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Kansas City MO Trip Review (Pic Heavy)
Posted on 8/11/24 at 8:28 pm
Posted on 8/11/24 at 8:28 pm
On my quest to see all 50 states, I had two left to visit- Missouri and North Dakota. I picked a random weekend in August several months ago and decided to book a quick weekend trip to Kansas City. That weekend just came to a close and I had a blast. Lots of exploring the museums (WW1, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art), old architecture (Union Station), BBQ (Buck Tui, Jack Stack), Royals stadium/game, and beer (Boulevard). Would highly recommend if you need to knock of Missouri to make a stop in KC. It might have helped that the high temperature was 74*F and the low was 61*F. Made the whole weekend really pleasant.
Day 1- Booked a very cheap one-way ticket on spirit ($40) and decided to upgrade the ticket to the big seat up front and make it refundable in case I wanted to change weekends. Total for the one-way was $160. The big seat up front was absolutely worth it for the legroom and you only have to sit next to one person not 2. Given how crappy all the airlines are becoming, I'm likely to fly on spirit more often going forward. I'll include them in the cheap airfare threads. Just know- Bring a very small carry-on like a backpack or a 2-3 day bag. That's how you can get away with not paying any of the luggage fees.
Picture of the big yellow bus
Arrowhead/Kauffman stadium on the way in
What downtown Kansas City looks like if you are just to the west of the city
Upon landing, it's a relatively quick walk to the shuttle bus to rental cars. Decided to immediately make my way down to Buck Tui BBQ in Overland Park KS.
I happened to wear a Buffalo bills shirt and as soon as I walked in the pit master and a bartender immediately look over. They start questioning what I'm doing there and I say wearing the shirt was meant to be a conversation starter
. Luckily the pit master was cool and was letting me know what were in his opinion the best items on the menu. He suggested a 3 meat plate with sticky rice and I think it was a papaya salad. All I know is everything that came out was excellent. I have never had an asian twist on BBQ and I really enjoyed trying a completely new flavor of BBQ
After stuffing myself, made my way to the hotel over in Country Club Plaza. This is a nice outdoor mall area of the city with shopping, outdoor tennis courts, and some fountains.
Some cool artwork
Taylor swift references everywhere. Forgot her and kelce were a thing
Made it back to the hotel and crashed in prep for day 2.
Day 1- Booked a very cheap one-way ticket on spirit ($40) and decided to upgrade the ticket to the big seat up front and make it refundable in case I wanted to change weekends. Total for the one-way was $160. The big seat up front was absolutely worth it for the legroom and you only have to sit next to one person not 2. Given how crappy all the airlines are becoming, I'm likely to fly on spirit more often going forward. I'll include them in the cheap airfare threads. Just know- Bring a very small carry-on like a backpack or a 2-3 day bag. That's how you can get away with not paying any of the luggage fees.
Picture of the big yellow bus
Arrowhead/Kauffman stadium on the way in
What downtown Kansas City looks like if you are just to the west of the city
Upon landing, it's a relatively quick walk to the shuttle bus to rental cars. Decided to immediately make my way down to Buck Tui BBQ in Overland Park KS.
I happened to wear a Buffalo bills shirt and as soon as I walked in the pit master and a bartender immediately look over. They start questioning what I'm doing there and I say wearing the shirt was meant to be a conversation starter
. Luckily the pit master was cool and was letting me know what were in his opinion the best items on the menu. He suggested a 3 meat plate with sticky rice and I think it was a papaya salad. All I know is everything that came out was excellent. I have never had an asian twist on BBQ and I really enjoyed trying a completely new flavor of BBQ After stuffing myself, made my way to the hotel over in Country Club Plaza. This is a nice outdoor mall area of the city with shopping, outdoor tennis courts, and some fountains.
Some cool artwork
Taylor swift references everywhere. Forgot her and kelce were a thing
Made it back to the hotel and crashed in prep for day 2.
This post was edited on 8/11/24 at 9:15 pm
3
Posted on 8/11/24 at 8:28 pm to CuseTiger
Day 2- I had signed up for a tour of Kauffman stadium. They offer tours every morning beginning at 9:30am of 3 levels- classic, allstar, and MVP. Given this was going to be my only time there, I opted for the MVP.
Outside of the stadium, you can park in between Arrowhead and Kauffman
Arrowhead
Kauffman
Started in the lobby with some cool artwork
Then went all the way up top
At that point, we started maneuvering through each of the 6 levels seeing the press boxes, where the announcers sit, post game conference room, video booth, replay, dugouts, the whole shabang.
Press box
Where two foul balls hit when the windows were down in the press box. They didn't fix the drywall, it's a memory apparently
Post-game conference room. Was pretty cool to go up there and get a pic
Dugout view
They have a hall of fame section in the outfield as well
After that, we headed back to the main lobby area and the tour was over. Would highly recommend doing this if you're in the area and have time!
From Kauffman, I made my way downtown towards the Hallmark visitor center. Wanted to find some family members things from there, got to learn all about the origin of Hallmark.
From there I went over to Jack Stack to get some BBQ. A friend had recommend this place, Joe's and another place that starts with Q. This one just happened to be close by to where I was so I stopped in at the bar and had a beer + a BBQ sandwich. This was my first introduction to Boulevard brewing and I loved the beer. The BBQ that came out after was perfect
In needing to burn off those calories, I made my way to the WW1 museum + tower. I had seen reviews online that highly recommended this place, it was not on my original list but I am glad I stopped here. For you history buffs, this will easily kill most of a day for you. I'll admit i'm not a huge history guy but it was still interesting to learn about the war, what started it, etc.
Outside the entrance view
Tons of rifles and guns from that era
They have these billboards that go all the way around the museum in 3 different sections. Also have multiple movie rooms as well
After an hour or two, I went up the tower to get some views of the city
It was about 3:45pm so decided to take a break and head to the next hotel to check in. Got there, took a quick break, and then went back to Kauffman for the Royals Cardinals game. I guess the Royals are in the hunt for the playoffs plus this was an in-state rivalry game so it was packed. Took about 45 minutes to get from the highway to the stadium, cannot imagine what it'd be like for a chiefs game
Royals ended up winning! I left in the middle of the 8th to try and not get stuck in the traffic. The FOB on my rental car was dead... I spent 10-15 minutes looking up how to get into an intermediate KIA SUV. Thankfully the youtube videos showed where the actual key slot is on the door handles (underneath the plastic cover) and I was able to get out of there. Scared the shite out of me a bit And that's how day 2 ended
Outside of the stadium, you can park in between Arrowhead and Kauffman
Arrowhead
Kauffman
Started in the lobby with some cool artwork
Then went all the way up top
At that point, we started maneuvering through each of the 6 levels seeing the press boxes, where the announcers sit, post game conference room, video booth, replay, dugouts, the whole shabang.
Press box
Where two foul balls hit when the windows were down in the press box. They didn't fix the drywall, it's a memory apparently
Post-game conference room. Was pretty cool to go up there and get a pic
Dugout view
They have a hall of fame section in the outfield as well
After that, we headed back to the main lobby area and the tour was over. Would highly recommend doing this if you're in the area and have time!
From Kauffman, I made my way downtown towards the Hallmark visitor center. Wanted to find some family members things from there, got to learn all about the origin of Hallmark.
From there I went over to Jack Stack to get some BBQ. A friend had recommend this place, Joe's and another place that starts with Q. This one just happened to be close by to where I was so I stopped in at the bar and had a beer + a BBQ sandwich. This was my first introduction to Boulevard brewing and I loved the beer. The BBQ that came out after was perfect
In needing to burn off those calories, I made my way to the WW1 museum + tower. I had seen reviews online that highly recommended this place, it was not on my original list but I am glad I stopped here. For you history buffs, this will easily kill most of a day for you. I'll admit i'm not a huge history guy but it was still interesting to learn about the war, what started it, etc.
Outside the entrance view
Tons of rifles and guns from that era
They have these billboards that go all the way around the museum in 3 different sections. Also have multiple movie rooms as well
After an hour or two, I went up the tower to get some views of the city
It was about 3:45pm so decided to take a break and head to the next hotel to check in. Got there, took a quick break, and then went back to Kauffman for the Royals Cardinals game. I guess the Royals are in the hunt for the playoffs plus this was an in-state rivalry game so it was packed. Took about 45 minutes to get from the highway to the stadium, cannot imagine what it'd be like for a chiefs game
Royals ended up winning! I left in the middle of the 8th to try and not get stuck in the traffic. The FOB on my rental car was dead... I spent 10-15 minutes looking up how to get into an intermediate KIA SUV. Thankfully the youtube videos showed where the actual key slot is on the door handles (underneath the plastic cover) and I was able to get out of there. Scared the shite out of me a bit
And that's how day 2 endedThis post was edited on 8/11/24 at 8:47 pm
Posted on 8/11/24 at 8:28 pm to CuseTiger
Day 3- At the baseball game, I didn't really know where to get a good breakfast. So I asked the people sitting next to me and they suggested about 3 or 4 different options which included a Crepe restaurant. Woke up in the morning and wanted coffee + crepes so ended up driving to Chez Elle Creperie. Those crepes were the bomb. I got one with egg and bacon, the other with bananas, strawberries, and blueberries.
From there I drove to Union Station. I had seen it from the tower, but didn't stop in on Day 2 so decided to see what was there.
Pretty cool architecture inside
They also had some artifacts and billboards about the RPO, the railroad post office. It described the previous history of the RPO in Kansas City, had no clue it was the central hub for postal mail but it makes sense now that I think about it.
From Union station, i went over to City Market. It's basically an outdoor farmers market, bought a few things there.
After the market, I still had a few hours to kill before the airport so opted to try the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. I am not an art person by any means, but this was an excellent stop. I got to learn all about the baroque, impressionist, and romanesque periods plus see some cool artwork. There was also some art that I will never understand
Just inside the entry
Some artwork
And this one was my favorite by Monet (water lilies)
I didn't even know I could like art, but i was captivated by this piece in person. It was stunning.
After leaving the art museum, I headed for the airport for the flight back. Maybe 5-10 minutes for TSA security. The A gates were empty so ended up hanging out around there before the southwest mob scene over in terminal B.
All in all, had a blast visiting KC and would recommend a quick weekend trip to anyone looking for a reason to visit Missouri or Kansas
From there I drove to Union Station. I had seen it from the tower, but didn't stop in on Day 2 so decided to see what was there.
Pretty cool architecture inside
They also had some artifacts and billboards about the RPO, the railroad post office. It described the previous history of the RPO in Kansas City, had no clue it was the central hub for postal mail but it makes sense now that I think about it.
From Union station, i went over to City Market. It's basically an outdoor farmers market, bought a few things there.
After the market, I still had a few hours to kill before the airport so opted to try the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. I am not an art person by any means, but this was an excellent stop. I got to learn all about the baroque, impressionist, and romanesque periods plus see some cool artwork. There was also some art that I will never understand
Just inside the entry
Some artwork
And this one was my favorite by Monet (water lilies)
I didn't even know I could like art, but i was captivated by this piece in person. It was stunning.
After leaving the art museum, I headed for the airport for the flight back. Maybe 5-10 minutes for TSA security. The A gates were empty so ended up hanging out around there before the southwest mob scene over in terminal B.
All in all, had a blast visiting KC and would recommend a quick weekend trip to anyone looking for a reason to visit Missouri or Kansas
This post was edited on 8/11/24 at 8:58 pm
Posted on 8/12/24 at 8:08 am to CuseTiger
Thanks for a great report. My only quick stop in KC was the Q place you mentioned, Q39, and it was very good.
I want to go back one day and see the WW1 museum and the Harry Truman Presidential Library. You've given me a few other things to add to the list.
I want to go back one day and see the WW1 museum and the Harry Truman Presidential Library. You've given me a few other things to add to the list.
Posted on 8/12/24 at 9:48 am to Twenty 49
quote:
Harry Truman Presidential Library
Damnit! Completely forgot there was a presidential library there, would have loved to go. I've been to the Bush Sr one in College Station and the Carter one in Atlanta
Posted on 8/12/24 at 10:09 am to CuseTiger
Glad you liked the city! Buck Tui is awesome. Their brisket pad Thai is one of my favorites. His wife owns Waldo Thai and has been nominated for several James Beard awards.
Next time hit up Boulevard brewery, come in the fall and catch a Chiefs game.
Next time hit up Boulevard brewery, come in the fall and catch a Chiefs game.
Posted on 8/12/24 at 10:52 am to CuseTiger
quote:
I didn't even know I could like art, but i was captivated by this piece in person. It was stunning.
Good to hear. That museum is one of the best I've been to (which isn't many). But they had way more than I was expecting. They have a Caravaggio piece which I did not know about going in. I got chills walking in a random room and seeing it from across the way.
KC is a great city, pretty underrated IMO.
Posted on 8/12/24 at 12:48 pm to CuseTiger
I highly recommend hitting up PigWich in City Marketnext time, the burgers and sandwiches are hard to beat.
Posted on 8/12/24 at 1:23 pm to CuseTiger
I'm going to KC this week...looking forward to going back
Posted on 8/12/24 at 1:39 pm to SpartyGator
I went to KC over the summer - I thought it was great.
Posted on 8/14/24 at 8:23 pm to CuseTiger
Great pics and summary.
KC is a cool place. Friendly people.
KC is a cool place. Friendly people.
Posted on 8/15/24 at 8:31 am to CuseTiger
Great review and looks like a fun trip. Would be interested to know your plan for North Dakota. It and Alaska are all I have left to hit all 50 states.
I have a plan for Alaska but not sure what to do in ND.
I have a plan for Alaska but not sure what to do in ND.
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