The Pink Polkadot: Tour De Little Apple

Last weekend, my bestie Megan and I made a sacred trip, two hours west of Kansas City. For her thirtieth, I told her we were going on an epic roadtrip-adventure. Where did we journey to, you ask? Oh, just the happiest place on earth.

Manhattan, Kansas. (Duh!!)

We had a ball. We did everything we wanted to do, and then some. Mostly, we ate and drank. Because that’s what you do in Manhattan. You eat at the best restaurants ever, you drink at the most fun bars ever, and you go to football games for the best team ever (but we were a day late on that).

Commencing with picture overload of the BEST TOWN EVER (you were warned):

So, all of this started about a month ago when Megs and I had an in-depth discussion about So Long Saloon and their food. We used to head to da ‘Ville after our Environmental Geography lab once a week and eat grilled cheeses and their queso dip. Or, she would pick me up from campus, convince me to skip my 2:00 Shakespeare class (it took practically nothing to convince me, by the way), and we’d have a few afternoon Bloodies. On a Wednesday. Because, you know, college.

Obviously, our first stop on our trip into town? So Long. Didn’t even stop at the hotel.

{Raspberry Chipotle Black Bean dip. Oh. My. Gosh.}

Next, we walked through Aggieville to check out our old haunts (Varneys, Rusty’s) and dipped into the new stores (Threads is so cool and I wish we had an Acme gifts in KC!). Then, we completed our tour of Manhattan by driving through campus (noting all the buildings we had classes in) and around town. We drove by our old houses and all of our favs (what’s up, DU??).

{My house on Laramie. It looked waaaay nicer than when we lived there.
Loved the purple door!}

{Chi Omega. Looks pretty much the same.}

Sunday night, we had dinner at a new Mexican spot, Taco Lucha. It’s owned by the same people as So Long and Rock-a-belly, so you know it was delish. Then, we had started our “Tour De Aggieville,” hitting all the old spots. (At least the ones that were open on a Sunday night.)

First up, Salty Rim. We made sure to tell the bartender that I had designed the original menus for the bar when it opened. He was not that impressed. In fact, I recall him mentioning that he "wasn't that old," so he didn't know what we were talking about. Cool.

Next, O’Malley’s. We couldn’t find our dollars on the wall (an O’Malley’s tradition), so we signed a couple of new ones and made sure to stick them somewhere where we would remember. (Right by the dartboard, if anyone is in town and wants to check.)

{Megan's says, "Morgan and Megan were IDed here!!!"
because we got excited when the bartender asked to see our IDs.
Yes, that is a sign you are old.}

Final stop (our fav), Porter’s. Megan worked there for several years in college, and oh man, it was the same as we remembered.

We ran into several old faces (this is why I love Manhattan), and the bartender was pretty much amazing and played every song we requested (mostly rap, circa 2004-2006). Then this happened:

Annnnnnnd we decided to call it a night. (I’m confident that the 22 year old bartender will always remember the night when two “older” ladies came in, requested Nelly and R.Kelly, and then got up on the bar. Yikes.)

Monday, we attempted to recover with lunch and Bloody Marys at CocoBolo’s, another one of our old favs. We ran into our friend Bri, who was waitressing. To quote her, “it’s like it’s 2004 again!”