I recently shuttled myself off to Kansas City, Missouri for a work conference (in March), but chose to arrive a couple days early. Yep. On purpose. Just hanging out, in KC.
The conference brochure promised loads of excitement, including the birthplace of Hallmark Cards (
Crown Plaza, where my hotel was located), Harley Davidson production plant, etc. I decided there must be more to it than that. And I was right. For the most part.
Biggest sad:Somewhere along the line I had read that Kansas City was the “Chicago of the Midwest.” I thought this was odd because, er, isn’t Chicago in the Midwest anyway? But I took this to mean that KC is full of hip young things and good music. And it might have been. The week before and after I was there. Unfortunately SXSW was the week of my visit, so all the bands were in Austin and I languished; Ryan Adams and the Kings of Leon played dates on either side of my trip. Go figure. Otherwise, though, it woul appear that KC has a good music scene. Especially if you’re into jazz/blues. (Hit up the
Jazz Museum if you are…I didn’t have time, but it looks fabulous!)
Biggest cliché: I ate a lot of barbecue. And discovered that “burnt ends” may well be my favorite food. And KC makes some pretty great beer. And that seating yourself at the bar at
Jack Stack BBQ (in the Freight District) is the best way to get a table without a two-hour-plus wait. Yum.
Biggest ouch:Take tennis shoes. You can walk everywhere in downtown KC, and it’s pretty flat. But little flats won’t cut it if you want to explore the arts district (galleries), downtown
Power & Light District, etc., and walk the whole time.
Biggest bummer:The economy is rough. Lots of empty storefronts in the metro area.
Biggest AWESOME!
The
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art are open and FREE. Both buildings are architecturally fantastic, and are worth a trip on the bus to get there (very easy if you take the
MAX – comes every 10-30 minutes depending on the day, $1.50 was the going rate while I was there – ticket lasted 3 hours). Make sure you visit the sculpture garden, and the audio tour was the best way to make sure you hit all the best parts. A pleasant exceeding of my expectations. Especially the giant badminton birdies on the lawn, and the Art Institute hipsters flying kites among them.
Biggest temptation to exceed my travel budget:Country Club Plaza (also a short bus jaunt on the MAX). The day I was there, the weather was gorgeous, the fountains were on, and I was in the mood to shop. Which was perfect, because I love open air shopping centers more than just about anything, and this one had a nice mix of locally owned and national shops. Example: Bought great vintage jewelry and a scarf at
Standard Style, got a dress at Anthropologie. Perfection. The best fountain in KC is here (Kansas City is called the “city of fountains,” by the way) so you can shop while pretending to do actual sightseeing.
Biggest (tallest) friends:This year, the first couple rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament were in KC. I ran into OU in my hotel elevator. Swoon. They also ate dinner among us at the
Peach Tree, where I ate the most amazing collard greens I have ever had in my life. Serious.
Biggest (haired) friends:There was an anime convention the weekend I arrived. Kids love hairspray, cat ears.
Biggest nerding:
Union Station, a short walk from my hotel. A few years ago, the city restored this ginormous rail station to its former glory, and being the dork that I am (and also obsessed with train travel) I enjoyed wandering around here and looking at Pullman cars. Shut up. Also made me curious as to why KC would need such a big rail station…I mean, it’s not like KC had immigration or pig slaughtering or steel to create a metropolis upon. I didn’t know my history so I looked it up. Turns out it was cattle slaughtering. Go figure. Moo.
