Kansas City tourism

Kansas City has got to be one of the friendliest places I’ve been to. Everyone around you is smiling and is more than considerate and helpful. For example, I found myself shopping in a 'mall' and memorised by the aisles and aisles of yellow cheeses that I would be in everyone's way. However, people would keep apologising to me for trying to get by, even though I was in the wrong. It’s definitely a place I want to return to one day to explore more.

Together with my puppet partner in crime, Jeff, we found some time to explore the city sites and also found some Aussie beer - FOSTERS! Apparently, all Americans think that ALL Australians drink Fosters.
I found this so funny. I would try to explain: “No, you’d actually have a hard time finding a bar that would even serve Fosters in Australia!” Several people I’ve met now have been extremely shocked by this statement - as if I'd just told them Santa Claus didn’t exist. When I try to tell them that it was only made for export, they really thought I was lying.

So, I thought I'd share just one of the ads that airs in the US. This gives you a bit of an idea of what Americans think of Australians...

Anyway, back to Kansas City...


Food was fantastic. Jeff took me for a ‘real American’ experience - to a ‘drive-in’ restaurant called Sonic. It was just like in the movies! You sit in your car and order and they bring the food out on a special tray that sits on your window so you can eat in the comfort of your own car. How lazy is that? You don’t even need to get up!

We also went to a real American pizza place called Joe's Pizza Buy the Slice. This was so cool, it felt like we were in an American sitcom. It had a great vibe with hearty blues music in the back ground and a real cruisey fellow serving you and having an "ole' chat with ya."

For lunch we hung out at a sandwich bar called Panera Bread where when you ask for 'chips' as a side, you get a packet of chips! I found this facinating.

Joe's Pizza Buy Slice
image: http://www.urbanspoon.com

We also did a bit of site seeing - however, oddly enough, several things that I had planned back in Australia to see while I was in KO such as big Barbie museum and the Puppet Museum were closed.

Being a sweltering 40+ degree heat - it was the perfect weather to enjoy ice cream. To my delight we saw shops, cafes and even second-hand clothes stores (called “thrift stores” in America) displaying signs that boldly said “Ice Cream here!”.

However, on further investigation every one of them was out of ice cream. But not just out of ice cream but apparently NONE of them sold ice cream on Mondays... It was very strange, very strange indeed. There seems to be some sort of ice cream strike or something there on weekends... I don't know. Maybe life just kind of stops on Mondays in Kansas City and people don't go to work... Actually, that doesn't seem like such a bad idea!

So we stumbled onto a great big university with great big old buildings which was interesting. All the architecture here is quite beautiful and old, sorry I don't have more pictures - but here are some of the buildings we saw.

But all in all, Kansas City (however I think it's also the whole Mid-West area of the country) was a beautiful place all round, beautiful city and people and I'm looking forward to coming back again.

Hotel review: The Q Hotel and Spa (Kansas City)

The Q Hotel and Spa

My rating: 5 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

This hotel was fantastic. The staff were more then friendly and helpful, free evening drinks and buffet breakfast, around the corner to a 24 hour supermarket, what more could you want? The room was quite luxurious, especially for the affordable price, and I really can’t say much more about it, other then it was probably the best hotel experience I had! Apparently the hotel boasts to be a ‘green’ and environmentally friendly hotel as well.

I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever in Kansas City. It’s close to all the entertainment and the surrounds are more then friendly - in apparently one of the best areas of Kansas City called Westport. The food around the area is also really fantastic - a bunch of real affordable restaurants and one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been too!

Kansas City: The Paul Mesner Puppets Theater

www.paulmesnerpuppets.org

After six days of Puppet Festivities and barely being able to stand up from too much partying and sleep deprivation - myself and a few other festival stragglers dragged ourselves to visit the wonderful Paul Mesner Puppet Studio in Kansas City (about 1-2 hours from the lovely town of Trenton). But the drag was well worth it as we ended up having yet another fantastic day!

We not only saw his current show “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs”, but we got a whole guided tour backstage and all through the several levels of his massive theatre with workshop spaces and huge storage spaces filled with hundreds of puppets.

Seeing such a theatre was yet another inspiration of where puppetry could lead me and was already imagining the future of owning my own little theatre, filled with laughter and puppets all day long... How wonderful.

Paul also has some wonderful DVDs for sale of his shows - you can find them here for only $10!
I personally own 'Sleeping Beauty' and it's FANTASTIC! I especially love all the behind the scenes it comes with and a little personal workshop as well! :-)

Back stage - taken from: www.paulmesnerpuppets.org

Hotel review: The Sleep Inn Airport - Kansas City

The Sleep Inn Airport 


My rating: 4 out of 5 (based on my personal experience, not the quality of the hotel)

It took an entire day to travel from L.A. to Kansas City, Missouri -  having a stop over all the way in Chicago and then going back to Kansas City, I finally arrived in my hotel near the airport late in the evening. I was exhausted and still somewhat jet-legged.

After putting the bad experiences of Los Angeles behind me - I was happy to find the opposite experience in the lovely Kansas City. First stop: The Sleep Inn Airport. Being near the airport was great, especially so I wouldn't have to travel all the way back in from the city. Their complementary shuttle bus was also handy and was able to pick me up and take me back to the airport at my leisure - which was a fantastic deal and well worth the little extra I paid for the room.

I slept in a wonderful comfy bed and felt secure with electric locked doors (as opposed to dodgy locks and broken bars at my window in L.A.). Not to mention a free, fantastic buffet of all-you-can-eat breakfast in the morning. The staff were all very friendly and helpful and allowed me to check out slightly later than I was supposed to in order for me to connect to my bus travel onto Trenton Missouri. They also recommended me to have lunch at a fantastic little diner called “Ruby Tuesdays” which was across the road from the hotel. This was another fantastic experience where all the staff were more than friendly and helpful and catered to my every needs. The whole experience gave me a great feeling about Kansas City and made me love the place, even if I’d only been there just over 12 hours.