Kelly went on vacation. Yes, really.

I got a sunburn, there was a crazy storm and I was stuck in airports for hours on end.

All with my best friend, so this was hands down the best vacation ever.

My vacation began on Thursday, but Friday is when my flight was. It arrived in Kansas City around 11:30PM, and I was picked up by KaTrina in Bambi (her Jeep) around 11:45PM. Stepping out into the fresh Missouri night air I was immediately reminded of the thick humidity in the dish pit at work. Except it was calmingly lukewarm instead of obnoxiously sweltering. +1 for Missouri.

We all went to a nice Howard Johnson's Hotel in Kansas City to stay the night, seeing as how we'd be spending as long as we could at Oceans of Fun the next day. It was a lot of fun going to a real water park with all kinds of slides, a lazy river and even a WAVE POOL! That was the best part of the park for me. The sunscreen probably lasted as long as it could, but I still got a sunburn. Poor KaTrina though, she didn't put any on so she got it the worst.

After spending over four hours at the park we all left Kansas City (I keep wanting to type St. Louis for some reason) and went to St. Joe (about 45 minutes from Maryville, our ultimate destination) and had lunch at Chipotlé (huge burritos). It was awesome to see so much in less than one day of being there.

Then we got to Maryville. It's the very definition of a small university town on the verge of experiencing a boom. Kind of like the Tri-Cities was some time ago. Quaint isn't exactly the word here, but it's definitely set at a different speed from a lot of other parts of the country. The campus of Northwestern Missouri State University is beautiful, and it was great touring around it and taking pictures on my last day there.

The movie theater there is made up of giant airplane hangars and they even have a dinner and a movie option that is really cool. While there I went to see Funny People (which was a lot longer than I thought it would be) and G.I. Joe (which was just plain awesome). It also turned out to be my birthday when we went to a Mexican restaurant named La Bonita. I got to wear a giant red sombrero and get my picture taken. By now there should be a picture of a very surprised person balancing an ill-fitting hat on their wall.

KaTrina, I'm tasking you with getting it back should they ever take it down.

That's only a few of the things I got to do while I was there. KaTrina and I went to St. Joe to spend some time together, and that was a lot of fun. I need to remember to buy a rocking chair sometime in the next 50 years. Also, mild storms in the midwest are really cool. I've never seen clouds move so fast, lightning strike so close or rain come down that hard.

The day of our flight (I kidnapped KaTrina (despite the fact that she drove to Kansas City) and brought her back home with me), we left early to take pictures of me around the NWMSU campus in my new NWMSU hat and hang out in Kansas City until our flight. Turns out there isn't much to do there, so we waited in the airport. We did Mad-Libs, Facebook Uno and generally hung out. We did the same thing in Denver too. Spokane not so much. Driving home was the focus of that leg of the trip in spite of my poor direction giving to cab drivers.

Anyway, I had an incredible time. KaTrina is here until the 20th so I'll still get to see her and hang out before she goes back, but it was really nice being her guest these last few days.

It wasn't until I was taking my shower this morning that I realized the entire time I was there I didn't worry once about my troubles back home. That's what a vacation is supposed to be about right? If so, this one succeeded and was awesome.