Kansas City reminded me a lot of Columbus. It seems like it would be a very nice place to live, but there weren't many must-see attractions. But we found enough to fill the hours, along with some really good food (more about that in a future post).
Simultaneously the most interesting and most forgettable thing about the city is how it straddles Kansas and Missouri. We stayed in Kansas, but Missouri was just a minute or two away. We were constantly going back and forth between the two states -- so much so that I soon forgot about it.
We spend one full day in the city and started it out by visiting the Federal Reserve Bank. The small museum was well done, with a few interactive exhibits and large windows to watch employees load bills into a machine to, I believe, determine if they need shredded. And we all left with a bag of shredded money.
Then we went to the nearby Crown Center to visit the Hallmark Visitors Center. The highlight for Edith was certainly the bow-making machine, especially since she got one to take home.
We were too late to take a tour at Boulevard Brewery, but we spent 90 minutes at the tasting room with several small pours of their draft beers. My favorite was the lemon ginger radler. Edith colored, while Atticus was happy with pretzels.
We decided against a Royals baseball game since it was a bit chilly and drizzly, and the kids fell asleep in the car later that afternoon. We drove around without a GPS, just exploring.
When we returned to the hotel, I realized there was an indoor hot tub down the hall, although the adjacent outdoor pool was still closed for the season. Paul and especially Edith had a blast swimming.
The next morning, before driving to St. Louis, we did something Paul found at the last minute: visited Union Station. It ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. There was a large model train display and small play area, as well as a bridge outside that spanned over several tracks. We saw a train pass directly under us, which I enjoyed about as much as Edith. It was a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.
It was also where Edith got what I believe was her lone souvenir of the trip. Just before we left the model train display, one of the men manning it gave her a small teddy bear (about the size of my hand) emblazoned with some kind of Kansas City railroad logo. She has slept with it at nearly every nap and bedtime since.
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