Missouri

Voluntary visitors

Last weekend we had a special treat:  a visitor who came to KC just to see us!  Don’t get me wrong – I love it when people stop by because they are in KC on business or passing through on their way somewhere else.  But for the first time someone who doesn’t share my DNA came to KC on purpose!

Erin and I have been friends for 30 years – since our junior year in college – and we have traveled the globe together and she did me the honor of being a bridesmaid when Frank and I got married.  It had been far too long since we had seen each other (10+ years?) so when I got the FB message asking if I minded company for Memorial Day weekend, I was elated.

So the planning began:  how to best spend 3 days catching up with an old friend and still enjoying what KC has to offer?  Erin arrived from Denver late on Friday night (after many travel travails!) and we slept in on Saturday.  Lots of pancakes and bacon fueled us for a trip to the River Market and an an exploration of the early farmer’s market offerings.  Then a trip north to Weston – a lovely little Missouri town with quaint shops, a passable winery, a local distillery, and a brewery that produces hard root beer – sold!

IMG_1127 We wandered the shops – lots of local art work and other interesting collections of stuff, including the storefront for McCormick Distilling,the oldest continuously operating distillery in the U.S. and maker of 360 Vodka and other liquors. A few samples led to the purchase of some whiskey, mandarin vodka, and Ke-Ke beach – a lime cream liqueur.  Think key lime Baily’s…. Yum! Then we wandered to the Pirtle Winery – it’s in an old church building, the tastings are free and the wine is palatable.  Erin had several bottles shipped back to Denver and we replenished our supply of port.  A final stop at O’Malley’s Pub – retail outlet for Weston Brewing Company – and we found ourselves in an old beer celler style room (down several flights of stairs from street level with no windows and thick stone walls) where we could watch live music and enjoy Row Hard Root Beer on draft.  And so we did.

Emerging back to the light, we found ourselves in the middle of a local car show and Frank was in heaven chatting with local car enthusiasts about their cars. His favorite was the hand assembled, air-cooled diesel rat rod truck.   I thought it was butt ugly but what do I know.  We finished the evening with the obligatory barbecue dinner: Jack Stack’s take out of ribs and burnt ends, complete with cheesy corn.  A few drinks made with our Weston purchases and a viewing of Stripes put day 1 in the books.

On Sunday, the weather forecast was of utmost concern as we had tickets to the Royals game.  IMG_1131The prognoses did not look good but we waited until the last minute to pick up snacks and head to the K.  The rain held off long enough to get the game in but my boys in blue were not successful.  They lost to the Cardinals and unfortunately we were surrounded by St. Louis fans so it felt more like we were the visiting team rather than the home team.  Not a typical experience at the K unfortunately.

The evening plans included dinner at Tannin – a favorite of ours.  Four course dinner with wine pairings.  The sommelier reminds me of a physics post doc at Berkeley – jeans, loping stride, Birkenstocks – but his recommendations are always spot on and we rolled out of the restaurant well fed and watered.

And just in time to see the fireworks from the nearby Celebration at the Station – the annual Memorial Day outdoor symphony performance at Union Station.  We decided to pass on the concert in the rain with 50,000 others and headed instead to the Green Lady Lounge – a KC jazz bar and institution.  Unfortunately, most of the rest of KC (and some Cardinals fans!) headed there as well and while the music was wonderful, the crowds were a bit hard to handle.  There were only 2 bartenders who were run off their feet.  A couple of drinks and some great jazz and it was time to call it a day.

Day 3 started sunny for a change!  After breakfast we decided to do a tour de fountains. IMG_0589 KC is “the city of fountains” so the top went down on the convertible and we drove all over into parts of the city that we had never been to.  Unfortunately, the clouds began to assemble and we decided to head to the Plaza for some lunch.  Apparently you can’t say you’ve been to KC until you’ve been to the Plaza so we checked that box.  We emerged from lunch to sunshine again and so off to the Nelson-Atkins Sculpture garden to get our Vitamin D and some culture.  A quick stop a the grocery store was next to prepare for dinner.

And what could possibly make the weekend any better?  More visitors!  And from Colorado!  MoIMG_1127 and Brett were driving their “Rolling Palace” east for vacation and KC was a logical stop.  We hadn’t seen them for years either and so fabulous KC steaks on our back deck were enjoyed by all before Mo and Brett headed back to their sumptuous home on wheels and we prepared to say goodbye to Erin at an inhumane hour the next morning.

So now we have some experience with non-family visitors and we are ready for more!  Thank you Erin for making the effort to come visit and being patient with our new tour guide status – it was wonderful to see you and be able to spend time catching up.  And show off our new hometown (which Erin declared delightful and surprising).

Who’s next?  We’re ready!

Missouri isn’t completely flat (and it has some really interesting weather)

Because Kansas City seems to have lost track of the calendar – it was 80 degrees today and the Royals are still playing baseball  – we decided to take advantage to the unusually warm day to explore our surroundings and get in some hiking.  Many who know me, and a few who have hiked with me, will swear that I am only interested in hitting a trail if there is a potential to go up at some point.  In fact, I have been accused of choosing between two trails at a junction by picking the one with the steepest grade.

Knob Noster SignI’ll cop to *some* of that – and today it was an explicit requirement:  if I didn’t have a mountain to hike on, I wanted at least a hill. So off we go to Knob Noster State park to hike the Opossum Hollow Trail (go ahead, get the snickering out of your system). The descriptions I could find on-line said we might find (and I quote):

  • Steep grades and inclines over 10%
  • Bridges and/or structural crossings
  • Water/stream crossings without bridges

Sign me up!!!

The park is about an hour’s drive south east of Kansas City so we managed to get a decent start after running a few errands and found ourselves about 40 miles out of KC when we entered the Twilight Zone.  Or at least it felt like it.  We were in the Saab convertible with the roof down – because it was screaming sunshine and upper 70s when we left the house – and suddenly we crested a hill and hit fog.  Thick, temperature dropping, visibility limiting mist.  I know you are shocked – either by the fact that there was a hill or by the fact that the weather changed so dramatically in such a short time.  Suddenly the shorts and tshirts we were wearing seemed woefully inadequate and we weren’t sure how on earth we would be able to hike in unknown woods when we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us.

We continued down the road for another 10 miles with notion that eventually the sky would stop touching the ground.  We were about 5 miles from the park when we changed our plans and headed for the town of Knob Noster instead thinking we could get some gas and do some googling to see how to salvage this disastrous day.  We turned the corner to get to the gas station and the air was clear.  By the time we were done getting gas and a few snacks, the sun was blazing down, the temperature had recovered the 10 degrees it had lost en route, and the hike was back on.

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And a lovely hike it was. We basically traversed the ridges around a hollow for 5.5 miles. We never did face a 10% grade but we certainly did climb up and down some substantial hills.

Very few trees were still in leaf but it was enough to color the landscape. The solitude was almost absolute: we only saw a few mountain bikers and a couple walking their dog near the trail head during the entire 3 hours. Bliss.

The one thing I did find frustrating was the way the landscape hinted at vistas that never materialized. Several times we thought we would get to the top of the ridge and be able to look out across the landscape at a marvelous view. But when we got to the top of the ridge, we found

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Another ridge.

But I hold out hope that the promised vistas are there but are only visible from some other trail in the park.  We’ll have to test that theory next time.  We’ll definitely go back because it was a lovely, well marked trail with great amenities (read:  porta potty and water fountain).  We have so much to discover in our new state.  I’m glad we’ve made a start.