Kansas City

For three days this week, I was in Kansas City, Missouri, where we were exhibitors at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. It was my first-ever visit to "The Show Me State." The conference was attended by approximately 700 leaders of the 60,000-plus Catholic sisters in the United States.

Last night, we had dinner in the city's beautiful old Union Station (pictured above and at right). I'm a sucker for old train stations -- especially ones with such amazing ceilings and other ornamentation.

Being in Kansas City and the old train station put me in mind of the song "Kansas City" from the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein show "Oklahoma!" You know the song -- when Curly sings of "the skyscraper seven stories high" and states "they've gone about as fur as they can go."

Earlier today, we left Kansas City and drove about three hours southwest to Wichita, Kansas, for the 8th Annual Midwest Catholic Family Conference where we also are exhibitors. This is my first visit to Kansas, too. I'll be here through Sunday.