Kansas City

Last year we talked about visiting Kansas City to see Alison’s great aunt Julie, but for one reason or another it never happened. Then at Christmas we read Julie’s Christmas card and heard a little more about some of the health challenges she had been dealing with. It made us realize this was one of those trips we shouldn’t keep putting off. We wanted to see Julie, and especially wanted to make sure our baby girl got some quality time with her.

So this year, we decided to make it happen.

To get ourselves into the Kansas City spirit, Alison and I watched the first episode of Ted Lasso season four the night before we left, which takes place in Kansas City. It felt like an appropriately random way for us to kick off the trip.

We left Thursday around midday. Alison and I both had a little work we needed to finish that morning, and Madeline helped me finish packing, which mostly means she wandered around while I packed and made the whole process both more entertaining and more challenging. Then we stopped by Blake and Debbie’s, and Debbie took us to the airport. Mads was very happy to get a little grandparent time before we left.

We got to the airport with enough time to grab lunch at Gourmandise. The food there is always good, but I think Madeline would tell you the highlight was the fruit tart we got for dessert. After eating, we still had plenty of time to let her burn off some energy. She ran around the airport laughing, and of course we had to make a few trips up and down the moving sidewalks. She absolutely loves those things.

Our flight to Kansas City is a pretty easy one, right around two hours. It was already a little past Madeline’s normal naptime when we boarded, so she was getting pretty wound up. Fortunately, right around takeoff she finally gave in and fell asleep in Alison’s arms. She slept for most of the flight, which made for about as peaceful a flight with an almost-two-year-old as we could have hoped for.

When we landed in Kansas City, we picked up our rental car and immediately went in search of barbecue. It felt like the only appropriate first meal.

We headed to Jack Stack Barbecue at Country Club Plaza. It was fabulous. Alison and I split a barbecue platter for two with brisket, turkey, pork, and ribs, and everything was great. It was a proper introduction to Kansas City barbecue.

One of the more interesting sides was their cheesy corn. It was basically like macaroni and cheese, except instead of noodles it was corn covered in a creamy cheese sauce. We were convinced Madeline would love it. Naturally, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead she happily grazed on baked beans and turkey while Alison and I ate the cheesy corn ourselves.

After dinner we walked around Country Club Plaza. It is a really beautiful area with lots of restaurants, shops, fountains, and elaborate architecture. As we wandered around, we realized much of it was designed with Seville, Spain, in mind, including a replica of the Giralda tower. That was a fun connection and made the whole area feel a little more distinctive than a typical shopping district.

Madeline cared much less about the architecture and much more about the fountains. One in particular had water spraying out of the mouths of a bunch of stone faces, which she thought was fantastic.

Eventually we headed to our hotel, a Hampton Inn in southeast Kansas City. We checked in and spent some time playing with Madeline before bed. I put on a puppet show for her that she found absolutely hilarious, and then we started the familiar process of trying to get her to sleep in a hotel room.

Alison tried really hard to get her to fall asleep in Madeline’s bed, and for a while I thought we might actually be successful.

We were not.

Eventually she fell asleep in our bed and I transferred her over.

She made it a few hours before ending up back in our bed, which is pretty standard for us when we travel. Still, I think all three of us slept reasonably well, and we didn’t wake up until after 7:00.

Alison slept in a little longer while I took Madeline downstairs to get some breakfast. We were the only people down there for a while, so we made friends with the breakfast attendant. She was especially impressed with Madeline’s coffee-making skills. Mads helps Alison make coffee almost every morning at home, so she knew exactly what she was doing around the hotel coffee station.

Once everyone was awake and ready, we headed to brunch at HomeGrown.

It was a great little brunch place. Alison especially loved the bee motif they had going throughout the restaurant. She ordered a honey latte, and they even decorated the top with a little cinnamon bee. Madeline got funfetti pancakes, which were an enormous hit. We immediately agreed that HomeGrown was somewhere we would happily eat again.

As we were walking out, we stumbled across an art installation that looked very familiar. It turned out to be by the same artist who created the bike art monsters around Daybreak Lake. We have always loved those sculptures, so seeing another piece of his work unexpectedly in Kansas City was a fun little connection to home.

From there we headed to one of the places I was most excited to visit on this trip, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

It was a fabulous museum.

We started with a short film about the history of the Negro Leagues narrated by James Earl Jones and then made our way through the exhibits. There is so much history packed into the museum, both about baseball itself and about the larger story of segregation, opportunity, and the incredible players who built the Negro Leagues.

Of course, Madeline experienced the museum a little differently than Alison and I did.

Her favorite part was the Field of Legends, which is one of the coolest rooms in the museum. There is a baseball diamond in the middle of the room surrounded by bronze statues of Negro League legends positioned around the field.

Madeline immediately started running the bases.

There was something wonderfully appropriate about watching her run around the diamond surrounded by all of that history. She certainly didn’t understand the significance of the players around her, but she understood that she was standing on a baseball field, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

And, of course, she stopped to give Satchel Paige a hug on the pitcher’s mound.

After the museum, we walked over to a small baseball field we had noticed nearby. It sits next to a historic YMCA building, and the surrounding area has murals and artwork celebrating the Negro Leagues and Kansas City’s baseball history.

Naturally, we ran the bases again.

It was pretty fun watching Madeline play baseball in a neighborhood that played such an important role in the history of the game. By this point, running bases had already become something of a theme for our Kansas City trip.

Then it was time to attempt a nap.

We headed back toward the hotel and Madeline fell asleep in the car, which was encouraging. Unfortunately, once we got her inside she decided she was completely done sleeping. We spent about an hour trying before finally admitting defeat and heading back out.

Almost immediately, she became uncharacteristically grumpy in the car.

Then she fell asleep.

Rather than risk waking her again, we just kept driving. We drove around Kansas for about an hour while she slept in the back seat. Once she finally woke up, we headed to the real reason we had come to Kansas City.

We went to visit Alison’s great aunt Julie.

We love Julie, and one of the biggest reasons for making this trip now was wanting to make sure Madeline had the chance to spend some real time with her. Julie is still sharp as a tack, but physically she has become very frail and has been dealing with a number of health issues.

She was so sweet with Madeline.

Julie had a little Paw Patrol toy waiting for her along with some children’s books. She also had cookies and water ready for us. She was an incredibly gracious hostess, even though we were the ones who had come hoping to spend time with her.

We settled in and talked while Madeline played.

A lot of the conversation naturally turned to family. At one point we started talking about the pictures hanging in Julie’s entryway. There were portraits of Joe and Lilly, two ancestors Alison and Julie share, and Julie told us a story about those pictures that Alison especially loved.

Years ago, Alison’s grandparents Colleen and Vail came to visit Julie. At the time, the picture of Joe was hanging in the living room, while Lilly’s picture was in another room because there wasn’t enough space for both of them on the same wall.

Colleen noticed immediately.

She asked where Lilly was, went and got her picture, and hung it on the wall across from Joe.

“Now they can see each other.”

It was such a simple little story, but exactly the kind of family story that would probably disappear if no one took the time to sit down and listen to it.

Julie told us lots of stories about Vail and Colleen, and Alison loved hearing them. Alison mentioned afterward that she sometimes forgets how young she was when they died. She had just graduated from high school when Vail passed away and was only 23 when Colleen died. Hearing Julie talk about them gave Alison a different glimpse of people who are such an important part of her own family story.

That was exactly what we had hoped for when we planned this trip.

Eventually we had to say goodbye for the evening. We had gotten into such a good, deep conversation that none of us were particularly eager to leave. Fortunately, we made plans to pick Julie up for breakfast the next morning.

Then it was time for baseball.

Right as we left Julie’s house, it started raining. We would find out the next day that a pretty fierce thunderstorm had rolled through near her house. We caught some heavy rain on our drive, but the farther we got toward Kauffman Stadium, the lighter it became.

By the time we parked, it was only lightly raining.

It was still enough rain that Madeline started asking for either a jacket, a hat, or a swimsuit. Apparently those were the only logical solutions to getting wet. She also kept telling us she was “so cold,” even though it was about 85 degrees and humid.

We love seeing how she reacts to things like weather now that she can tell us exactly what she thinks about it.

Once we got into the stadium and found some food, the rain had basically stopped. We settled into our seats on the field level along the third base side, just above the visitors’ dugout.

The Royals were playing the Detroit Tigers.

We didn’t have particularly strong feelings about either team, but since we were in Kansas City we decided we were Royals fans for the weekend.

During pregame we spotted the Royals mascot, a lion named Sluggerrr. Madeline was immediately thrilled. She loves mascots, so there was never any question that we were going to have to find a way for her to meet him.

Fortunately, they announced that Sluggerrr would be doing a meet-and-greet near the Little K during the fourth inning.

Perfect.

The game itself moved quickly. Through the first few innings the teams traded zeroes while we ate a bag of peanuts. Peanuts have become one of our favorite ballpark foods with Madeline because they manage to function as both a snack and an activity.

After the third inning we made our way over to the Little K and got in line to meet Sluggerrr.

He was fantastic.

Madeline adored him, and everyone around us seemed to love her dress. The attendant working the meet-and-greet liked her so much that she gave Mads a little foam finger.

From there we explored the kids area of the stadium.

Kauffman Stadium has an impressive amount of stuff for kids. A lot of the activities, like batting cages and pitching tunnels, are geared toward older children, but there was also a carousel that was right up Madeline’s alley.

She chose a lion designed to look like Sluggerrr.

After the carousel, we wandered through the gift shop and let her pick out a little stuffed Sluggerrr of her own. He immediately became a hit.

We continued our lap around the stadium and eventually found ourselves standing behind the famous Kauffman Stadium fountains. They really are impressive and give the ballpark such a distinctive look.

While we were standing there, the Royals hit a home run.

The fountains erupted and fireworks went off, much to Madeline’s delight.

By the time we grabbed a milkshake and made it all the way back to our seats, our little excursion around the ballpark had taken about three innings. We had still been following the game as we walked, but we settled back into our seats around the sixth.

The Royals had built themselves a lead, but in the seventh inning their reliever ran into trouble and Detroit started mounting a comeback.

Kansas City answered right back with a Carter Jensen home run.

They added another run in the eighth and eventually held on for a 5-2 win. The ninth got just dicey enough to keep things interesting, with the tying run eventually coming to the plate, but the Royals finished it off.

Madeline, meanwhile, was partying hard.

She loved the energy of the stadium. One of the best moments of the night came during the seventh-inning stretch when all three of us sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” It is one of her favorite songs right now, so getting to sing it with an entire Major League ballpark was pretty special.

She danced, cheered, and soaked up everything going on around her.

Then, over the final couple of innings, you could see her battery slowly draining.

She was still happy. She was just exhausted.

There were fireworks scheduled after the game, but we decided not to push our luck and headed out after the final out.

It is a bit of a hike from the stadium to the parking lot, which worked out perfectly because the fireworks started while we were walking to the car.

Madeline watched them from the parking lot and kept excitedly telling us that fireworks go “boom, boom.”

It was a pretty magical night of baseball.

Our hotel was only a short drive away, and we headed straight back. Naturally, Madeline slept for about ten minutes in the car and woke up convinced she had just taken a refreshing nap.

We all climbed into our bed and tried to wind down, while she repeatedly told Alison and me to “wake up” because she apparently had no interest in anyone going to sleep.

Fortunately, her second wind didn’t last long.

Soon she was out cold.

I moved her into her bed, where she slept until about 5:00 a.m. before rejoining us. Somehow, all three of us then slept until 8:00, which meant we suddenly had to move pretty quickly to get ready for breakfast with Julie.

We picked Julie up and headed to First Watch, which she had recommended.

It was a very solid breakfast, but of course the food wasn’t really the point.

We had another wonderful conversation with Julie.

We talked a lot about what everyone was reading and about travel. Julie is incredibly well traveled and has visited more than 80 countries, which is pretty remarkable for someone who spent her first 19 years living in Ephraim, Utah.

Her life has taken her all over the United States and around the world in ways she probably never could have imagined when she was growing up.

At one point she commented that it is easy to talk to people who are well traveled because they have a lot of stories.

I think that is true.

And Julie certainly has stories.

We talked about places she had been, family, and some of the challenges of blending families. She shared stories about having a stepdad and different experiences from her own childhood and adulthood.

We also talked more about Colleen. One of Alison’s favorite moments was when Julie said how much she had always loved being in Colleen’s home because it felt so warm and welcoming. Alison immediately knew exactly what she meant.

Colleen wanted everyone to feel welcome. Alison remembers her spending all morning standing over the stove making hotcakes fresh as people woke up. At lunchtime, there was always her whipped cream fruit salad.

They are little memories, but they say a lot about the kind of home Colleen created.

Julie told us more than once that Colleen was remarkable, and we couldn’t agree more. I especially loved that through Julie’s stories, Madeline got to experience a small piece of great-grandparents she will only ever know through the memories other people share with her.

Eventually breakfast came to an end and we took Julie home.

Visiting with her was easily one of the highlights of the entire trip. In many ways, it was the highlight. It made the decision to come to Kansas City feel completely worthwhile.

After saying goodbye, Madeline fell asleep almost immediately in the car.

After our failed nap transfer the day before, we had learned our lesson.

This time we just kept driving.

We consulted AI for somewhere interesting to go about an hour outside Kansas City, and it suggested Weston, Missouri. We headed north.

When we reached Weston, Madeline was still asleep.

So we kept going.

Eventually we ended up at Lewis and Clark State Park.

We pulled into the park right around the time Madeline woke up. There is a campground, a small visitor exhibit with taxidermy birds, and a display about keelboats and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It wasn’t a huge attraction, but it was actually a pleasant little stop. We looked around the exhibit, talked to the ranger, took care of the important traveling-with-a-toddler business of changing a diaper and using the restroom, and then let Madeline play on a small playground outside.

After spending so much time in the car, she was very happy to stretch her legs.

Then we drove back toward Weston.

Our first stop there was Green Dirt Farm Creamery.

We had originally been searching for ice cream.

Instead, we discovered that Green Dirt Farm is a sheep-milk creamery specializing in cheese. So naturally, before getting ice cream, we ordered a cheese board.

Everything was excellent.

Then we got the ice cream too.

This turned into one of those spontaneous travel stops that we probably never would have planned in advance but ended up really loving.

From there we headed into downtown Weston.

It has a classic little old-town American Main Street lined with historic buildings and local shops. We walked up and down the street, browsed a few stores, found a Christmas ornament to bring home, and met a very nice dog in one of the shops, which was obviously one of Madeline’s highlights.

Weston was a really pretty little town and made for a fun afternoon detour.

Then we headed back toward Kansas City.

A while ago I had seen pictures of the giant bookshelf outside the Kansas City Public Library’s parking garage. It looked cool, so I had mentally filed it away as something worth seeing if we ever ended up in Kansas City.

Now we were here.

By this point, however, Madeline had spent a lot of time in the car. She had been a real trooper, but she was clearly done with being strapped into a car seat.

As soon as we got to the library, we went inside.

We only had about 30 minutes before closing, but we found the children’s section and let Madeline loose.

They had toys, books, and plenty of things for her to explore, and she loved it.

Closing time came much too quickly.

We had entered through the accessible entrance because we had Madeline’s stroller with us, only to discover that they chain that entrance shut early. We eventually had to track down security so someone could let us out.

Alison joked that she wouldn’t particularly mind being locked inside a library overnight.

There are definitely worse places to be stuck.

Once outside, we walked over to the Community Bookshelf.

The exterior of the parking garage is designed to look like a giant bookshelf, with enormous book spines stretching along the building. It is one of those quirky things that is exactly as fun to see in person as it looks in pictures.

We hung out in a little park area nearby, and Madeline noticed the giant cover of Charlotte’s Web.

The spider inspired her to sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” for us, complete with putting her little hands over her head when the sun came out.

It was a pretty adorable little Kansas City moment.

By then we were hungry again, so we climbed back into the car. One thing we learned quickly on this trip is that Kansas City is very spread out. There were a lot of places we wanted to visit, but very little of it felt particularly walkable from one attraction to another.

Our next stop was Gates Bar-B-Q.

This meal was inspired directly by Ted Lasso.

In the first episode of season four, Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins visit Ted in Kansas City and he takes them out for barbecue at Gates. Since we had literally watched the episode the night before leaving for Kansas City, it felt like we had to stop.

Ordering at Gates is an experience.

When it is your turn, someone rather abruptly calls out, “Hi, may I help you?”

You need to be ready.

We were not quite ready.

It took us a moment to acclimate, but we figured it out and ordered a great meal.

The burnt end sandwich was phenomenal. Of all the barbecue we ate on this trip, Gates was my favorite.

And after we ate, Madeline and I sat in the same booth where they filmed the Ted Lasso scene and took a picture.

A little silly?

Probably.

Did I love it?

Absolutely.

We had one more stop for the evening, a nearby independent bookstore called Prospero’s Books.

It was quite the bookstore.

The place is three stories tall and packed with a mix of new and used books.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t really our scene.

We wandered all three floors and genuinely tried to find something to buy, but nothing was speaking to us. The children’s section was also a little sad, so for once we left a bookstore empty-handed.

Back at the hotel, we decided everyone needed to decompress.

We put on Encanto, which Madeline loved, and then eventually started the bedtime routine.

As usual, she fell asleep in our bed before I transferred her over to her own.

We all slept pretty well and woke up refreshed Sunday morning.

And hungry.

So we decided to reprise one of our favorite meals of the trip and went back to HomeGrown.

Madeline once again got the funfetti pancakes. Why mess with success?

This time I ordered limoncello French toast, and it was absolutely scrumptious.

The food on this trip had been chef’s kiss.

After breakfast we still had a little time before we needed to start moving toward the baseball game, so we decided to give Kansas City’s independent bookstore scene another shot.

This time we went to Rainy Day Books.

This was much more our style.

It had a great center table covered in books and a really nice children’s section. The whole place reminded us a little of Parnassus Books in Nashville.

We ended up with a good haul.

We found a Madeline board book for Mads, a couple of Emma M. Lion books for Alison, and Land, which both Alison and I want to read.

Much better.

Outside the bookstore there were some beautiful flowers, and we spotted a monarch butterfly moving among them. Madeline was fascinated. She kept holding out her finger and asking the butterfly to land on it.

It was very sweet, even if the butterfly declined her invitation.

We headed back toward the hotel hoping to get Madeline down for a quick nap before the game.

Of course, she fell asleep in the car.

Once again, we knew better than to move her.

So we drove around and let her get a decent catnap.

When she woke up, we stopped by the hotel, grabbed a few things, and headed to Kauffman Stadium for one more Royals game.

We really lucked out with the weather.

A Sunday afternoon baseball game in Kansas City in August could have been absolutely miserable. Instead, it was slightly overcast and surprisingly comfortable.

We couldn’t have asked for much better.

On the way into the stadium, we picked up our Piggie and Elephant bobblehead.

It was a special family day at the ballpark themed around Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books, and we had purchased a special ticket package that included the bobblehead.

Madeline was thrilled.

She loves looking at my bobbleheads at home, and now she had one of her own.

The Royals really do a fantastic job making their ballpark family friendly. I would go so far as to say it feels family focused.

We watched the start of the game, and then around 1:50 we headed over to line up for the Elephant and Piggie meet-and-greet.

The line was enormous.

But meeting them was one of the things we most wanted to do that afternoon, so we waited.

It was worth it.

Madeline was very excited when we finally reached the front and got to see them.

From there we continued our lap around the stadium.

Mads wanted another ride on the carousel. This time, instead of Sluggerrr, she chose the elephant.

We also stopped for a strawberry milkshake, because apparently milkshakes are now part of our Kauffman Stadium tradition.

By the time we made it back to our seats, it was the sixth inning.

This game had been the exact opposite of Friday night’s pitching-heavy start.

There were runs everywhere.

By the sixth, the Royals were leading 9-6.

Detroit cut the deficit to 9-7, but that was as close as they would get. Kansas City eventually won 11-9.

It was a really entertaining baseball game.

We saw several home runs and some great stolen bases, including two from Bobby Witt Jr., who everyone in the stadium knew was going to run and still managed to steal them.

Then there was the much less likely stolen base from Salvador Perez.

Watching the lumbering catcher take off and successfully steal a base was one of my favorite baseball moments of the afternoon.

But our day at the stadium wasn’t over when the final out was recorded.

After the game, the Royals had a kids run where children could go down onto the field and run the bases.

The line was massive.

But considering how much Madeline had been running bases all weekend, there was absolutely no way we were going to skip this.

Once the line started moving, it actually went pretty quickly.

Alison took Madeline down onto the field and ran the bases with her.

It felt like the perfect ending to our baseball weekend.

She had run the bases at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. She had run the bases on a little neighborhood field surrounded by Negro Leagues murals.

Now she got to do it one more time on a Major League Baseball field.

I loved it.

Eventually we made our way out of the stadium.

We were hungry, and since this was our last night in Kansas City, we decided we could squeeze in one more barbecue place.

Because when in Kansas City.

We went to B.B.’s Lawnside BarB-Q.

Food-wise, it was probably the weakest of the barbecue meals we had on the trip, although they may have had my favorite sauce.

But B.B.’s had something none of the others did.

Live blues.

The place had a completely different feel from Jack Stack or Gates. It was casual, old-school, smoky, and music-driven.

We ate barbecue and listened to the band, while Madeline danced through most of dinner.

It was a fun way to close out the trip.

Fortunately, B.B.’s was also close to our hotel.

We headed back, packed our bags, got everything ready for an extremely early morning, and went to bed.

Our alarms were set for 3:45 a.m.

We had to return the rental car, get through the airport, fly home, and then jump almost immediately back into real life. Alison and I had work, and Madeline had daycare.

Not exactly a leisurely conclusion to vacation.

But as tired as we were going to be, this trip was worth it.

We ate an absurd amount of barbecue, watched two really fun baseball games, discovered some places we never would have found without wandering a little, bought books, rode carousels, met Sluggerrr, Elephant, and Piggie, and watched our little girl run an impressive number of baseball diamonds.

Those things made Kansas City a really fun trip.

But the reason we came was Julie.

I am so glad we stopped talking about making the trip someday and actually did it. Madeline got to sit in Julie’s home and play with the toys she had picked out for her. Alison got to hear stories about her grandparents that she had never heard before, and through Julie we got to share a little piece of them with Madeline too. We got to sit around a breakfast table and talk about books, travel, family, and a life that has taken Julie from a small Utah town to more than 80 countries around the world.

Someday, I suspect those conversations and those little family stories will be the things we remember most clearly about Kansas City.

The baseball and barbecue were pretty great too.