Day Trip-ing

A couple weeks ago, I sent out an email to some travel buddies entitled "Cabin Fever Setting In..." The temperatures had settled into the 30s and we'd had a stretch of cloudy and gloomy days. And each day I went to work seeing all those planes take off without me onboard. Fellow travel-holics might understand: I just really needed to get on a plane!

The emailed suggestion received favorable responses (a "just because" day trip is really one of the most random FUN things about free flights) and Liz, Rachel and I were on for a Sunday trip to Kansas City!

For the record, I did not choose the destination but I certainly wasn't complaining - you might notice KC was in my list of "revisit" places in a recent post. Admittedly this is mostly cuisine related (it may be unTexan to say so, but I love KC barbecue!), but really it has become one of my favorite places, so much to see and do. If you haven't been, go. About 60 daily SWA flights will take you there :)

After attending early church, we bundled up - forecast was a high of 29 and chance of light snow - and hopped on the plane and were in KC by lunch. First stop: Jack Stack Barbecue.

How excited is Liz?!

A creature of habit I suppose, but I can't pass up their pork ribs. Add some baked beans and cheesy corn...Yum!

Once Liz cleared off the parking spot to read our space number and I finally got the parking meter box to work, we were off to explore Union Station. Besides being a beautiful work of architecture, it houses a few museums and shops. We were just there for the 50 cents tour, so we wandered around the building and happened upon a great model train exhibit. I'm not sure if it is a year round attraction or a leftover holiday special (I've never seen this here before), but we were happy to take advantage of this neat - and cheap - exhibit. It not only included a number of large displays, filled with detailed villages and lots of train tracks, there was quite a lesson learned about the variety of model train sizes. Maybe I've never paid that close of attention, but I guess I thought there was only one model train size - with train cars about 2-3 inches tall. Here they had everything from some which were about 8-10 inches tall and very detailed, including lights, chairs, and people inside the cars; to the very tiny, just an inch or so tall and really fast!

Just across the road from Union Station is the Liberty Memorial and National WWI museum. Although I've been up to the memorial a number of times, the museum was one of the few sites in KC I had not visited. Everyone was up for a bit of history, so we decided to make this our museum visit for the day.

Self portrait :)

Like most Americans, I know tons more about WWII than the Great War so the museum was very educational. Along with a couple of great videos about the events leading up to the start of the war and the start of American's involvement, it has some battlefield and trench replicas and lots of war memorabilia. The tower was closed due to the weather so we didn't get to see that view of the city, but otherwise a great experience.

Next up was a planned detour across the state line into Kansas. Neither Liz nor Rachel had been to KC or the state of Kansas, so since all of the places on our list were on the Missouri side of the city, I wanted to make sure they could each cross off another state visited! We weren't able to find a "crossing into Kansas" type sign, so we had to make due with the KU Medical University and State Line Road street sign.

Approaching dusk, it was the perfect time to head to our last stop of the trip: Country Club Plaza. I don't think I've ever purchased more than gelato in this classy outdoor shopping center, but it sure is fun just to walk around. Particularly during the holiday season, from November to mid January all of the buildings are outlined with lots of multi-colored lights. Luckily for us, it was the last night for the lights this year.