KC! Part 1

As I think all readers know, we went to Kansas City over the 4th of July weekend. The holiday was on a Thursday this year, so we took Wednesday and Friday off to make it a nice long weekend. Hint to Democratic candidates for 2020 – this voter would support a move to make the 4th of July a Monday holiday. We can just call it “Independence Day” and not worry about the actual date! Miles came in for just the Friday night through Sunday morning part, since camp was open and he had to work on Friday. See, candidates, you might even get the Gen Z vote with that one!

We got to see Nana and Grandpa a lot and enjoy quite a few fun attractions in Kansas City. We stayed at the Hotel 21C, which we’ve also seen in Louisville, Kentucky, and John has stayed at in Nashville, Tennessee. The owners of this network of hotels is also an art collector, so the hotels are also museums with pieces from the artist’s personal collection on display throughout.

The entryway art is a series of florescent bulbs that are programmed to display the colors that the artist captured in a particular Kansas City blue sky. I don’t quite understand the process, but the color rotates and changes and creates a very definite mood as you walk in and up a slight ramp into the lobby.

The owner was taken by an installation of large plastic penguins that she saw in a public square in Italy, and she had a set made for the hotel in Louisville. They were so popular that subsequent hotels got their own “fleet”? of penguins in residence. The KC hotel’s birds are blue. Staff and guests can move them anywhere on the premises, and it’s not uncommon to open your hotel room one morning to find a penguin standing there, having been moved in the night!

The glowing green and purple in this chandelier are made from radium glass. This piece is by Aussie artists Ken and Julia Yonetani, and it speaks to nuclear power and nuclear nations. More here!

This couch was oddly placed but still good for a rest!

The lobby had several art installations, including the big wedding dress piece in the center.

The penguins are so delightful.

We went to Union Station to see an exhibit about Stonehenge that was really good.

Any fans of Queer Eye season 3 will recognize this building with iconic sign as the Fab 5’s HQ!

John and I had dinner on the 4th at the Crossroads hotel restaurant, which was really good.

And after we could hear and see some of the fireworks that were being shown by the Missouri river. More on the river later! I like this also iconic Western Auto sign.

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There were some good places to run around our hotel – we had a good 3 mile path from the hotel to the Missouri River, down a bit, then back. The area by the river has been very industrial, with the stockyards formerly nearby in an area called West Bottoms, and a lot of freight tracks running alongside the river. We thought of both Rory and young Liam and how impressed they’d be!

The Missouri River is also called the “Muddy MO” and it tends to meander its silt-heavy way through the area, with less than distinct edges from my memory. These new trails along with some high levees allow much closer access to the river than I’ve ever seen before. It was also moving faster than I have given it credit for in the past. I usually think about rivers in terms of could I swim across them or not, and this one, not.

We also met up with some of my high school friends – here are me and Kelly at The Ship in the West Bottoms. Mary Jane had been out with us earlier.

We also had a really nice lunch with Nana and Grandpa’s friends Phil and Kitty Ann, who also joined us for the Stonehenge exhibit. Phil and Grandpa ride bikes together.

I’ll stop there and post the rest of our trip separately. John and I have tickets for a music festival and writing up this post gave a storm system time to blow through, drop some rain and lower the temperature from way too hot to Chicago summer normal (from 95F/40C to 80F/27C). More soon!