When my daughter visited me at my parent’s house for Labor Day weekend we drove down to Kansas City and spent the morning and early afternoon exploring before her flight home. Most of the places I have been before, but it is always fun to revisit. If you have a day in Kansas City you should make sure to check out:
Arabia Steamboat Museum – housing artifacts salvaged from the Arabia, a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856 when it hit a tree snag. The Arabia quickly sank into the river mud and everything was left intact on the vessel. It was discovered in a corn field in 1988 after the river had changed course years and years before. It was heading upstream with goods for 16 frontier towns and is now the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world. This is a must see in my opinion!
Union Station – a huge marble train station built in 1914. It houses lots of museums and restaurants, but my favorite part is the history of the 1933 gun battle between FBI agents and Baby Face Nelson to free Frank Nash. This led to the arming and more power to the FBI. Today you can still find bullet holes in the marble facade.
National WWI Museum – you may be wondering why the National WWI museum is in Kansas City. That is because just 8 years after the end of the war citizens of the city erected Liberty Memorial Tower (see cover photo, behind the dino) to celebrate everyone who fought in the Great War. In 2004 Congress built and dedicated a museum built under the tower and today they are the same. It is a wonderful museum about WWI and just across the street from Union Station.
Public Library – the façade of the downtown public library (actually the parking garage) is worth stopping by to check out. They have put up two story books as the façade. I also like the steps which are also books. This is less than five minutes from Union Station
Betty Rea’s – this is one my daughter actually found. It is a funky little ice cream store in the downtown area. They have some interesting flavors. I got a double scoop with one being jalapeno watermelon and the other being lavender lemon. Interesting but not flavors I need again. Haha.
