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.

Nebraska State Fair

A few months back we were looking at cheap airfares from Boston for a long weekend and we stumbled across a great fare to Kansas City. We had never been to Kansas City before so we decided to buy a couple of tickets. We figured if nothing else, they had great BBQ and we could explore the area a little bit. As it got closer to our trip we noticed that the Nebraska State Fair would be taking place at the same time we would be in Kansas City. Looking at the map it didn’t seem that far, only a little over 4 hours each way. We had driven that short (to us anyway) distance plenty of times so 4 hours out, the day at the fair and 4 hours back shouldn’t be too much of a problem. As usual, we got sidetracked. We did not take the most direct route because we wanted to check out at least one Roadside America attraction on the way. After a quick breakfast in the hotel we were on the road by 8. It rained for about the first hour but the rain soon stopped and gave way to a very clear and sunny day. We arrived in Hiawatha, KS, our first stop, a little after 9. What drew us here was an interesting memorial. A man named John Davis erected a memorial to the memory of his wife after she died in 1930. The memorial contains 10 life-size Italian marble statues depicting John and his wife Sarah as they aged. The 11th statue is of John alone, sitting next to "The Vacant Chair" where Sarah would have sat. The statues are all incredibly detailed, many of the statues of John are even are missing a left hand, which he had lost in a farming accident. The memorial cost over $200,000 to build, which would have been an extravagant sum during the 1930’s. Reportedly, the people of Hiawatha hated John for spending the money on this memorial when the town was in need of a hospital and other things that the town thought would be of better use of his money. John continued building the memorial instead of investing in the town. Once the memorial was complete in 1934, John visited the memorial frequently. He continued to watch over the memorial into the 1940’s and he often personally greeted tourists. When he died in 1947 he was buried next to his wife under the marble canopy. We found this whole memorial to be quite interesting. We have seen elaborate memorials like this before but we never heard the story behind them.

After leaving Hiawatha we headed west towards the fair. We noticed that the state highways in Kansas are on yellow sunflower shaped signs. We knew that Kansas was the Sunflower state and we learned that the state flower is the sunflower so we figured that there must be an abundance of sunflowers but until we were driving some of the back roads we didn’t realize just how many sunflowers there were in Kansas. We encountered field after field of sunflowers, some of the fields seemingly going on forever. Of course we stopped to check these out, thus delaying our arrival time at the fair, but it was certainly worth it.

We finally arrived at the Nebraska State Fair a little after 1. One major advantage of arriving so late in the day is that we did not have to sit in traffic getting into the parking lot. We had considered grabbing one of the $10 parking spaces outside of the fairgrounds at a local supermarket and walking in, but we figured let’s give the fairgrounds parking lot a try. We did and we were rewarded with a free parking space about 100 feet from the main entrance where you buy your tickets! The shopping center where we were considering parking was a 5 minute drive from the entrance. At that time of the day there were so many people who had their fill of the fair that parking was pretty easy. The fair itself was pretty normal in terms of fairs. There were rides, unusual foods, lots of animals and people. The fair might have been a little bigger than many other fairs we have been to but there was nothing especially unusual about the fair. We wandered around the animals for a bit, even talking to one of the farmers about his cattle; Jackie got bumped into by a stray pig (they are pretty strong animals!); we browsed through some of the crafts that were being sold; we watched a local band play Sweet Home Alabama while we enjoyed some local Nebraska beers; and we ate fair food. The standout foods were probably BBQ pork nachos, deep fried cookie dough (yum!), and fried gator bites. We did not go on any rides because the lines were all pretty long but overall we had a good day at the fair.

Ayrshire cow. 

"Tiny" weighs over 3200 pounds and eats about 75 pounds of food per day.

Looks painful.  Offers scientists a direct look into the cow's stomach.  We watched a video on this and it was pretty nasty.

Watsui cattle also known as African Longhorn

Gordy the 600 pound pork chop.

Arnold the 900 pound boar.  We think those things coming out from between his legs make up about 200 pounds worth.

Inside of deep fried cookie dough

Smoked nachos

Fried gator bites

After leaving the fair we again took an indirect route back towards Kansas City. We didn’t really have plans to stop anywhere; we were instead looking for a route that would take us home while avoiding the interstates as much as we could. We have noticed, especially when you get away from the Eastern US, that state highways are often just as quick as interstates. While the speed limit on the interstates is usually 75 and you can drive faster, the state highways, with their 65-70 mph speed limits are more scenic, are not clogged with trucks, and often much more enjoyable. We started heading back towards Kansas City and had we taken the interstate rather than a local route we would have missed Seward, Nebraska, which if you did not already know, is the Fourth of July City! We are not sure why it is called the Fourth of July City but we did discover something even more interesting: the world’s largest time capsule. On July 4, 1975, a local resident buried a 45 ton vault under a mound of dirt on the front lawn of his store. Rather than show the future what life was like in the past, like many time capsules do, he wanted to show his grandchildren what his life was like because he feared that they would not remember him. He filled the time capsule with an assortment of 5,000 items, including a pair of bikini panties, a man's aquamarine leisure suit with stitched yellow flowers, and a brand-new Chevy Vega, "the cheapest car he could find." Also in there is a Kawasaki motorcycle with no mileage. The 1977 Guiness Book of World Records certified the time capsule as the largest in the world but almost immediately a university in Georgia claimed they had a larger time capsule which had been sealed in 1940. In 1983, Harold Davisson, the owner of the time capsule in Nebraska, decided to build a second time capsule directly over the first, sheltered within a concrete pyramid. The pyramid also served as a roof to keep water away from the original. Within this pyramid he placed a second car, this one a beat up 1975 Datsun. This whole idea seemed pretty cool and we suspect that on July 4, 2025, we may find ourselves in Seward, Nebraska to watch the excitement unfold.

We made one last stop, for gas. We were surprised to see that at the gas station where we bought our gas as well as most others in the area, that mid-grade was cheaper than the lowest grade gas. Apparently the mid grade is made with 10% ethanol, vs. no corn in the lower grade.

Our route