Kansas City on Google Street View - Our Story

I've known about Google Street View since they first made it public, with only 4 cities online: New York, Las Vegas, Miami and, um... Denver?

Anyway, I've watched them gradually add more and more cities to the network, and was thrilled when I saw that Kansas City had been added. Not only that, it has thicker coverage than almost any other city on Google Maps!

So that means I can easily show you the places in Kansas City that are important to me. Later I plan to create a post with neat, touristy pictures of my high school hometown, but for now I'll keep it more personal.

Here is the house I lived in with my parents and younger brother from 8th - 12th grade, and that they continued to live in while I was in college:


My wife Christina and I both went to the same high school, but only for a year, since I was class of '97, and she was '98, and she transferred in for her junior year. Sorry there's not a closer view, but you can see the stadium on the left, and part of the building on the right. Shawnee Mission South, everybody:


Although we'd glimpsed each other in the halls at school, both of the times we actually met were at this place, a Messianic Jewish congregation called Or Ha Olam. The reason we met twice is because the first time was when we were 15 or 16, and nothing clicked. But the second time we were 20 and 21, on Friday evening, June 16, 2000, to be precise, and I knew I had to ask her out:


My initial way of asking her out was to invite her to join me and the other college students at Or HaOlam at Steak 'n Shake after the service. This is where we first really hit it off. And the others that were with us said it was obvious:


While we were hitting it off, I asked her what kind of music she listens to, hoping against hope that she didn't say Country. What she said was, "Well, my first love is Jazz." That's it! I was sunk. So I asked her if she wanted to go with me after Steak 'n Shake to an after-hours jazz club I knew about near downtown. She said yes, and hopped in the car (parents' minivan... not exactly a chick magnet) with me, and off we went to the Mutual Musicians' Foundation:


There you can see the front stoop, where we hung out most of the time we were there, talking to some of the younger jazz musicians that stopped by. It was a gorgeous night to be sitting out discussing the deeper things in life at 3 am. And I know that's how late it was, because it was 4 am by the time I dropped her off at her house:




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