Friday:
I got up quite early to take the T to the airport to meet my friend Faith and her husband Jim, who were also going to the wedding and were my travel buddies for the weekend :) We flew on Southwest and it was direct there and back, which was great! We grabbed an uber from the airport to go straight to a good BBQ place - we got there right before it opened at 11am, and good thing because that place was packed full before 11:30 on a Friday. What is the place you may ask? Yeah I suppose that would be smart to tell you, it's Q39 - our uber driver even mentioned that it was good, so I like some reinforcement. It was really yummy too! We shared the cheese fondue w/ pretzels appetizer, and I ordered the Burnt End Burger. Burnt ends are the special type of BBQ that KC is known for. All of it was delicious!
Since Q39 was so busy though, we were out of there very quickly - they very lovingly basically pushed us out the door. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into our Airbnb for another 2 hours, so we decided to walk (yes, with our baggage) 30 minutes to Country Club Plaza, a cute little shopping area with buildings in Spanish-style architecture and lots of sculptures/fountains. There was a visitor center here, so we were able to store our bags there for a little bit, which was really nice of them. We grabbed a map of the Plaza and went on a little walking tour of the all the fountains and sculptures. It was a really beautiful day (in fact the whole weekend was) and it was a nice little walk and something to do for a bit.
Saturday:
Up and ready for the wedding day! I won't go through too much detail, but it was your typical day in getting our hair did, then off to the Uptown Theater to have some Jimmy John's and get dressed and then pictures! Really fun pictures- outside the theater under the marquee stating "One Night Only: Geoff and Karen Tie the Knot", by the Kansas City Public Library, and in front of the Nelson-Atkins Museum. The wedding itself and the venue of the Uptown Theater was beautiful! Such a cool idea, with the wedding party up on the stage, and then a cocktail hour, just outside so that they could set up for the reception in the theater as well! It was a beautiful night and I was glad to be a part of it :)
Sunday morning we slept in a bit, and since we had to check out of out airbnb, we ended up taking an uber to Union Station, where there was a "left baggage". I had read this on the Amtrak website, but I wasn't positive it would actually be there. Thank goodness it was, because it meant that we didn't have to drag around our luggage all day long. Next, we walked to brunch at a place that a local recommend to us called YJ's Snack Bar- very small and hipster, but they had a few seats outside and again, it was a beautiful day. I had a southern biscuits and gravy meal that was pretty tasty.
Next up we walked back past Union Station to just across the street to the World War I Memorial, a large pillar/statue that you can actually go up in as well. We walked up to the memorial and around to the other side under the memorial which is where the National World War I Museum is located. I hate saying this, but before going to the museum, I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but this was a fantastic museum and a total surprise! It was legit and did a great of telling the story of the The Great War before the US entered, from 1914-1917, as well as after the US entered, and not just sticking to the American story, which would have been pretty short and out of context, honestly. The poem "In Flanders Field" that I actually sang a song of in Opus Honor Choir my freshman year of high school, was represented in many places, but the best was when you walk in/out of the main museum and there is a see-through glass floor over top of a bunch of poppies.Outside of the museum, there are a few more halls/exhibits, and then with our ticket to the museum we were able to go up in this tiny elevator (that only 7 people can be in at a time) and go up to the top of the monument. The view of Kansas City from up there was awesome!
We spent quite a few hours at the museum and memorial and realized it was about time to head to our last stop of the afternoon before going to the airport: Boulevard Brewing Company. We walked over there from the museum because it wasn't too far, and we only had to wait about 20 minutes for the next tour to start. They have a pretty big complex there, which isn't surprising considering how big of a brewery they are. The tour was good and ended up with us getting 3 or 4 tasting glasses of mostly any of their beers. We had just a little more time to kill so we decided to grab another flight to share and sat out on their patio. They had a humongous beer hall and it was beautiful! I felt like much of the spaces here were built recently. Good, solid beers from Boulevard, as would be expected, and a great way to end our time in KCMO :)
Overall, I really liked Kansas City, and when the time comes for me to move onto my next destination, I may just take a look at good ole' KC!