Kansas City or Bust

Note: we use the blog to document where we have been and make notes about things we like or don't like for future reference, so this may be boring.  I didn't take many pictures.

Phillip and I have been enjoying our post-Christmas break.  We headed to the lakehouse on Saturday after Christmas.  On Sunday, we had a great day...we went to church with the Pitts family - Jayden and Kyler were acolytes.  They were headed to Breckenridge afterwards, so Phillip and I went to Emelias on Dickson Street for brunch by ourselves.  Afterwards we went to Crystal Bridges, to the movies and then to eat at Mellow Mushroom.  The next few days we just messed around...did a little shopping, visited the Johnsons, enjoyed eating out, fished a little off the dock.

Thursday morning we were up bright and early to head to Kansas City. It snowed a couple of inches last night, but did not stick to the roads, so the drive was really pretty.  Neither of us has spent any time in KC and it is just a 3 hour drive from Rogers.  We went straight to the Legends Outlet Mall to do a little shopping.  The temps on this day were very low...around 11 all day!  For future reference, this area has several attractions that the kids would like and the shopping was great. We had lunch at Buster and Daves (which is like a casino for kids).  Later that afternoon we headed to our hotel - the Westin at Crown Center.  We loved that it was connected to area attractions by "The Link" (a heated, glassed walkway).  Thursday night we walked over to Union Station which was beautifully decorated for Christmas (and I have this thing about old train stations...)

We then took the bridge over the train yard for some Jack Stack BarBQ...seriously the best I have ever had!

Friday morning Phillip went to the Harley museum and I stayed around the hotel and worked out at the gym.  This was my view out the window.  Notice we still have snow on the ground.  This is a heated outdoor pool...

...and then did a little more shopping.  This afternoon we headed over to the Country Club Plaza area.  I loved this area of town!  It was a section of old downtown that had been organized into a shopping area.  They had every store you can imagine - even an H and M.

Now, when you are in Kansas City you should have good BarBQ (check) and a good steak (failed). We went to Jess and Jims Steakhouse on Friday night.  It had good reviews and was supposed to be one of the top steakhouses in the US (I don't know how).  We were very disappointed.  I have mentioned it in this post so that we will remember NOT to go back.  I guess it is a good thing...now we need to go back to KC and get one of the good steaks that KC is famous for :)