Kansas City: City of Fountains and BBQ

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Over Memorial Day weekend, Loren and I took a trip to Kansas City. We normally travel over Memorial Day weekend but this year decided that we wanted to go somewhere within driving distance so we could take Ruby with us. After checking into Nashville, which was uber expensive, we landed on Kansas City. And as a super fun bonus, my sister and her boyfriend met us there! We did encounter an interesting stop along the way...the World's Largest Truck Stop!


In Kansas City, we stayed near in the plaza area and it was so awesome! I found a great deal at the Intercontinental at The Plaza. The hotel was beautiful! Our room was HUGE! Honestly, there was a walk-in closet that I swear was bigger than some of the hotel rooms we've had in the past. The pool was nice too even though all I did was dip my toes. If you're in the area and need a place to stay, definitely check it out. The Plaza area in general was pretty cool. Lots of cute shops and places to grab a bite to eat.


I'm pretty sure we ate BBQ everyday we were in Kansas City. Loren was in heaven. We ate at Q39, Jack Stack, and Gates BBQ. Q39 was by far the best BBQ we had. I had brisket there that was some of the best meat I've ever had...and I'm not even a huge brisket fan. Jack Stack was pretty good. I have BBQ grilled shrimp there and there were pretty tasty but I'm not sure they were worth the price. Loren tried the lamb ribs and while he wasn't overly impressed, I think he'd say they're worth giving a try. Gates BBQ was recommended to us and I didn't like anything about it. By the time in our trip we went to Gates I was over BBQ so I ordered sliced meat on a bun. It was smoked turkey on white bread. We went to Taco Bell on the way back to the hotel. :)


One of the things we had been looking forward to visiting was Boulevard Brewing Company. I'm not a beer drinker but I feel like breweries generally have a fun vibe to them. Boulevard was such a cool location. We sat outside on the balcony to enjoy the great weather and take in the city views. Loren really enjoyed the beers, as evidenced by the amount of beer we brought home! They also had the CUTEST photo booth! A little camper setup inside the building so you could cram in a bunch of people.



My favorite of the weekend was City Market. It was so fun to check out all the booths and the goodies people were selling. There was a lot of antiques and the usual food and plants for sale. We scored a bunch of cool stuff, my favorite item was a Life magazine from when the Space Needle opened for the World's Fair in Seattle.


On our last day in town, we headed to The National World War I Museum and Memorial. The building and grounds were beautiful. There's great views of the city when you go to the roof of the building to wait in line to go up the tower. I'm not sure if it's always the case, but while we were waiting in line, there were volunteers dressed up as World War I soldiers talking about how things would have been for them. They were very knowledgeable and kind to all the people asking questions and taking photos. I thought that was a really nice touch. The museum was set up nicely inside and had great displays. Loren loved it...and loved reading all the information plaques. :)




We had stayed an extra night to be able to catch a Kansas City Royals baseball game at Kauffman Stadium. The stadium was really nice! There's an area called Royals Hall of Fame that showcases some of the history of the team, but mostly the awards and HOF players for their team. There were fountains in the outfield! That was my favorite part.


Other areas of interest that checked out were Power & Light district, where we had lunch at Leinenkugel's, Union Station, and some of the cool wall murals around town. We didn't have time to go into The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art so we did a little drive-by. We walked around the grounds a bit to see the shuttlecocks and glass maze.



Overall, we were super impressed with Kansas City! It's a really cute city, and I'd be totally happy to visit again (maybe with a little less BBQ). Hope you enjoyed our trip recap, let me know if you have any questions in the comment section!

Love,
K

2 comments:

  1. Good post, liked all the pics :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loved your recap! Mark and I went there a number of years back and I'd totally echo your sentiments about Gates BBQ. I don't get why it's such a big deal. We were both not impressed at all!

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