{Kansas City weekend}
We arrived pretty late on Friday night. We enjoyed our time in the car together- uninterrupted conversation, the Cardinal's game on, and some road trip snacks. One of us may have dozed off a bit for the last hour of the drive. (Sorry, honey! That 4:45 wake up time on Friday morning made 11:00 that evening feel really late!)
Saturday morning we intended to sleep in, but our children have ruined us for sleeping past 7:30! We got up and headed to explore a bit. We had breakfast in a great area of town called Westport and then stumbled upon a Halloween store that we fell in love with. We shopped forever and tried on some costumes for us and bought pieces for Luke's mime costume. Next was a return to Westport since some of the shops were not yet open for the day when we were there for breakfast. We were impressed with the area- it was full of bars and vintage shops and restaurants. We had fun just walking around in some of the shops and watching all of the people who were there participating in a pub crawl.
Next we headed to Country Club Plaza, a beautiful outdoor shopping area. We didn't necessarily want to spend our day shopping, but it seemed to be the place to be in Kansas City. We stopped in one or two stores, but mostly just walked around in the beautiful weather. We found a barbecue place for lunch and enjoyed a long meal together. Meals out without children = happy parents. As we were walking after lunch, we encountered about 300 people dressed as zombies walking around the area for a Walk for Hunger. It was really one of the strangest things I've seen for a while. They were so into it that it kind of creeped me out.
We got in our car and decided to take advantage of the perfect fall day with a pretty drive. We had researched ahead of time to learn that there is a drive near Kansas City titled by Midwest Living as one of the prettiest fall drives in the Midwest. We enjoyed ourselves a lot, but agreed that it would be even more enjoyable if the leaves had begun to change. There was a darling small town nearby that looked like a great place to get out and explore, but we happened to be there during their Irish Festival and there was not a parking spot to be found anywhere. Instead, we drove to the lookout spot at a state park and watched the beginning of the sunset. It would have been pretty to walk around a bit, but my back was acting up (I somehow hurt it on Friday.), so we opted to head back into the city.
After a stop at our hotel, we headed into the Power and Light District to look around. We saw "Gravity" at a really great theatre with huge comfy seats and waitresses to serve you beer and food during the movie. We had drinks and appetizers while watching the movie in 3D. What a way to go to the movies! Afterwards we walked around the area a bit and were amazed at all of the bars.
Sunday wasn't quite as full of a day, though still enjoyable. We headed back to St. Louis at a leisurely pace, stopping in Columbia for lunch at a pub, eating on the patio outside in the sunshine. We contemplated a quick stop in Missouri wine country instead, but we were feeling ready to get back and relieve my parents, see our babies, and make an appearance at the neighborhood block party. We were home around 3:00 and were so happy to see the kids. We weren't actually gone that long, but we squeezed so much into the trip that it felt like we were.
All in all, a pretty wonderful weekend away to celebrate fourteen years of marriage. We've already both declared that we're adding Kansas City to our list of road trip options in the future.
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