A Royal Celebration


Tuesday, November 3, 2015.  A day that will go down in Kansas City history.  Epic.  Incredible. Unbelievable.  These words don't even begin to describe the feeling around this amazing city of oours on this beautiful, warm, sunny fall day.

Just two days prior and for the first time in 30 years, the Kansas City Royals won the World Series. Tuesday was the day of the town celebration - a parade followed by a rally in front of Union Station. It was a big deal huge deal.  Just to prove the enormity of it, every major school district in the metro area (Kansas and Missouri sides) decided to cancel school.  A Royal Blue snow day, if you will.


Now I'm sure there were some non-sports fans rolling their eyes over that decision, but as both a mom and a teacher, I totally get it.  I wouldn't have missed the opportunity to take my boys (albeit only 1 and 3 years old) downtown for the "once in a lifetime" celebration.  And as a teacher, I wouldn't have had any hard feelings towards parents who pulled their kids out of school for the day. Heck, I already had a sub to cover my classes because...hello...it's a job and...hello...this was a huge deal!  But lucky for everyone, school was cancelled and my sub wasn't needed. I heard a quote on the radio on Monday afternoon that spoke to me.  This quote perfectly justifies the districts' decisions to cancel school.


Anyway, Craig's office was also closed (not technically but no one went in) so we made plans to head downtown as a family.  We left our house at 8:45 with two umbrella strollers, a diaper bag full of snacks/lunch, and the Baby Bjorn and pulled into a "parking spot" about an hour later (a drive that should have taken 30 minutes).  We had planned on parking at Kemper Arena and taking a free shuttle downtown, but we spotted some random parking spots (that weren't actually spots) as soon as we exited I-35, so we quickly pulled into one of those spots and decided to walk towards the parade route.  Again, to prove the enormity of this event, a couple of hours later people were actually abandoning their cars on the freeway just to make the parade!



We walked for about 20 minutes.  It was fun following the line of royal blue!



We stopped for a porta-potty break in front of Union Station, at which point it was fun just to take it all in!




We were still a good two blocks from the parade route so we decided to keep walking and attempt to stake out a parade spot.  This was our only regret of the day--walking through the crowd in front of Union Station.  Union Station is where the 2pm after-parade celebratory rally was to be held and people were already in place for that.  We had to force our way (with two umbrella strollers) through a crowd that can only be described as mass chaos.  It took us a good 20 minutes to walk a length of one block.  Most people were very, very nice, but it was still a little scary at times with two young children!

We eventually made it through the chaos and felt as if we could breathe again.  We found a parade spot at the corner of Grand and Pershing, but we were a good 20 rows-from-the-street deep!  (I stole this from Facebook...we were somewhere in this mess!)

 

It was around 10:45 by that point and the parade was to start at noon, so we had nothing to do but wait.  

And wait.

And wait.

In an area of about six square feet!

The boys had lunch, took turns sitting on Daddy's shoulders, and were in and out of their strollers.  Brantley even fell asleep in his stroller for awhile. (Thanks, Vanessa, for letting us borrow yours!)



 







There were people everywhere.  Literally e v e r y w h e r e.


This picture kind of shows how much space we had.


Because we were near the end of the route, it was 1pm before we saw the first of the parade.  And since we were 20 rows back, it was really hard to see the players.  But it was still super exciting.








We didn't stick around for the after-parade rally.  Our kids were beyond tired so we headed back towards our car.  But not before a few additional photos to document the special day.





All in all, I'm extremely glad we went.  I know I would have regretted the decision otherwise.  At times, it was a bit stressful with a 1- and 3-year old, but also so, so worth it.  Like I said, it's been 30 years.  Who knows how long it will be before the city experiences something like this again.  And it was truly a magical day.

A few other random facts to be proud of:

This celebration marks the biggest event in Kansas City's history.

It drew over 800,000 fans.  800,000 people, no riots, no fires, and only three arrests.  Amazing.

The game 1 pitcher was the third Royal to lose a parent in a span of 11 weeks.  His father died the day of game 1, yet he pitched and helped the Royals win both games 1 and 5 of the series!

It's been a great day, week, month, and year to be a Royal!

3 comments:

  1. That's so awesome that the whole city could celebrate that with the players. So cool. Love it! :)

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  2. Sarah...I had chills the whole time while reading this post! So homesick! But your pictures put me right in the action down there by the KC Star building, old Credit Union, and Western Auto Lofts. Agh. That will forever be an amazing day!!! So proud of KC and those boys.

    Staci
    www.missbloodymary.com

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  3. I don't know what it is, but still, seeing all these images, and hearing stories about this day, this moment, in Kansas City brings tears to my eyes. Amazing.
    I am so thrilled your family went!! And seeing all the fans, all the spirit, all the excitement just makes me miss home that much more!
    Your boys are so lucky to have experienced such an incredible and truly once-in-a-lifetime event!!

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