Kansas City

Sonya’s Blog - Day 13 - July 5th - Exploring Kansas City

Blake and I did some yoga this morning. I should probably be stretching more and doing some workouts, but we just seem to be go, go, go and when I have spare time at the RV there is stuff to be done. I haven’t even been reading since we got here. I am super tight so I will have to try and work that in. We are only 4 days in Kansas City, but then 6 in St. Louis - so hopefully not so crazy busy. Ha!

Isaac made the lunches and we headed out for our day, Our first stop was Union Station, which was fantastic. It had it’s Centennial last year, but has had a bit of a rocky history. Opened in 1914 to lots of fanfare and huge celebrations. It was a hub of activity as it served as a major port to get people East or West in America, being as Kansas is the “Heart of America” and is pretty much in the centre of the country. It was the scene, in 1933, of gangsters trying to free notorious gangster Frank Nash from FBI custody. As he was being escorted out of the station, in disguise, the gangsters opened fire. All 4 law enforcement officers were killed, as was Nash. There are still bullet holes in the outside of the building, with a plaque commemorating the event. At that time the FBI were not licensed to carry arms, but that changed after that event. The station saw it's peak activity after WWII ended, in 1945 with all the service people returning home - 678 363 travelers. During the 70’s the building fell into ruin as train travel decreased and it was hard to turn a profit. The building was shut down for 14 years sometime after that and was declared a dangerous site, chunks of it were falling off and it just wasn’t stable. In the late 80’s the two States got together (Kansas and Missouri) and raised a tax to revitalize the building. They brought in the Science Centre as a permanent tenant. Today, it has gone through massive reconstruction and they have many tenants, including the Science Centre, the Planetarium, US Postal Service, an extreme screen theatre, restaurants and gift stores It is has the original chandeliers still and each weighs 3600 pounds.

We had lots of fun exploring around and looking at the building They had a model train museum at one end that we checked out, it was free. It was really neat and they had model trains with the different types of tracks and explained what they were and their popularity.

Our next stop was The WWI Memorial Museum, which was just across the street. First we stopped at the fountain for some pictures, you can see the museum in the background and the Liberty Tower.

We were on the backside of the museum so we had to go up about 100 stairs to get to the front and it was about 32 degrees outside and super muggy. We were exhausted. The museum was nice and cool though. What a great museum and very well set up. They had an introductory movie to set the stage for World War I. Then they had the museum split in half with another movie in the centre. The first half was the war before The US joined, the movie detailed what led to American involvement and the exhibits on the other side had exhibits after the US joined the war. The second movie was neat because it was set in trenches and certain scenes would light up the trenches and show battle scenes. Our pass is good for 2 days and I could go back, but we have other stuff we want to do tomorrow. We also wanted to go to the top of the Liberty Tower, but it got hit by lightening a few days ago and the lift is not working properly, so no go on that one, I was worried the Museum would be all about the Americans in World War I, but it covered the whole war and why the Americans stayed out for so long and even that the rest of the world did not look upon them favourably due to this The Germans took a gamble in 1916 because they thought the Americans would not join the war and if they did they would not be a threat to them. They thought that the US was tapped out from providing supplies for the war and they had nothing else to offer. Totally worth the visit and it is the only Museum in the States solely dedicated to World War I.

After the Museum we at a late lunch and then got on a bus tour of Kansas City, well the central areas. It is split up into districts and we drove around to each of the districts and the guide pointed out the interesting sights and history. The bus tour was really good and interesting, but like all bus tours it is almost too much information to absorb in such a short period of time. it helped us to decide where we would visit tomorrow though.

After the bus tour we had to race back to the RV so we could have supper and feed and walk Kizmet. We then had to get changed as we had tickets for the Starlight Theatre, the show was Pippin. It was the final performance and we had heard good things about it. The show started at 8 and it is an outdoor theatre right beside the zoo in Swope Park.

It was still really hot at 8 PM, but started to cool down when the sun went down and finally a breeze came up. The show itself was interesting, very different. I don’t even know how to describe it. There was a story line about Pippin, the son of Charlemagne. It was a light hearted look at Pippin’s life and not accurate. There was also acrobatics and lots of singing, it was sometimes hard to follow. The acrobatics were great, the singing and dancing good, but the show overall was not the greatest and was really slow at the end. I did really like the theatre and the setting and it was pretty cool when the fireflies came out after dark.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Sonya