This was my second trip to the storied metropolis, since my move to Missouri. It was hard not to return to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, but this trip had other offerings. As we meandered through the grid of downtown, I saw so many places I wanted to stop.
There’s a diverse and rich history that is illustrated in the architecture. I loved the columns and cornices on the governmental buildings. A courthouse had “Lex” and “Pax” inscribed on it. I was familiar with the latter as meaning “Peace”, but I needed to look up the former word that means “Law”.
Clocks on buildings were a fun feature. One had a sundial clock on it’s front side, but as a vertically mounted piece, it had one long arm, casting the shadow over numbers, differing from the standard horizontal ones with a triangular gnomon. Another building had a circle of many “The Thinker” cutouts to form the clockface.
After Downtown KC, we headed over to River Market. This area was crowded, yet not overcrowded. We had a brief wait for parking, but found a spot relatively easily (and it was free!). People showed off their classic cars. We paused on the sidewalk for an older, black Chevelle to pass in front of us into a parking lot. The driver thanked us, but we wanted to watch it probably more than acting out of politeness. We also saw the Cadillac Ecto 1 drive by, aka the Ghostbuster mobile.
On this Saturday afternoon, families and couples packed cafes and there was an air of celebration on the streets. There weren’t long waits anywhere, but business was good. Three people were ahead of us at The Opera House for a delicious frozen coffee, protein drink and a fresh juice blend of beets, carrots and oranges.
The farmer’s market had several vendors selling plant starts, the most popular offering was tomato starts. We mixed and matched trying to choose from 17 varieties of tomatoes, and we grabbed some herbs as well, like basil and chives. I was tempted by a vendor of natural soaps who’s product’s verbiage swore they would ward off bugs, another sure sign of Springtime in Missouri.
For such a big city, the downtown areas have an intimate feel. Maybe it’s the narrow streets. We strolled around with our drinks, admiring the cool buildings and imagined life there in it’s heyday. The old hotel entrances and original signs made it easy. I could hear “Kansas City Here I Come,” playing in my head. It took me back to my History of Jazz course in college.
We are walkers, so off we went on the Riverfront West section of the KC Rivertrails. We followed along the Missouri River on a wide, paved walkway. At points, the trail gets close to the water and the Missouri is a force to see, steady and wide. The trail afforded great views of unique bridges. My favorite bridge was the ASB Bridge, even with it’s upper automobile deck removed, it’s still impressive with it’s massive counterweights.
Some folks had their canine buddies with them and were headed to a dog park/open air bar along the way. It had many, many dogs romping about while their people enjoyed the gorgeous weather and a beverage. The website states that the dog park is fully staffed. We enjoyed the show from a distance.
Like any big city, there are good areas and areas to avoid. On the last trip, in their visitor’s guide, our Airbnb hosts wrote about several great points of interest and one neighborhood to avoid. They said, “DON’T. SERIOUSLY, JUST DON’T.” We didn’t.
All of the walking made us hungry and we settled on Taste of Brazil restaurant at The City Market https://tasteofbrazilkc.com/ We shared some traditional fare: a shredded beef sandwich, coxinha (shredded chicken and cheese in fried dough) and Pao de Queijo (cheesebread https://www.tobcheesebread.com/ ). It was crowded, but clean and organized; the line moved quickly and the food was delicious.
It was a great day out in KC, but the long ride home had to start. I’ll think of KC every time we have a fresh tomato from our garden.
