Caribou Coffee – Leawood, KS

SplashCast with Flickr photos.
Produced by Kayakman Media

WOW! I was able to visit the new Caribou Coffee in Leawood, Kansas recently and was really impressed. It’s located in a new shopping area surrounded by upscale residential neighborhoods, a country club, and farmland. The architecture of this development is a pleasant mix of stonework, bricks, and stucco that give the area a sort of postmodern patchwork village feel. This makes for a nice setting for Caribou’s outdoor seating area, which also includes a fireplace and fountain.

When visitors walk inside the first thing they will notice is a giant stone fireplace surrounded by comfortable looking leather chairs. Above the fireplace are slopped timbers that give the place a warm and welcoming ski lodge feeling. The open floor plan provides for three seating sections, one of which has tables large enough for playing board games on. To complete the friendly and inviting atmosphere, Caribou included a play area and toys for kids. All things considered, this has quickly become one of my favorite Caribou Coffeehouses.

The Leawood Caribou is one of two new locations in the Kansas City area. The other is Caribou’s first double drive-through. It is designed for high traffic and is located on the busy Shawnee Mission Parkway near i35 in Merriam. And the good news continues … they are working on a third location. The Tulleries Plaza on the way to the Kansas City airport will soon be home to Caribou.

As Caribou continues to expand throughout the Midwest, I hope they’ll arrive at all the hip and trendy hot spots, like the KC Country Club Plaza, Branson Landing, Milwaukee’s East Side, and the recently announced Ballpark Village in St. Louis. Actually, a dream come true would be a Caribou Coffee on every block in every city.

In any case, it was great to see Caribou’s new Leawood Coffeehouse. This is a wonderful family friendly neighborhood coffeehouse that already has many advantages over the nearby competition.

Thanks again Caribou for opening in Leawood! The Obsidian coffee I had, brewed via french press, was truly wonderful.

To see additional photos click on the link below:

To learn more about Caribou Coffee visit their site: Caribou Coffee

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Caribou, Caribou Coffee, Coffee, Coffeehouse, Leawood
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Eureka Springs

SplashCast with Flickr photos and YouTube video.
Produced by Kayakman Media

Located in the midsts of the Ozark Mountains, Eureka Springs is made up of a patchwork of narrow streets and alleyways that house a wide variety of unique stores. Among the most interesting things to see are the regional art galleries, craft shops, jewelers, and fashion boutiques that display the latest in northern Arkansas folk culture. There are also a number of unusual specialty stores like the Silly Chile Hot Sauce Store and Garret’s Antique Prints and Maps Shop.

Besides offering fun places to shop, this historic town is full of quaint restaurants and sidewalk cafes that range from traditional southern food to fine dining. One of my favorites is DeVito’s Fine Italian Cuisine.

Maybe the next time I get down that way I’ll see you there.

To see additional photos click on the link below:

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Travel, Eureka Springs, AR, shopping, vaction
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Canon SD800 IS

SplashCast with Flickr photos.
Produced by Kayakman Media

Just wanted to post some early results from the new Canon SD800 IS. One of the coolest things about this camera is the image stabilizing technology. This allows the user to take photos in now light situations at a low ISO setting and relatively fast shutter speed. No flash or tripod is needed. This photo of the sign for the “The Argentina Steakhouse” is an example of the SD800 ability to shoot in these difficult conditions.

For more examples click on the link below:

Order your Canon sd800is from Amazon.com today.

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Canon, Camera, sd800is, review, photo
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Free Podcasting Hosting?

Just discovered a great podcasting hosting company called Podbean.com. This is an interesting set up as they are using WordPress.com blogging technology to build the pages. Podbean.com allows the user to include .mp3 .mp4 .wmv .mov as well as a number of other formats. The site builds the RSS feed around it media files. One of the other cool features Podbean.com offers is that they give the user a lot of control over the information that it sends up to iTunes in the RSS feed. They also give the user control over the information it embeds in the media file. All of this streamlines the process of podcasting, enhanced podcasting, and video-casting to iTunes.

Podbean.com does offer free podcasting, but their premium services are not that much more and offer some great features. For example, at just $50 a year, the user is aloted unlimited permanent storage space, expanding it 100 MB a month. The more you pay the more megabits you are able to archive a month. All the paid upgrade packages allow the user to place flickr badges, del.icio.us bookmarks, paypal tip jars, google ads, and much more in the sidebar.

In all the packages, including the free package, there is unmetered bandwidth, easy to use wordpress.com functionality, and great iTunes integration.

Compared to its competition podbean.com offers features that most the other podcast hosting companies do not. Their upgrade prices are also as low or lower than their competitors. For these reasons I highly recommend podbean.com for all those interested in podcasting or video sharing.

Visit my site to see a live example: Kayakman Media

Marianne Chocolate Mint Candy

Originally uploaded by Kayakman.

At first glance one might mistake this for an ordinary hard candy. It is not until you bite into it that one discovers the soft chocolate inside. The mint flavor is a little more subtle than most American mint chocolates, creating a smoother overall experience. These unusual little white mints are a product of Finland and quite popular there.

The mother of one of my Finnish friends picked these up for me as a gift. A big kiitos (thank you) to her.

Marianne Chocolate Mint Candies are great! Try them for yourself if you can find a place that sells them.