The Best 8 Seconds of My Life Was In Kansas City

June was a great time of year to visit my sister and her family in Lawrence this year.  I added a twist to the familiar trip by booking a hotel in Kansas City for my sister and me to enjoy for the evening while she left her kids at home for a night (older teenagers).

For the first time since I had lived in Kansas some twenty years ago, I visited Kansas City as if it were the very first time.  Skipping over the Country Club Plaza (which I enjoy very much but am familiar with), we took a tour to the new developments that I had not seen before. 

Arriving at the airport to pick me up around 1pm on a Friday, my sister, dressed in a banker's suit but driving a huge and sputtering passenger van, we set out for packing in as much adventure as possible.   Starting with lunch and a cocktail we selected to pay a visit to Zona Rosa. Driving through this shopping village we couldn't help ourselves but to be drawn in to the restaurant that seemed to be our theme for the weekend, TomFooleries.  We enjoyed excellent food, and the prettiest martinis  :o)  Between eating quite a bit and laughing hard, our bellies were sore from all the activity!

We manuevered to our hotel for check-in, the Crowne Plaza (which was average at best but was selected for the proximity to the P&L District).  After dumping off our bags we set out to explore the newly opened Power and Light Entertainment District. I love the LED blue lights to define the area!  Though the security at one of the entrances to this venue was HIGHLY obnoxious (my sister who is 45 years old had an expired driver's license so he didn't want to let her in) we circumvented the arrogant minimum-wager and went through the Irish Pub. While sitting on the patio situated next to the stage with live jazz, we enjoyed an Irish beer (of course) and another martini. 

Eventually we made our way through to each of the business in this district and ended up at Big Sky, a cowboy-ish bar.  Since the place had just opened for the evening (it was about 4:00pm or so) there weren't that many people in the bar. Having had an adult beverage or two already, we were drawn like a magnet to the mechanical bull.  After giggling like schoolgirls and having another beer, my sister in her banker's suit and me in my golf shirt and non-matching walking sandals decided that trying to ride the thing would be a good idea, so we did!  Both of us being short, a member of the staff had to help each of us get up on the bull.   We later joked that they guy would knee replacement surgery later in life because of us.  We both did a respectable job of staying on the bull, and because we both looked so darn funny the way we were dressed we started a stampede of other people who wanted to ride after us since there was no longer the fear of looking stupid (we erased the threshhold for looking stupid, apparently).

We next had dinner at Maker's Mark and were sorely disappointed. Perhaps because it was so new, the service was incredibly poor, the food incredibly expensive, and the value was non-existant.  On the upside, we did sit on the patio outside and enjoyed the live entertainment with a front-row-and-center seat.

I was delighted that the next step in the plan was to head to the Blue Room.   I had always heard about it's famous past, but had never been there.  I was surprised to see that every single person in this club was caucasion.  The group performing was excellent, but more jazz than blues.  We only stayed until about midnight before retiring for the night.

The next morning we headed to the farmer's market and the steamboat museum, both of which were well worth the time spent! Fascinating! I will be spending more time and money in the farmer't market next time, as the choices were the best I've seen since the Los Angeles markets.  We also checked in at the World War I Museum and learned a lot that I didn't know about the war. How somber.

Heading out to BriarCliff Village for a late brunch, we enjoyed a buffet at the Cafe' and were pleasantly surprised with the variety, quality, and value.   Since we didn't have a set itinerary, we probably crossed town unnecessarily, but we enjoyed the result. We toured a historic Victorian home near Independence and took in the Truman neighborhood.

We certainly packed a lot in for such a short stay, but we had a great time playing tourist in a familiar city.



Next, as we sped along in our adventure, we crossed town again to see the