Atchison, KS

How have I lived so close to Atchison, KS, for so long and never ventured there?

Well, that changed this weekend.  Matt took me for my first visit!

(Sorry for the awful, blurry pictures.  I was a little car sick and most of them were taken while driving...) 

After living in San Antonio and then St. Louis, THIS is where he lived for the middle school through college years.  (Slight downgrade, if you ask me. ;) )  We have been wanting to go there for a "date night" for months now, and since his best friend from high school was in town this weekend, we finally made it happen.

First stop:  the river.  I thought it was going to be really pretty, so I asked to stop and get out for some pictures...

Just a muddy river.  Not bad, though.

Stop #2:  his first and second homes in Atchison.

Next stop:  the Benedictine campus (where he went to college)

(The church at St. Benedict's Abbey on campus)

(new building on campus)

(cool look-out spot at the edge of campus)

We found this (above) in the hallway of one of the dorms.  It's a picture of St. Christopher and St. Matthew that his parents donated in their honor.  Pretty cool. :)

The tour of the whole campus didn't take too long.  I just can't image going to such a small college in a small town, but Matt assures me it was awesome.  And I'm not knocking it -- I'm sure it was!  There is a lot of history there, it's a beautiful area, and the old buildings that have been restored are really cool.  It just blew my mind that you could walk from your dorm room to virtually all of your classes in a couple of minutes...and know almost everyone on campus.  I remember practically running from one end of campus to the other (at K-State) to make it to my next class in 20 minutes -- and not seeing a single person I knew along the way!

After seeing the campus and touring some buildings, we went to meet his best friend from high school, Tyson, who was in town before his big move to Japan.  He just happend to be outside shooting his bow in the yard.  (Who has a bow just for fun??) With a quick lesson, Matt almost hit the bullseye!

Tyson requested that we eat at Mueller's Lockeroom, which supposedly has the best wings...in the world, if you ask them.  Since it is just bar food, we went there for the wings as an appetizer, and decided to go somewhere just a little more nice for dinner. 

I was the only one who hadn't ever had the wings before, so all eyes were on me as I took my first bite.  I'm not a huge wing fan, and I don't have much to compare them to, but I had to agree with them.  They were pretty dang good.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of our hands covered in sauce after we devoured them. :)

Matt, me, Sarah, and Ty - eating wings at Mueller's in Atchison

We did a little bar hopping in Atchison and ended up at Willie's Sports Pub for dinner, which I guess was a step up from Mueller's. ;)  But it wasn't the food that mattered.  We really had a great time getting to catch up with Tyson and Sarah - and we'll hopefully be visiting them in Japan soon!

(And Atchison, KS, is now officially checked off my list.)