Kansas City, Jump On It

I like where I live. I like the Midwest. I like the friendly people. I like experiencing all four seasons, though this winter was a bit much. I like that I get to live close to my friends and family, and just a couple of hours drive from more family and friends. I like that I know how to get just about anywhere in town, but I discover new places, cool restaurants, hidden back streets, new businesses, every week.  I like Kansas City. And I like it even more after our in-town vacation last weekend. Joe and I had a great time seeing Kansas City like tourists, instead of a ten year resident and a nearly life long resident. And it was fun. Just fun.

For Valentine's Day, Joe bought a hotel package at the Hotel Phillips downtown, just a couple of blocks from the Power and Light District.

So we stayed at the beautiful art deco hotel, walked over to one of our favorite restaurants, The Bristol, for their delicious happy hour specials and dinner, I highly recommend the Mango Martini and the Pink Pops Martini, they were both delicious and not too sweet.

We walked around downtown, the weather crisp but perfect. And there were cowboys everywhere. everywhere. The PBR, Professional Bull Riders (the toughest sport on dirt evidently) were in town at the Sprint Center, and seriously, I've never seen so many cowboys out in the wild. I had no idea what PBR was until Friday. The fact that it wasn't Pabst Blue Ribbon was disappointing.  Anyway, we walked, and hung out and laughed and drank a bit and had a delightful evening.

We enjoyed our romantic overnight stay at the hotel. Our room was pretty, king size beds are awesome and we got up for a little breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant and then off for some art viewing at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

This is where we got engaged almost 10 years ago, the Rozelle Court restaurant.

 This is one of my favorite pieces of African art, the Pende sickness mask. I love!

We got a great tour from a docent who turned out to be the wife of one of my clients and mother of a friend of mine. She did a fantastic job, funny, honest and engaging and then even added a little bonus tour of the American Indian Gallery at the end. Joe is always pushing me to go on tours, but I like to have a little more freedom. This tour was ideal though, and it was just the two of us, so it was like having our own private expert. After our tour we stopped and grabbed some lunch at the Rozelle Court where we got engaged. Almost ten years ago. I can't believe that, it feels like yesterday. We relaxed and people watched, spotted a lady wearing multicolored velvet patchwork pants, superb. Then some more art. After the Nelson, we were off to the movies!

Just a cool sign for Michael's Fine Clothing For Men on our way to the movies.

Back before we had a dog and responsibilities, we used to love seeing two movies in one night, it had been ages. And with the Oscars on Sunday night we wanted to try and catch one or two of the nominated films, so Saturday was an old fashioned double feature of Crazy Heart and Shutter Island. Two totally different, but excellent movies. Crazy Heart was heartbreaking and lovely and raw and Shutter Island was dark and mysterious and surprising. (And not Oscar nominated, but nearly as good as the book.)

And that was our vacation. It was exactly what we wanted, lots of KC fun, a couple of movies and plenty of time alone together. So plan your vacation today, there's a lot to do here in KC, we're nice and there are cute cowboys too.