginning from an End”
The Manhattan Arts Center
Axe to Grind, Axe Throwing
K-State Gardens
K-State Insect Zoo
Kanza Praire Biological Station
Sunset Zoo
And the K-State-TCU men’s basketball game.
The trip started Friday after work I drove to Dad’s House and we took off from Smithton to Manhattan which is about a 3 ½ hour drive. The drive there was filled with great conversation and a world-class snack buffet of the finest snacks Dollar General has to offer.
Saturday morning, we woke up at the Parkwood Inn & Suites, the hotel was fine. It came with a continental breakfast. The best part of the hotel was the variety of people to be seen because of events in town. There was a rodeo, a disc golf team, a volunteer firefighter symposium, and 2 D1 basketball games (men’s and women’s.) After a free breakfast, we ventured into the wilds of Manhattan. We received a first-hand tour of the building where my sister does most of her classes. It seemed like any other college I’ve ever seen, but I enjoyed hearing about it anyway from Riley. I was just happy to spend some quality time with everyone present so it didn’t matter what we would have been doing.
Following a tour of the campus, we went to the basketball game against the TCU (Texas Christian University) Horned Frogs. We ended up having stellar seats we felt we could touch the refs on throw-ins. The game was a great ball game that TCU won on a bucket with about 2 seconds left. What was grade A about the game was the people-watching. K-State despite my disdain for your entire state and my strong-held belief that you all probably aren’t reading this anyway, because well I just assume you’re dumb living in Kansas and can’t read, you brought the thunder and made a hell of a benchmark on what a sports crowd should be. Well, done. You deserve all the flowers as the youths say.
From the game we technically visited the gardens though I should have realized winter doesn’t equal pretty gardens. Luckily the K-State gardens are right next to the highlight of the trip, the K-State Insect Zoo. I loved this stop so much; I think all party members did. There is a small $3/person entry free, but this place is worth every penny. Walking in the zoo opens to your right where you pick up flashlights for looking at all the interesting dark creepy crawlies. Past that was something cool a giant leaf-cutter ant colony in two terrariums. With clear pipes between them so you could watch the ants going back and forth across.
I would like to take a moment here to talk directly to the lady working or volunteering that day. You were so amazing. It was a dead Saturday in the depths of Winter, you could have phoned it in and done the bare minimum answering our questions But you didn’t you were engaging and educational and exceptionally good at your job. Who knew bullet ants were so hard to keep? And shout out to the one professor in Cincinnati collecting your specimens for display. That’s awesome. We learned about things I never would have thought of like having to import leaves from Oregon, and how much a hard winter affects nutrition for insects. I was truly fascinated and enthralled. Bosses of or board of regents or whoever from K-State is gonna miraculously read this. Saturday, February 17th, in the afternoon, whoever was working deserves all the raises.
Moving on, following the excitement of bugs, we turned the day on its head and went to……….Candle Making. Fragrant Blends Candle Bar is a DIY candle-making shop very near Aggieville. We had no idea what we were doing but we had a blast. The candles are priced by the vessel they will end up being put in. Figure roughly $20-$25 per person to be on the safe side. Just a heads up that we weren’t aware of, the curing process for our candles took about an hour. We simply went to Culvers for an ice cream to kill time
After such a fun day of quality family time, and cracking jokes with each other we were famished our first-round draft pick was, Umi, a Japanese Steakhouse. We walked up and were turned away because of too many reservations. I can’t speak to their food personally, but the masses seem to enjoy Umi.
Our backup choice for dinner kept working out in several ways. AJ’s Ny Pizzeria blew me away with the quality of their pizza. I can’t say for sure it’s the best pizza I’ve ever had, but I can’t think of any that are better currently. As a party of 4, we ordered one XL 18th and 8th (Meat Lovers) and we had leftovers to give you a reference on the size of this pie. It was an excellent pizza, with good chew on the crust, plenty of flavors on the sauce without being too much, and plenty of toppings. I was sad that I saw as we were leaving they had a specialty Crab Rangoon pizza. No idea what that would be like but I am very intrigued.
Nothing too exciting for the rest of the day. We went back to the hotel and watched Semi-Pro. (Classic). The following morning we went to a place my sister, Riley, had suggested, The Chef. People were quite literally lining up out the door to get in there. It’s a very small, very quaint place with limited seating so be prepared to wait. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the pricing was decent to slightly too high.
Kansas, May I never have to step foot in that state again. I jest.
The area surrounding Manhattan, The Flint Hills, are very beautiful. If you enjoy rugged scenery you will enjoy driving the areas around Manhattan. It is extremely easy to picture yourself on a cattle drive cresting a hill while you’re driving and staring out at it.
That’s all for now. Safe travels and happy reading.
Warm Regards,
Clint Wehrman