If you never thought you wanted to go to Kansas City, think again! We had a wonderful time there!

My daughter Mika and I arrived at the Westin Crown Center hotel on Thursday afternoon. We met up with Karyn and Jeanie, both from the Spokane area, in their 18th floor suite (How fair is that?!) with the fluffy white pillows (They took up the entire bed!) as they were having room service! SHEESH! (Our 14th floor hotel room looked like the ghetto compared to theirs!)

The fun began when Jeanie noticed a horse trotting across an open park across the street from the hotel. We weren't quite sure why a man would be riding a horse in that particular place at that particular time, and we were more confused when he whipped out a flag. Three other people showed up to witness the smallest parade I've ever seen, and then the man and his horse trotted away. BIZARRE!!

We decided to head over to Union Station to see what we could see. We toured the former railway station and marveled at the restoration process. It truly is a remarkable building and I for one am happy that someone cared enough to save the structure. (And is that a big bolt, or what?!)

Across the street from Union Station and adjacent to the Westin are 5 bear statues dressed as round-the-world generals. I'm not sure what the significance of them is, except that 5 generals from 5 countries had a very important meeting on that spot many years ago. It was kinda cool! I wish I knew the full story!

The nativity set we saw with black bears was another big question mark. How weird! Karyn thinks that there must be a tie to Kansas City and bears, but if there is we weren't able to decipher the clues.

The fountain you see pictured is quite an interesting work of art! A gentleman we met from New York said it is the most interesting fountain he's ever seen! In fact, he said it's the highlight of his trip to KC! There you have it!!

Say, here's a fun trivia fact! Did you know that Kansas City has more working fountains than Rome, the City of Fountains?!?! (Karyn read it somewhere so it must be true!)

The view from our hotel room included the fountain so I had plenty of opportunities for observation. It is indeed a fascinating fountain, programmed to spew in many different formations including the Seahawks Wave! Quite lovely!

On Friday we mosied around the Westport shopping district and the Plaza. The statues in the Plaza are a lot of fun, just be careful of the views behind the statues!

For dining, I highly recommend the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza for dinner! We also ate at Jack Stack BBQ (behind Union Station) one evening and it was very delicious! Honestly there were so many choices of restaurants it was hard to decide which to try. I must go again!

The enormous spiders outside the Kemper Museum reeled us in, but the two exhibits on display were not my cup of tea. One exhibit, Secret Games: Wendy Ewald Collaborative Works with Children, was a display of photographs and stories. The photos with faces scratched out (defaced?) were odd, IMHO, and the stories of real people in underdeveloped countries were too sad to enjoy. The Fairfield Porter paintings didn't do much for me either, and the mud baby that hung on the wall was downright freaky! OK, call me uninspired by great works of art. I deserve it.

We also toured the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Amazing what you discover when you miss your turn! :-) I have no idea why they have giant birdies on the lawn but the museum is truly spectacular! I loved the European paintings in particular, and the Ancient Art (Egypt, Greece and Rome). Oh, a word of advice if I may. Don't try to get cute and have your picture taken by the statues outside. You'll get into big trouble! Not that I'd...um...know from first-hand experience. No siree, not me! (Mika, Jeanie! Get back here!)

Mika and I ran to the Tri Star Productions card show in Overland Park on Friday night. We got to see Priest Holmes while we were there. That was a thrill for me as I think Priest is a terrific running back in the NFL, even if he does play for the Chiefs! We found a table of $0.10 2002 football cards, so we spent an hour going through every card looking for Seahawks! Came home with a bargain stack! I loved it!

We spent all day Saturday at the footy! If you want to know more about that cool adventure, you'll want to click here!

Or...if you want to go on to St. Louis, click here!