Busy Week Exploring Kansas City!

Well...this is going to be a LONG post, b/c it's been a busy week exploring Kansas City!!!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have NO attention span. Therefore, in order to visit the museums, I need to go with a small child who's attention span is similar to mine! I'm in luck, my friend Jen's daughter Addi is almost 8. And, Emma, her cousin who's almost 14 was in town this week....so it was a good chance to show off the city to an out-of-towner as well!

Thursday (Aug 7th) the three of us started our tour. We went to the Kemper Art Museum. It's VERY small - just two rooms. They have this rubber tire exhibit going on right now. It's pretty neat, but they are a little up tight there and we got "yelled" at within minutes of arriving b/c Addi was too close. Seriously, what is an 8 year old going to do to harm old tires??? I don't all three of us could have knocked over the display! It's a pretty quick museum to tour.

We left the museum and decided to run into Pryde's in Westport. I've never been and heard it's great. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a cute little shop that has a little of everything, but I'd say specializes in Kitchen gadgets and garden accessories. Way cute. It was also lunch time, and Addi was craving a burger, so we went to Blanc in Westport. It's a gourmet Burger & Soda shop. I HIGHLY recommend it. They have some great burgers and awesome sweet potato fries! They have a ton of unique sodas in bottles to choose from. Emma was the adverturous one of us and got a peach soda!

After lunch we headed to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Yes, I know I've living in Kansas City 7 years and should have been by now....but I haven't. My favorite part was the first room with all the tea pots and such. I like art, but I'm not one to stare and need explanations of what the artist was thinking - I told you...I went with kids for a reason!!!

Later Thursday night we met up with Jen and all four of us went to Theatre in the Park at Shawnee Mission Park. They were doing the play Titanic. It was a great production, but unfortunately none of us really got into the play....so we left early. I do believe I would have been able to sit through Beauty & The Beast or some of the others they had this summer.... it was an experience!

Friday afternoon was probably my favorite thing so far!!! Addi, Emma, Liz (from the gym), Ted (Liz's son) and three of my co-stay-cationers: Robert, Joseph, Pam & I all went out to Powell Gardens for the first day of the Butterfly Exhibit. Talk about cool!! I'd never been out there before (yes, I'm sure you are all surprised by this)...and I'll admit I'm not sure it would be as much fun without the butterflies. We started with one "area" of butterflies. There were a ton of catepillars around as well -- getting ready for the transition. We went on to make butterfly wings and antenna (yes, I did make & wear antenna). We walked around the grounds looking at all the beautiful flowers, ponds and statues. It was gorgeous...but getting warm. So we went into the "main exhibit" area. Oh my gosh, there were sooo many butterflies. They were big and beautiful. I even had one land on my back. We got some great pics! My favorite comment came from Ted. I had a butterfly on my back and everyone was around taking pics of it (and telling me not to move). Ted comes up to me and says "Jodi!! There's a butterfly on your back!!" Kids are funny. After the kids (and Robert) painted pots before we headed home. I HIGHLY recommend you going to this exhibit while it's in town (I believe another week!)

Today I did a "mini" activity. Ashley & I went to Independence, MO to the Corvette show. She's a big fan and didn't want to go alone. And we all know I'm there for my friends :) It was actually pretty cool. I'm not a huge corvette fan, but I'll tell ya, some of them were nice...and you wouldn't believe much time & money went into some of the engines! Wow. We ate lunch at this cute little German restaurant in the square. Very good.

Tomorrow I am doing the Susan G Koman Race of the Cure! I haven't done it in years, so I'm pretty excited. I'm joining two of the gals from my weight watchers group (yeah activity points!) Then I'm going to a send off party for Miss Teen Kansas! I'll let you know about both of those.

My cousin Crescent will be in town the week of the 19th, so I'll be doing a lot that week...I've gotta show her around KC before I show her around STL!! ....oh yes...and the T-Bones game next week... Can you tell I'm excited about all this??

On a final note....check out www.inkkc.com I saw it advertised on tv and you can also pick up the printed version (I found it at HyVee). It has a lot of fun stuff going on around the area!

Here's till next time!! Remember, I'm always looking for people to stay-cation with....and of course sell homes to :)

Jodi