Kansas City, June 12-14

Another quick weekend trip, this time the two of us headed up to Kansas City. Had an early morning flight, got in, got our rental car (thanks, Priceline!), and headed to Arthur Bryant's for a somewhat early lunch. Pulled in the parking lot, and there was not a single license plate from either Missouri or Kansas, which amused me. Our car had Illinois plates, so we fit right in.

It was just as well we'd got there early, cause within 10 minutes the place was packed. More than a few Cards fans (the Cards were in town playing the Royals). Got piles of pork and sauce with white bread and pickles and really good fries. Not Texas BBQ, but if you know that going in, it's good. It's all about the sauce in KC (and in TX, sauce is anathema most places...an afterthought at best). But hey, my mom's from Iowa, so I'm not totally betraying my roots by liking sauce.

After lunch, we swung by Arrowhead / Kauffman Stadium...P was looking for a Chiefs team shop, but since they're doing massive construction right now there was nothing going. We stopped in at the Royals team shop so we didn't have to try to go when we went to the game the next day and then carry the stuff around with us. Got baseball cards for the nephew, a baseball for the brother-in-law, programs for the husband. Pretty much the standard baseball team shop shopping list for us :) The lady at the register said they'd stripped Kauffman stadium down to the concrete superstructure as soon as the season ended and redid everything. It's a very nice stadium.

Then we headed over to the WWI museum. We went the last time we were in KC, but they were still renovating it and hadn't opened the new section yet. It is a very well done museum.

After that we tried to go to the Boulevard Brewing Company, but the tours were all booked up and apparently you can't go in the gift shop unless you're on a tour or something...it was highly disappointing.

We headed over to our hotel to check in, Four Points by Sheraton by the airport. It was a decent hotel with really comfy beds. P got it off of Priceline. Took a nap to prepare us for the evening.

We drove out to the town of Weston, MO, to go to O'Malley's Irish Pub. They have a restaurant upstairs and a bar in what used to be an underground storage cellar with stone walls. It's a fabulous atmosphere for an Irish pub. Unfortunately for us, the pub was closed because of a wedding reception. So we settled in at a table outside at the restaurant. There was a band outside, so it was fun. O'Malley's has got into the brewing business, and we had some excellent beers from them. Their beer menu had a little description about each of their beers, and then under Guinness it said "If you need a description of this one, you're at the wrong place."

Our main quibble was that our waitress was either slammed or indifferent, cause it took absolutely forever to get refills and our food. 3 tables around us with different servers all got their orders well before we did, and only one of them had been seated before us.

After dinner we headed back toward KC and went to Harrah's. Harrah's likes me cause I visit their properties all over and lose money. It was like Harrah's just about anywhere with the exception that if you sit at the bar and play video poker you still have to pay for your drinks. Which was disappointing. We called it a night after a short visit.

The next morning, we got up and met up with Lindsay and Morgan to tailgate before the Royals game. We got out there about 10am and proceeded to talk and drink beer for hours before the 1pm start. What didn't occur to us geniuses was to put on sunscreen...so we fried just a tetch. Well, as the resident pasty white girl I did anyway. But it was a good time! Kauffman Stadium has a great baseball atmosphere.

Before we went back to the airport we had to seek out a few things: water, aloe vera, and Maid Rite. Patrick has a soft spot in his heart for them from his days in college in Iowa, and KC has one. I thought it was just ok, Patrick was in heaven. It was a good way to end the trip.

Even if I looked like this when we got back: