We took a quick get away trip to Kansas City, MO this past week and had a lovely time! What a great city! I'd always heard mixed reviews on it -- but it has an Anthropology... what more could you need to know?
Nick started doing some travel research and away we went!
Our first stop was the Hallmark Visitor Center -- we thought we'd give it a look! It wasn't anything too spectacular, but it was a quick interesting wander. The person that started Hallmark (Someone named something Hall) was close with Winston Churchill and encouraged him to publish his paintings. There were some of his works in the center, so that was interesting to see, he was really a very good artist. Additionally, they had a couple artists that paint for their greeting cards there painting live. So that was also neat to see.
Nick kissing "Maxine" a Hallmark card character.
From there it was off to find some food! Nick found an awesome BBQ spot - Oklahoma Joe's BBQ. Hands down the best BBQ I've ever had. It was in a gas station -- and the line was out the door. One of those few gems that are still around.
Nick looking classy...
Me -- looking classy...
Us... looking classy. :)
An older gentleman took our picture -- it was quite the comedy of errors.
It was hotter than Haiti there - btw. But it was hot in Iowa too! We wandered around in the Country Club Plaza/Shopping area -- what a beautiful place! There were so many great shops -- but 2 of my favs made the entire area worth it -- Anthropology and Paper Source. Love, love, love. They know things of beauty. It was also very hot.
Kansas City is known for their fountains. Nick kept laughing because one of the tourism bits he read said that they didn't know how many fountains they had, but it was over 200. Apparently they're unable to get an accurate read on the number of fountains they had.
A few people were scoffing that our last trip was to Italy and now this one is to Kansas City. But all the fountains were in Kansas City so we adapted just fine! ;)
We grabbed a piece of cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory -- and called it a night!
The next day we headed out to a tour of a coffee roaster. It was a small independent place and they did a great job -- amazingly for free. The tour guide was an older guy and he kept us laughing. :) The process is quite interesting -- I didn't realize that the altitude of the coffee beans affected the quality. He also told us that a 1.5 lbs of coffee is the produce of a entire trees fruit for the year. I think Nick goes thru that in a week. ;)
Classic Nick Timmerman shot...
We also went to the art museum there and that was free also -- and it was a great museum! We were looking at a sculpture there and we kept thinking we had seen it in Italy somewhere, but weren't sure. Interestingly, it was a sculpture that had been in the Capitoline museum in Italy and it had just arrived in KCMO... how weird is that? We also hit the WW1 museum and it was also fantastic. I got a little choked up in there and had to skip some of it. It's just heart wrenching to think of the price of war.
Front or back lawn of the art museum
Front or back lawn of the art museum -- loved these birdy art installations everywhere -- very cool.
Classic Nick -- w/ KCMO in the background! From high-a-top part of the WW1 museum/monument.
The entrance into the actual museum has a glass floor and below are 9000 poppies.
They showed a great video on the screen behind this area (where the shadows of the men are). They had recreated a war scene in front of the screen.
Nick and I don't eat very well when we travel, we're not overly preoccupied with it and it's one of the ways we cut down on travel costs. But this trip was great, we found places and they were affordable! BBQ, French, Indian and a eclectic little dive called The Brick. I had the equivalent of the Taco John's Potato Ole Bravo -- it was super YUMMY! Nick had a meatloaf sandwich. Ever place we went -- we left happy!
Quick trip - but I'd highly recommend it! We'd like to go back and hit the Truman Presidential Library, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and they have a museum on a sunken ship (Arabia Steamboat Museum) they unearthed in a farm field -- I LOVE SUNKEN SHIPS!! So -- we have to get back. PLUS Anthropology and Paper Source. :)
