Kansas City

Since we had arrived at our hotel pretty late Sunday night, we slept in on Monday. When we checked into our hotel on Sunday night we learned that breakfast was included in our rate. We could eat in the attached restaurant or we could opt for room service. Since the restaurant was kind of fancy we chose the room service. Chris got eggs benedict, Jackie ordered an omelet, and we each ordered juice. We thought this was quite a bargain given that our room rate was pretty cheap to begin with. In fact we thought the hotel was probably one of the nicest we have ever stayed in. After breakfast we lounged around a little more before heading to see the Royals play.

We kind of have a long term goal in mind of visiting as many baseball stadiums as we can. The problem is we have been working on this for so long that they keep building new ones. We had bought tickets to the game for only $7 each a few weeks back. The good thing about going to a baseball team where your team is not playing is that you don’t care too much to actually see the game. We never actually went to our seats; instead we explored the stadium, watching the game here and there as we sampled some of the local themed foods at the concession stands throughout the park. We ended up trying an All Star Hot Dog, which was a hot dog with BBQ pork, coleslaw, pickles and BBQ sauce. We also tried some smothered nachos which besides the standard cheese, also had BBQ chicken, pico de gallo, and salsa. We tried a few local beers and enjoyed the beautiful day at the ballpark. Since Kansas City is called the city of fountains, the stadium fittingly had a good sized fountain in the outfield that came on in between each inning. Overall we thought it was a nice ballpark. Before leaving we checked out the Royals Hall of Fame which we found to be quite interesting. They showed pretty much everything from the history of the organization. They also had a fairly good amount of non-Royals baseball artifacts in the museum. We ended up leaving the park early, thus beating all of the traffic that you usually encounter at the end of sporting events. This is another good thing about not caring who is playing; you can leave well before the end of the game and not have to worry about missing anything.

Outside of Kaufman Stadium

All Star Hot Dog

BBQ Nachos

View from behind the fountain

3194 baseballs representing each of George Brett's career hits

After the game we headed first to a brewery on the other side of town. We wanted to take a tour and the website assured us that tours were being offered but when we got there we found the place closed, probably because of Labor Day. He had a groupon for an El Salvadoran restaurant which got pretty good reviews, so we headed there, as it was just down the street. Of course we ate pupusas, which as always, were very filling.

Yuca with chicharron

Yummy Pupusas

After getting really full we started back towards our hotel, closer to the center of the city, where we explored some nearby sights including a really nice outdoor garden (the Ewing and Muriel Kaufmann Memorial Garden), one of the more famous fountains in Kansas City, the JC Nichols fountain, and a really cool outdoor sculpture park on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins museum of art. Despite the interior of the museum being closed on Mondays, the sculpture park is out in the open and you are free to walk around it. We found it to be very interesting and we ended up spending a good deal of time wandering about the grounds.

One of the pieces of art outside of the museum

On Tuesday, after room service breakfast again, we headed outside of the city to the Powell Garden, which is a botanical garden about 40 minutes outside of the city. We would have never heard of the gardens had we not gone into the Royals Hall of Fame on Monday. Inside of the hall of fame were brochures to local attractions. This one caught our eye because of some nature themed Lego sculptures that they had temporarily on display. The gardens were beautiful on their own but the Lego sculptures were really cool. Most of the sculptures took thousands of Legos to complete with the biggest one taking over 45000 Legos. The impressive Lego sculptures were definitely worth the drive out. We also had a chance to sample some unusual produce that they grow on site. The most unusual was probably Mexican cucumbers, which are tiny cucumbers about the size of your thumbnail. We wanted to buy a pint to take home but we feared they would not make it unspoiled.

Those are gourds hanging there

Close up of the gourds

Mmmm.  Agave.  Chris wanted to crack it open to see if there was tequila inside.

Lego Lawnmower.  13,703 legos

Water platter and koi.  Over 12,000 legos total

Lego rose.  Over 41,000 legos.

Goldfinches with feeder.  Over 575 legos each bird

Butterfly. Over 37,000 legos.

Fox and rabbit.  Over 18,000 pieces total.

Bison and calf.  Over 45,000 pieces for the bison and over 16,000 pieces for the calf.  Notice the bird on the back.

Mexican cucumbers

Bumblebee.  Over 16,000 pieces.

Once we left the gardens we headed back to the city. Our plan had been to visit numerous BBQ shacks/restaurants on her trip to Kansas City, but this morning we noticed our favorite restaurant was right across the street from our hotel: Seasons 52. We decided to head back there for a late lunch and like every time we visit that restaurant, we were not disappointed. By the time we finished our lunch it was after 4 and we still had not eaten BBQ. We were not really hungry either. We killed some time by visiting the Boulevard Brewery, which was not closed on Tuesday, but was getting ready to close. We could not take a tour because the tours were done for the day but we were able to sample some of their beers in the tasting room. After leaving the brewery we headed for the World War I museum. We had no intention of going inside, at least not on this trip, but we went for the views as the museum sits on a hill overlooking the city. We then visited Union Station, just down the hill from the museum mostly because of a virtual geocache “hidden” just outside. We went inside this underutilized station (only 2 trains come per day) and we were amazed by the grandness of the station. While only two trains stop each day the inside does have restaurants and other exhibits detailing the history of the station and the city. We finally headed for our BBQ joint before heading to our hotel for the night. We chose L.C.’s BBQ for two reasons: first, it had great roadfood.com reviews, and second, Chris was able to buy a $10 restaurant.com gift certificate before we left home for $1.40. The place was pretty much a shack, but the food was great. The other people eating there ranged from families to businesspeople to people who looked like they couldn’t afford to eat out. You know it is good when you have all of those types of people in the same place!! After filling up on great BBQ we headed to our hotel near the airport as we had an early flight the next morning.

Boulevard  Brewery products

WWI Museum

View of the city from the WWI memorial

Fried Okra (one of Chris's favorites), ribs and burnt ends

At the brewery

While Jackie packed, Chris returned the rental car (why pay for an extra day when there’s a free hotel shuttle and the airport is a 4 minute shuttle ride from the hotel). The next morning we were on the 5:20 AM shuttle for our 6:30 AM flight and we were home by 4 PM.