Surprise visit.

 My buddy from Edmond, OK called out of the blue at 4:30 or so on Friday saying that he and his wife were coming to Kansas City to trade camera lenses with some fella who lives near the Plaza and that we should go out.  They got in late Friday night and checked into a hotel on the Plaza and called me Saturday morning asking where they should go for breakfast.  First Watch on Westport Road was a hit.  I had already killed about half a box of Raisin Bran before they called, so I didn't join them.  But I did meet them after their high dollar camera lens exchange for lunch at Eden Alley.  That was also a hit.  We shopped and we toured the Liberty Memorial Museums, gawked at the newly opened and mostly empty downstairs museum space, and we went up in the tower for photos.  The elevator dude in the tower ensured that my friend's backpack was not a parachute.  The Liberty Memorial tower is only 217 feet tall, about 80 feet shy of the shortest base jump possibilities.  So, that caught us all off guard.  We snacked on ice cream at the paleteria, Tropicana, on Southwest Boulevard.  The mango ice cream with salt and chili powder was a hit, too.  We went to Eddie Bauer where I bought swim trunks, then we went to the most disappointing of hotel pools at the Marriott on Main.  It's green and murky and it overlooks a beautiful, sparkling, blue pool at the Holiday Inn next door, just to make one not want to stay at that Marriott ever again.  We got dinner reservations at La Bodega and partook of the Sangria Blanco and some great tapas.  The Datiles con Jamon y Chorizo are still rich and amazing.  The visitors were worn out by 11-ish, so I went home and read a book and washed clothes.  I rejoined them for Sunday brunch at Figlio, which is pretty standard, and because I couldn't think of a better brunch.  It was fabulous, as usual.  I only wish my appetite would have allowed me to just pig out.  We shopped in OP before they left town.  I went home and napped and now I'm doing the all-nighter which I had postponed Thursday.