Welcome to the Midwest

Over the last 5 days or so, the scenery that we're passing by has dramatically changed.  Gone are the mountains and cliffs of the west, replaced by never ending fields.  I can't say it's quite as interesting, but it certainly makes driving a bit easier and faster.

The last few days have been great - we visited the two Missouri stadiums, and had a great time in both Kansas City and St. Louis.  Kansas City was a brand new city for me - and probably the city that I knew least about of all the cities we are visiting.  I actually liked it much more than I was expecting to - we spend the afternoon walking around "the plaza", we had fantastic barbeque for lunch, and then went to the Royals game in the evening.  The Royals' Kauffman Stadium was perhaps our biggest surprise of the trip - the renovation's they just completed have turned the stadium into one of the nicest and fan friendliest in all of baseball.

St. Louis was a lot of fun as well.  We were able to stay in hotel right in the middle of downtown, only a block away from the ballpark (and with amazing views of the Gateway Arch).  Yesterday afternoon, we went up to the top of the Arch, which requires you to ride in a "tram" which is actually an incredibly small little capsule that they stuff five people into.  Luckily, it's a short ride to the top, where you get some cool views of downtown.  Busch Stadium was great, but more on that when we get to our reviews!

Right now, we're in the middle of Iowa.  We're making a pitstop at the Field of Dreams movie site to have a quick catch, and then it's on to Minneapolis.